The Atlanta Braves
So as the MLB season rolls along past the midway point baseball fans down here in Georgia get to look forward to another round of exciting playoff action and the eventual, inevitable, collapse of the Atlanta Braves.
To be fair the Braves did win it all in '95 beating Cleveland in 6, and the series against the Twins in '91 was quite possibly the most exciting in history but down south we've gotten use to the predictable post season swoon. The Yankees have had the Braves number two out of the last four World Series and Toronto beat them in '92. San Diego and the Florida Marlins preventing the Braves from even reaching the series by beating them in the NLCS in '97 & '98 respectively as did the Phillies in '93 and St. Louis in '82.
The team that Bobby Cox, Stan Kasten, and John Schuerholz have put together, maintained, and changed around in the last decade plus has been the most dominant regular season team of any sport. However dynasties are made in the post season. If the Braves had won one or two more series the D word would be tossed around a little more often, but as is they will go down in history as a team that couldn't consistently win the big one.
I guess us Braves fans are just a bit jaded. We expect the Braves to make it to the NLCS. But this is offset by the uneasy feeling in the pit of our collective stomachs and by the nagging thoughts in the back of our minds. We have been conditioned to expect the untimely team wide hitting slump, or a totally uncharacteristic start from a member of the stellar pitching staff. We know what to expect, we know what is coming.
The Braves are the oldest continuously operating franchise in professional sports, Hank Aaron hit his record home run with the Braves, they have had the best starting pitching staff in baseball for a decade, but do you really think about any of these things when you think of them? No. Of course not. If you are like most of us, you are wondering to whom they will loose to in the World Series this year.
