I wasn’t quite sure I could believe my eyes when the alerts started coming in fast and furious that heralded the welcome news that after 26 years of futility and anguish, the Atlanta Braves are once again World Series Champions.
I just couldn’t watch Game 6.
Not after I had broken my unwritten rule and watched bits of Game 5 to see the grand slam in the first inning only to come back later and find out Atlanta had blown the lead and sent the series back to Houston.
I’m sorry, but I’ve been a fan of this team for long enough to know what kind of heartbreak they’re capable of inducing, especially when they had rocketed out to a 3-1 NLCS series lead the year prior against the Dodgers only to have LA come back to win 4-3 and eventually win the World Series.
This had the feeling of 2020 all over again.
There are two teams I’ll generally root for…the Kansas City Royals in the American League and the Braves in the National League and it’s been that way ever since I noticed baseball as a sport in the 1970s.
Being stationed at Ft Leavenworth KS with Dad, we were able to attend a few games in Kansas City just down the road in Independence and I was shocked when they ended up in the World Series in 1980 and would eventually win in 1985 and 2015. They’re a relatively small market and generally couldn’t keep up with the big spenders like the Yankees so it was shocking they’d make it to the Series, much less win it twice.
I first noticed the Braves whilst transiting through Hartsfield International airport on more than a few occasions in the 1970s. Back then, Ted Turner had bought a local UHF TV station WTCG broadcasting on channel 17 and the airport’s gates would have these black chairs with a TV mounted to it that you could tune to the local channels for a quarter whilst waiting for your flight.
He had also managed to secure the Braves broadcast rights and when he syndicated channel 17 to cable in 1977, he ended up with a national broadcast for the team he had bought the year prior and Braves broadcasts would be the crown jewel of what would eventually become of one of the two crown jewels of Turner’s media empire…TBS (the other one would be a novel 24-hour cable news network called CNN…I’m sure you’ve heard of them! 🙂 )
I’m sure you’ve heard the promo at some point: The Atlanta Braves, America’s Team.
Long-time Braves fans suffered mightily through those early Turner years. Ted himself was thoroughly enthusiastic about his baseball team and was a regular fixture at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. It wasn’t an uncommon sight seeing him running up and down the stands with his drinks and snacks from the concession stands.
The promotions they had to run to get anyone to actually put their butt in the seat and watch that penny dreadful team on the field ran the gamut from the amusing to the outright absurd.
The Wallendas crossing the stadium on a tight-rope? Check.
Free chicken dinners to anyone who’d make the trek downtown? Check.
Weddings at home plate? Check and mate!
But my favourite had to be Ted Turner dressed as a jockey and holding on for dear life as he raced on the back of an *OSTRICH* round the infield. He wasn’t all that keen on that stunt but it certainly worked and I don’t think I’ll ever forget Ernie Johnson and Pete van Wieren doing the play-by-play of the infamous Ostrich Race!
So many good memories would come not too long afterward culminating with the Braves improbably winning their division in 1982 only to fall victim to the Cardinals in the NLCS. That was Dale Murphy’s team full of characters and misfits that somehow managed to come together in a magical season with Joe Torre as the ringleader.
Bob Horner, Chris Chambliss, the acrobatic Rafael Ramirez, with the rock steady Bruce Benedict behind the plate catching the likes of Steve “Bedrock” Bedrosian, Gene Garber (who was the guy who influenced my pitching style more than anyone else), the fiery Pascual Perez, and my favourite of them all…Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky. And lest I forget, Phil Niekro the side-arm throwing knuckleballer…a pitch as confounding to the catchers as it was the batters!
That would prove to be the high point until the dominant Braves teams of the 1990s that would rattle off 14 straight division titles and go to the World Series multiple times but only manage to win one of them in 1995 that would make them the first team to win a World Series in three different cities (Boston and Milwaukee being the other two).
I would eventually find my way to Atlanta on a road trip working with the IBM support centre in Marietta and that allowed me a chance to take MARTA to take in a game at Turner Field which is the only time I ever saw the Braves play in person. Well, sort of…it wasn’t Tom Glavine’s night and the rest of the Braves weren’t much better and that game was over within three innings. However, a lousy night at the ballpark still beats a great day at work… 🙂
So much has changed in the intervening years…Fulton County Stadium was demolished other than Hank Aaron’s wall where home run number 715 breaking Babe Ruth’s record sailed into history. Turner Field is now in it’s third iteration as a university footy field (it started out as Centennial Stadium for the 1996 Olympics) as the Braves now play in Cobb County northwest of and outside of the Atlanta city limits.
They’ve generally been in contention through the years but taking that last step to World Series glory has always been so elusive.
Until now!
Congratulations to the 2021 World Series Champion Atlanta Braves.
I rather like the sound of that! 🙂