Coming into the series I was just happy to be there win or lose as long as we didn't get swept or look terrible the whole time. Now we are up 3-1 and I can smell blood. It will sting if we do choke this one away. I had a good feeling once we got past LAD that this team had it in them, but you never know. Both teams are in the WS for a reason. I hope they can win tonight and do it in front of the home crowd, but I do like our odds with Fried and Anderson in Houston.
2021 Atlanta Braves
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
Coming into the series I was just happy to be there win or lose as long as we didn't get swept or look terrible the whole time. Now we are up 3-1 and I can smell blood. It will sting if we do choke this one away. I had a good feeling once we got past LAD that this team had it in them, but you never know. Both teams are in the WS for a reason. I hope they can win tonight and do it in front of the home crowd, but I do like our odds with Fried and Anderson in Houston.“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”
― Plato -
Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
I woke up and we're still champions. What a season.
I know it isn't this simple, but let's keep the magic and add Acuna and Soroka back into the mix and go for another one next year.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”
― PlatoComment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
I saw a video clip from last night where Luke Jackson said he knew we'd win the World Series after Game 1 because "we're the best .500 team in baseball."
We've all given him a lot of crap over the years, but between that and his interview after the NLCS, he may be one of my favorite Braves now.Comment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
Yeah it is incredible what he and the other guys did. I don't say this to defend my critical comments from a couple of months ago, but this really was as improbable of a finish as you could have. Guys like Luke Jackson and Will Smith were playing dangerous games for most of the season. There simply was no reason to believe that them or much of the rest of the team would be able to go on a run like this, but they did.
I hate to use words like surreal because at the end of the day this is just a sport, and our lives will go on. But it really kind of is. We get attached to sports because of friends, family, or just something personal. I grew up 10 minutes from where Truist Park is, and I jokingly get angry at my parents for having me in such a cursed sports city. I'm a fan of the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, Thrashers (when we had them), and UGA football. Before this, the only sports championship that I had ever witnessed was when I was 8, and I have legitimately wondered if I would ever see another in my lifetime.
I saw what happened to the Braves in the 1997 NLCS with the strike zone, the outfield fly in the first year of the 1 game wild card against an 88 win team, and the various choke jobs down the stretch and in the playoffs, and on top of that the continued expansion of payroll disparity in the MLB.
My franchise QB was arrested and sent to prison, a coach left in the middle of the night to go back to college, and both my head coach and brilliant offensive coordinator literally gave a superbowl away that they had already won.
My hockey team made 1 playoff appearance in 12 years, the ownership group was suing each other over disagreements, and the team was taken away even though the NHL stepped in to protect another city's team the year before which had worse attendance,
The Hawks haven't once had even an outside shot at a championship, except maybe this past covid season.
UGA has been 5 yards and 1 play from a national championship, but they just always fall short.
I know all of us have our own horror stories from all the teams that we are a fan of, but with everything that I have seen happen to my teams....this is just really cool and kind of unbelievable.Comment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
Simply being a Braves fan for my entire life and literally watching 90% or more of all the innings played annually makes this sweet.
We all know what's happened with this team to make us feel cursed over the years. I was at that Infield Fly game and thought I'd never heal that wound.
Yesterday did. Yesterday healed a lot of my sports wounds at the moment. Don't take this as an attempt of me trying to one up you, I'm not, I watch nearly every inning of Braves baseball every year. Some years I do see every single pitch, other years I'll miss maybe 5 or so games.
I've been a lifelong Miami fan at the college level as you know. Since 2001 none of their sports have been kind to me. I've watched every football game over these disappointing 20 years, I watched every game televised to me before that.
My dad is from DC. I'm a Washington Football Team fan and have been all my life. I watched all 16 games every year my whole life. I'll watch all 17 this year.
The Braves have been the only team to not be consistently garbage for me and I've appreciated that, but the choke jobs every postseason did sting. They stung worse each year. Last year was absolutely brutal in the NLCS.
Part of my schtick on here is exaggerating how bad my teams are, how disappointing they are. Now I never thought halfway through the summer the team would turn it around like this and win the whole thing, but some of my posts did have me saying they can still win this crappy decision and I did like the idea of buying at the deadline if it wasn't a steep cost. I figured we would win the division if it ever clicked for us, I thought we may get hot and make the NLCS depending on who we play, but I was pretty sure the team was too inconsistent to make the WS or even win it.
Obviously we got scorching hot to end the year and I actually felt much more confident in our ability in the playoffs, but I still expected the Dodgers to send us home once again.
When we exorcised that demon, I honestly felt we were a team of destiny. I get nervous for meaningless games half the time. I never once got nervous during this series. Angry at times? Yes, in game 5. Nervous? Nope. This team had me believing. Now if we had a gsme 7 tonight I'd be a nervous wreck.
The point is this team went from being a big underachiever that was a big disappointment to then being an overachiever that had me believing so hard I wasn't even nervous about the WS.
I have had a sports to make me believe that much in them since 2001. I had forgotten what it was like to truly believe and feel joy watching a sport.
I love sports, I'll always watch them the rest of my life. We get invested and truthfully hurt at times. It seems silly to let a sport hurt us, but it happens. Getting hurt over and over the last 20 years was worth it. To see your team do what this Braves team did is why we are all fans. When your team does something special in a sport, it washes away all of that hurt and makes it worth it 100x over.
Congrats to you KSU, too, the curse over the state is broken. Now UGA will win it all and the state of Georgia is going to have a crazy year.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”
― PlatoComment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
It's definitely surreal.
SportsForever has said multiple times over the years that anything can happen once you get in the playoffs. I believe that, but I didn't really think that applied to this Braves team.
I wanted to make the playoffs because:- The thought of the Mets or Phillies winning our division made me sick.
- Since I went the streaming route last year, for the first time in my life I wasn't able to watch any old Braves game I wanted during the season. So I was looking forward to being able to watch a few games in October, even if I thought they were going to be frustrating to watch.
It wasn't until we took Game 4 against the Dodgers that I really started to believe in this team.
- Our best starting pitcher never threw a pitch.
- Our best player didn't play after early July.
- The heart and soul of last year's team didn't play after late May.
- Our best and most consistent relief pitcher became incredibly inconsistent to the point he was left off the NLDS roster.
- I think we started everybody short of Bruce Benedict and Biff Pocoroba at catcher at one point or another during the season.
- Our best prospect was sent down in April and never really came back up.
Crazy. All the loaded teams over the years that fell short - it still kills me the 93 team didn't even get to the WS. And then this team wins it all. Surreal. Definitely surreal.Comment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
Off topic for a second ...
KSU, as you know, I'm a Vols fan. So in a couple of weeks, I'll absolutely hate Georgia. But my grandparents who lived just outside of Atlanta (and are the reason I'm a Braves fan) both went to Georgia. And Athens is one of my favorite cities on the planet. I absolutely LOVE that place. My username on here is taken from the R.E.M. song Wolves, Lower.
All that to say, I don't hold near the disdain for Georgia (except when they're playing the Vols) that I do for the other SEC teams. So I'll be rooting for you to beat the hell out of Alabama in the SECCG. And it won't bother me if Georgia brings home a national title either.Comment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
How many people spent way too much money on championship apparel?
*raises hand*
I heard kind of a neat story. Apparently one of AA's first stops after getting the NLCS trophy was to take it to Bobby. Bobby's health is obviously a challenge these days, but it's neat to see that even after all this time he is still in the Braves' orbit.Comment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
What a special run.
One day I may be able to articulate some thoughts
All I can say is that it's almost "relief" more than anything.Comment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
I just reread the entire thread and it was good for some laughs.
Obviously we were a bad team to start the year. One that was underperforming drastically and we were all upset about it. Its hilarious looking back at it all now with how things turned out.
I particularly had one good post that talked about how all of our great teams in the 95-05 run found a way to never win a title after 95, so watch this team be the one that does win it all.
I also had another post like 1 month later saying Matzek should never pitch for us again.... so... yea.
One common theme from all of us was acknowledging the division was ours to take if we ever put it together and that we all didn't really mind the moves we made at the deadline since we didn't sell anything off. None of is expected the moves to turn out how they did and I made a joke about how Joc fit right in with the offense due to his tendency to strikeout so much.
We were all for making the playoffs and see what happened once we got there. Obviously we weren't expecting this, but it does go to show just getting there is all that matters.
I will say, and this is deeply aided by hindsight more than likely, that we weren't wrong at all early in the year when we were all saying this team was way too talented to be playing as poorly as they were. I don't think any of us expected the pen to turn in a historical playoff performance, but we all knew this team was much better on paper than the .500 team they were playing as the first 108 games.
We knew the offense was having some bad luck and was supposed to be one of the top offenses in the league when healthy. Obviously we lost Acuna and Ozuna, but we knew at some point Freeman, Ozzie, Riley, and Swanson would all get to clicking at some point.
It's entertaining to see we would say the team sucked, but we would then go on and say the team can take the division and make some noise if they just get it all to click at one point. We also did mention the team was not far from a contender if things ever got to clicking and we made the right moves to bring in a good player or two.
It's like we knew what this team was capable of, but we didn't at the same time. We all knew the potential was there to do something in October, but the first 108 games put doubt in our minds and how could it not?
The only thing that we all pretty much flopped on was saying AA hadn't really improved the team a ton, specifically the pen, much since he got here. We all fell flat on our faces with that take now that it's all over and done with. Yes, the pen was very inconsistent during the year, but these guys put it together at the end of the year and especially in the playoffs and we can all eat crow together, and happily at that.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”
― PlatoComment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
GM meetings start Monday, less than a week after Atlanta's championship. As is always the case with sports, life goes on.
I wonder if we will see much roster movement prior to the new CBA. If talks extend deep into the offseason, and GM's/Players wait, then there could be a mad rush before opening day to get everyone signed.
Catcher is set with T'd & Contreras
The entire infield is set, after they re-sign Freeman.
OF really only has Acuna right now, and he is probably going to miss the first month of the season. Maybe Ozuna gets reinstated for 2022, but even if he does there is probably a decent chance that we may trade him to avoid the PR backlash.
As strange as it is to say, I wouldn't be upset if we didn't return any of the trade deadline outfielders. There is too much swing and miss with all of them except Rosario (which if we're going to focus on one, he's my hope).
Would love to see us go after Starling Marte. High average, doesn't strike out a lot, and he's a legit CF that would let us keep Acuna in RF where I think he's probably better suited. Suzuki would also be really cool to see here, but I imagine we will be priced out of that one quickly.
Also would love to see us go after Carlos Rodon. It would be a huge investment, but Soroka won't be back until probably mid-summer. Which just leaves us with Max, Ian and Morton with guaranteed spots next year. Kyle Wright will probably get another shot with how he finished AAA and his big performance in the WS, Kyle Muller and Spencer Strider also are likely to get a shot, on top of Ynoa & Touki. I'd feel a lot better having someone like Rodon for this year (and the next few) though.
I am sure that we will sign some veteran relievers, but I doubt there is a huge investment there. Minter, Matzek, Luke and Smith are all on the roster next year, as well as Rich Rod. I wouldn't be surprised if we go with that crew and some combination of the young guys filling where needed.
And I'm not entertaining thoughts of the DH because it would be a huge dent in my baseball fandom.Comment
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Re: 2021 Atlanta Braves
I meant to mention this earlier ... I stayed up watching MLBN the night we won the World Series. At one point, they had Snit out with the crew and Pedro told him that he had tied Bobby with his one WS win. Pedro then said something like "but I think you'll get more."
I expected Snit to go into humble mode and talk about how tough it is to just get one. But after just a second or two, Snit said "yeah, me too." Pumped me up to see that confidence.Comment
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