 |
| A photo I took of Maddux and Leo in the Braves dugout in 1997 |
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 27th, 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.
