AUTHOR'S NOTE

Part 1 of this blog was meant to be a diatribe about all the things that I thought were going wrong with the Braves organization.  Actually part 1 was meant to be the only part.  I meant to spout off some pointers about what issues the team needed to address in the here and now.  But then in the course of writing, it became somewhat cathartic to go back to my early experiences with this team, to sort of closely examine the tracks they were laying, the trends they were setting and the course they would take from the early years of Turner to now.

 When I wrote part 1, the braves were something like 8 or 9 games out and I could sense a type of panic I'd never seen from the team.  Actually the team never had panicked.  Since writing it, they've closed the gap somewhat and are 4.5 games out of first.  But the current series with Arizona has been a struggle and once again the problems are surfacing, beaming out like Aunt Martha's hairy chin wart. 

This year they have closer problems, have had closer problems since Smoltz left the bull pen and became a starter.  The set-up guys are serviceable in some games and atrocious in others.  But of course, the set-ups didn't come into the season with any sort of consistency. 

And then there's the big question the talk of the impending sale of the team to Liberty Media. 

The sale of the team, as much as they try not to pay attention to something out of their hands, is a major issue for the players.  It takes them away from being able to wholeheartedly play the games when they're not sure whether or not their potential new owner is as passionate about baseball as the current one.  Chipper Jones stated if the new owner is looking for a short term investment, it does very little good for the team because the owner is coming into the deal one-sided, looking out for his or her own interests. 

Let's get it straight though.  Time-Warner's not passionate about the Braves.  Yeah, they've got executives who like the team.  But it's Turner that built this team and he's just a small entity now in that giant conglomerate.  If and when it happens, I don't think going away from Time-Warner is going to be a bad thing.  It's just going to be a very scary thing, a possibly exciting thing.  Who knows?  It's like leaving home for the first time. 

Turner had his scary moments during the first ten years or so of owning this team.  That's for sure.  He had moments where he made decisions you had to second guess.  They were too big not to second guess.  But he was the leader and he made decisions.  And that clear decision making in retrospect was the important part.  There was always the care there for the team and what would ultimately make it better.

THE DARK AGES

The Braves were unable to capitalize and build upon their division win in '82.  The seasons that followed were disappointments and the Braves seemed to be in a steady decline.  From 1985-1990, the Braves finished either last or next to last.  It was the darkest period of the Turner era.   

It's funny, because if you look at the Braves official website, Braves.com, you have a complete absence of anything describing this grim time between '85 and '90.  In fact, the only thing I remembered from this period was feeling sorry for Dale Murphy. 

Dale Murphy was Atlanta's pride and joy.  Fulton County was sort of the house that Murphy built at least in the post Hank Aaron sense.  And when this guy started to struggle so badly, I just couldn't watch any more of it.  Well, I did still watch the team on WTBS, but I backed off.  I became objective about it, which is a good thing.

I was able to explore other teams.  I went back to following the Astros for awhile since they had some good teams during this time.  I was big Mike Scott fan until the cheating incident.  I turned to the Padres because I loved watching Tony Gwynn play.  I liked the Phillies because of John Kruk.  And I was thankful of WTBS because I got to see all these other wonderful teams.  When the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988, I was huge fan, of the team, of their story, of Kirk Gibson.

And I wasn't a traitor to the Braves in any sense.  In fact, I was somebody who'd grown into a general love for the game of baseball.  During little league and senior league, I made it a habit to follow whatever team my team was named after.  I followed the White Sox, the Tigers, the Indians and especially the Blue Jays.  I followed the Pirates and the Reds as well.  And I hated the Oakland A's because the senior league A's were the biggest rival of my team, the Indians.

I think it's good for someone's team to have a down period.  If anything it makes you appreciate the good.

GOOD TIMES

When the Braves traded Dale Murphy, part of me said he wasn't doing well anyway.  And the other part of me said you're trading away the franchise.  You're giving up.  I think that's the direction the Braves needed to go.  The team needed to give up.  And it had a good reason to.

In 1990 the Braves finished dead last again.  But the team was developing some young pitchers in Smoltz, Avery and Glavine.  And they had some young batters who were very hungry.  And the most interesting part of it all was Ted Turner bringing back Bobby Cox back as manager that year after firing him in 1982.

In 1991, you saw this weird kind of balance between these young players and the old Yoda-like Cox.  There was the human rocking metronome of Leo Mazzone who developed these three stunning young pitchers--I believe a lot of the magic is in Mazzone's "rock" which has a calming, hypnotic affect on the players.  The Braves could claim an MVP once again in Terry Pendleton.  Glavine would win the Cy Young.  Suddenly, this was a team that had taken off on all cylinders. 

Of course I was upset when the team didn't win the '91 World Series.  I was upset at Lonnie Smith for a long, long time.  He was the Buckner of the Braves.  But I forgot about it, actually rather quickly.  I knew they would be back.  No team with this much momentum, this much talent, doesn't go back.  

To Be Continued

PANIC! AT THE TURNER

"Okay, Braves are toast!" I say to myself today as I ponder some of life's greatest problems.

"No, they're not, you ####," a voice in my head answers back.

"Who the hell is that?" I ask.

"I'm the voice of reason that comes from watching the Braves finish 14 straight seasons in a row as the best team in the East despite not always looking like the BEST team in the East."

"The voice of wha--"

"The voice you always doubt year in and year out and we always prove you wrong."

"Just shut up and go away!"

Okay, before I get crazy with my schizophrenic voices let me just ask :

So, will this finally be the year after 14 straight that the Braves go down in flames and finish in the middle of a Phillies or Mets dustcloud?

I've never thought more so...ever.

A LITTLE HISTORY

First of all let me just say I've been following this team since the stone age when they had a pitcher nicknamed "Bedrock".  It was the early 80's, you know, when people wearing Ocean Pacific shirts in little pockets all over America were watching Claudell Washington dive for baseballs and some genie-looking dude named Chris Chambliss played first base and there was a set-up guy from Hungary named Al who got mad. 

In the Spring of '82,  I started to take more notice of that peculiar cable station station called the WTBS and watched as this basement dweller team formed out of thin television vapor into something great before my very own eyes.  It was that hot start of 13 games won in a row and the fact that suddenly they just might live up to this ridiculous label they'd been calling themselves for a few years, "America's Team."  I began to shun my beloved Astros, watching them less and less as I started to watch the Braves more and more. 

I was a ten year old and these were formative years and I never turned back.

To solidfy things, that same summer, I moved from Texas to Georgia to live with my grandparents while my parents sorted things out.  I was already hooked but now I became a completely insane Brave-a-maniac watching every game while my grandmother sat in a rocking chair screaming out "Pocoroba!" and ordering me to grab her a Coke and a Mr. Goodbar.  I was in the heart of it all.  I could ride by Fulton County every other day and say that's where it all happens.   I watched night after night as this team led by a guy named Dale and another guy named Bob began to take over the National League.  

And all of this, all this was brought to us by the Wonderful Turner of Oz.

THE MID EIGHTIES

The Brave's first downfall in the Turner era was a quick one and I have to hand the credit to the Wiz himself, Ozzie Smith and the Cardinals.  They were much too elusive of a team for the Braves who folded easily in the NLCS.  The loss in the playoffs sent me crying for my mama who ironically handed me a t-shirt from one of her friends who just got back from visiting none other than St. Louis and the shirt had those silly birds balanced on the bat with "'82 World Champions" written on it.  

Just like that, the Cards stole the magic the Braves had created in that one special year.  But there were seeds and there was hope.  You saw the spark and you knew there was greatness to come.  Nevertheless, with how quickly the carpet was pulled out from under them,  you also knew you had to get through a little darkness to get to something special, something lasting... 

TO BE CONTINUED