Hall of Fame Day

Column published in a January issue of The Madison County Journal

A photo I took of Maddux and Leo in the Braves
 dugout in 1997

By Dallas Bordon

Despite my temper tantrums and negative talk during times of frustrations from season to season, I love Braves Baseball! I admit I haven’t been on the bandwagon for a long time and matter of fact; it’s been so long that I can’t even remember where it’s parked.  I admit that I have been a fair-weather fan for the past few years and really haven’t been excited about the Braves due to the fact that I’m spoiled. I’m a spoiled fan who is use to them winning year after year and I enter every season with high expectations of the Braves. I won’t settle for just making it to the playoffs but instead I expect at least an appearance in the World Series. I am a spoiled tom-a-hawking fan. With all that said, I can now get excited about the induction of Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux into the Hall Of Fame; two of my favorite Braves.

I remember the worst to first 1991 team that kicked off a long streak of division titles and a World Series win in 1995. I remember the excitement that everyone fan experienced from the bank tellers wearing Braves shirts in business hours during the 1991 post season. I remember watching cars travel down the Atlanta Highway in Athens with people’s arms hanging out doing the Braves’ chop. I remember frenzy everyone was in and how people were reliving each post season game the next day at work and analyzing each at bat and pitch. Most of all, I remember the young guns of the Braves pitching staff. John Smoltz, Steve Avery, Tom Glavine and the addition of Greg Maddux during that outstanding run of the early 90’s. Those new kids on the block provided a breath of fresh air to us fans who watched night after night during those years when the Braves were happy if they avoided a last place finish.  I cherished those years when the chop was better known as the flop. Years that I would sit with my mom and granddad watching players like Bob Horner, Bruce Benedict, and of course my all-time favorite Dale Murphy. Success for the Braves during the down years came in 1982 when Atlanta opened the season winning 13 straight and facing the Cardinals in the play-offs at season’s end. The Braves lost in the first round that year but still celebrated with parade in Atlanta. We were ecstatic simply because the Braves were finally winners regardless if they lost to St. Louis in the opening round of the playoffs; it didn’t matter that much back then. The simple things that Murphy, Horner, Glenn Hubbard, and Benedict did excited us to no end. I can only imagine my granddad, who would take heart pills like candy while watching the old Braves, and his excitement if he lived to see the team of the 90’s! You see prior to the 90’s, a Claudell Washington triple, a Murphy homerun, or a complete game pitched by Phil Niekro would send our family into hysterics.   

I can now look back on the years of the “flop” and see how spoiled I became due to the success of the Braves of the 90’s. Losing in the playoffs from year to year and not making it the World Series had me looking at the Chop as being a revised new flop. And now as I look back at the Braves and those seasons of cellar dwellers, I realize those losing years were just as special as the Braves of the 90’s because I considered Horner, Murphy, Hubbard, and others as heroes.  It was all extra special back in those days because my expectations were never high; I just enjoyed watching them play day in and day out. Most of all, I enjoyed watching with my granddad and mom and how we treated most games like a playoff.

The Glavine and Maddux era and those teams of the 90’s made their mark on Braves history. I can appreciate how they made us all feel going from worst to first and carrying us through a decade of post seasons. There’s a new set of heroes now standing in the shadows of Murphy, Horner, and Hubbard. On July 27^th, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux will join Bobby Cox in the Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown. It only seems like yesterday when they appeared on the scene as the Braves’ new young guns. Now, 23 years later, stand two former baseball players at the threshold of the Hall; an honor well deserved. Glavine enters the Hall as a 10 time All-Star, two-time Cy Young winner, and an overall record of 305-203 in 22 seasons. Standing alongside is Maddux with four straight Cy Young Awards from 1992-95, 18 Gold Glove Awards with the Braves, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Diego, an eight time All-Star, and a pitcher who won at least 13 games in 20 straight seasons.  The Braves of the 90’s, players like Glavine, Smoltz, Maddux, Avery and many more will always be special, but to me they will never erase my memories of those players that have gone before and the excitement my granddad and I shared as fans who were not spoiled. They're Hall Of Famers in my book.