In other words, I wasn't a bandwagon fan because there was not wagon available. But their success on the field was never the only reason I followed the Braves. I think the greatest reason was that my family were fans of the Braves and we made the drive from Chattanooga to Atlanta a few times during my childhood to watch the Braves play in Fulton County Stadium. I remember that it wasn't difficult to get a ticket and the stands were never close to capacity during those years despite having legendary players like Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews and Dale Murphy on the roster. I also remember watching greats like Willie Mays, Pete Rose, Ron Santo and more!
But I digress . . .
Fast forward to the year 1982 and the Braves playoff drought continued. My dad would always remind me that some fans lived their whole life without their team even getting to the World Series, forget about winning it all. So as I entered my thirties, I had resigned myself to the fact that the Brave's glory days were long gone and hope of a championship season entered the realm of fantasy.
Then came 1991.
After thirty years, and only winning the division two times during those years, a miracle happened. The previous year the Braves had finished last in their division and there was very little that hinted at the pennant run that was about to happen. They had brought in a new general manager in 1990, John Schuerholz, and moved Bobby Cox from GM to Manager of the ball club. They were also active in the off-season, obtaining players such as Terry Pendleton, Sid Bream, and John Smoltz and their farm system was starting to pay-off after years of investment. But none of these changes could possibly have heralded the post-season dominance that the Atlanta Braves were about to launch.
First-To-Last.
The Braves started to get hot in August of 1991 and won the division title for only the third time in over thirty years! Then they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates and won the National League Championship! The Braves were going to the World Series for the first time since 1958.
Sidebar: Every year my family would go camping in the Smokies during the month of October. We had started this family tradition when I was 7 or 8 and it had grown to include large groups of our family and friends. This year it was especially cold and as we huddled around the fire we plugged in small TV and prayed that the antenna could pick-up a signal high in the Cade Cove valley. It worked! We could pick-up game 1 of the World Series between the Braves and the Minnesota Twins on a cold, Saturday night in the Smokies.
Jack Morris was their starting pitcher and we countered with Charlie Leibrandt, the only pitcher on our staff who had any post-season experience. (With the Kansas City Royals in 1985)
The Twins scored 1 in the 3rd and 3 runs in the 5th and ended up winning by the score of 5-2.
The next night we gathered around the fire again for Game 2. Again the Twins struck first-scoring in the 1st, then we tied it up in the 5th, and finally they scored again in the 8th. Their 3-2 lead held and the Twins had won the second game of this series. Things were not looking good for the Braves . . .
Game 3 in Atlanta, Georgia, marked the first time the World Series had ever been played in the South. This game is also widely considered one of the best World Series games of all-time.
The Twins scored one run in the 1st, then the Braves tied it up in the 2nd inning. The Braves scored again in the 4th and added two more runs in the 5th to lead 4-1. But the Twins fought back, scoring 1 run in the 7th and adding 2 more to tie in the 8th. The score remained tied after 9 innings and we went to extra innings! The Braves finally emerged victorious in the 12th inning after four hours and four minutes, making it the longest World Series game of all-time. It was also the first of four games in this Series to end with the winning team scoring the deciding run in the ninth inning or later.
The Braves ended up losing the 1991 World Series in 7 games in what has been described as one of the most tightly contested World Series ever played.
Though the loss was difficult to stomach, the Braves had fought hard and if this was the only time they were going to make the World Series in my lifetime, they had represented us well. In my wildest dreams I would never have imagined what would happen in the next four years.
They beat the Pirates in Game 7 of the 1992 National League championship in one of the greatest 9th inning comebacks ever seen. Sid Bream, arguably the slowest player on the team, scored from second off a shallow ball hit to Barry Bonds in left field and somehow beat the throw to win the series. (One of my most treasured possessions is a baseball autographed by Sid) The Braves were headed back to the World Series!
This time they lost in 6 games to the Toronto Blue Jays but hey, they were in the hunt and you could see the beginning of a competitive pitching staff coming together with John Smoltz, Steve Avery, and Tom Glavine. Then the Braves went out and signed another great pitcher, Greg Maddux. This completed the assembly of one of the greatest pitching staffs of all-time for the next ten years. Three Hall of Fame pitchers, assured Atlanta fans that each year we would at least be competitive, but no one could have predicted the success we would have in the 90's and beyond.
The Braves won their Division for 14 straight years, a feat that I don't think will ever be duplicated in Major League Baseball again. Then they finally one the World Series in 1995, winning in 6 games against the Cleveland Indians.
The next year they returned to the World Series against the hated New York Yankees. (The best team money could buy) They won the first two games in New York but then inexplicably lost the next four games, three of which were at home in Atlanta. Three years later they faced the Yankees again in the World Series but were swept in 4 games.
In 2006 they finished 3rd in their division, snapping the streak of 14 consecutive division championships.
So how lucky am I to follow the Braves? Extremely grateful. Even in their losing years they showed great heart in fighting to return to winning form. But who could have ever hoped for the kind of run that they started in 1991? And to be able to watch players like Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux, and Chipper Jones - all of whom would make it to the Baseball Hall of Fame was a blessing beyond words. And to finally see them reach the promised land in 1995 was a mountain top experience I didn't think I would ever witness again. Until this year . . .
