Remembering the Crappy Braves
After 14 years of getting to the postseason, the Braves have failed two years straight. For Braves fans who are in high school or college they only know what being a winner is. Perhaps these fans have been spoiled by always having a team to watch in October even if they make us the fan equivalent of Charlie Brown always believing he is going to kick Lucy’s football.
But with pitchers and catchers reporting in twenty-one days that chronic rainy day knee ache that we call faith is starting to flare up again. Hey Andrew is gone but Mark Kotsay huh, huh? And what about those prospects? Edgar’s gone but this Yunel kid is the real deal so we don’t need him anyway. Tom Glavine is back and seventy three years young.
But with all this sarcastic pessimism, it is important to look back. If you are a Braves fan and 30 or older, you remember a time when Reagan was in the White House, Huey Lewis was cool and the Braves starting rotation featured guys like Rick Camp, Ed Olwine, and Craig McMurtry. I think Ted Turner found these guys working at his favorite bowling ally.
If you remember these guys, you probably recall going to Fulton County Stadium in July and already being twenty games back. It was so hot you would get a coke and the ice was gone by the time you got to your seat. You could have a conversation with anybody around you by asking one question.
“So why are you here?”
I mean you’re sitting there watching Pacual Perez go up against the mighty Cincinatti Reds and their ace Mario Soto. Soto would like Cy Young until Dale Murphy our one shining hope would blast one out of the launching pad. But it was too little too late. Braves go down 7-1 and Eric Davis goes 4 for 5. Skip Caray is disgusted.
“Don’t forget those great Superstation. The Mets and Darryl Strawberry are coming to town to take on The Braves red hot Rafael Ramirez. 7:05 EST”
Imagine you’re an eight-year-old boy. You love baseball. You love your team and you look up to guys like Paul Assenmacher and Jim Acker. In all fairness Jim Acker had a sweet beard. It was disheartening but you still believed. You believed that Andres Thomas and Brad Komminsk were the future. You believed that now that we got Bruce Sutter we will have strong bullpen. You believed that Nick Esasky was the second coming.
And then Nick got vertigo.
Such is life.
I remember, however at the beginning of 1991 reading the Atlanta Journal Constitution with my dad and there was a picture of John Schuerholz the then new GM and his off season acquisitions. The photo was accompanied by an article saying how John was going to turn around the Braves with the help of Sid Bream, Otis Nixon, Deion Sanders, Rafael Belliard and Terry Pendelton.
I started to have visions of 62-100 and started to question why my father couldn’t have been a Giants fan. Well, we all know that the 1991 Braves were a team of totally sweet dudes who should have won the series. I still hate you Kent Hrbek. Go buy a vowel. This is baseball not pro wrestling.
Enough negativity. I love the Braves they are my team and we are much better with Jeff Franceour, Brian McCann and Chipper Jones than with those guys in 91 that went from worst to first.
So when you turn on your television for opening day and you see Tim Hudson be thankful that he is not Zane Smith.
Will the Braves make it back to the postseason? I’m gonna go ahead and say it. Lucy get your pigskin the Braves will win the east.
