Believing

The Difference Between Thinking Something is Going to Happen and Believing it Can

I've said things similar to this on GameThreads and commenting on other FanPosts and people that frequent this site probably know me as one of the more optimistic posters. Recently I guess I've been one of the more asshole-prone posters (sorry!) too so I guess part of what I'm trying to do is explain where I'm coming from when I get angry at people for giving up on this team. You may have also noticed that, despite my optimism, I never said anything like, "we're definitely going to the playoffs," "we're gonna sweep tonight!" or "this is definitely a championship team."  I think that's because I don't believe optimism and realism have to be mutually exclusive. I think the key is that a lot of people don't seem to realize that just because your brain tells you something isn't going to happen doesn't mean you can't believe there's a possibility that it will.

To be honest:

I really didn't think the Braves could come back from a nine game losing streak and a 9-14 April…
They went 20-8 in May ending the month with the beginning of a nine game winning streak.

I really didn't think the Braves could come back against the Phillies down 3-0 in the ninth with two outs…
Troy Glaus and Jason Heyward blew my mind and Nate McLouth walked off in the 10th.

I really didn't think the Braves could win a game against the reds down 9-3 in the 9th inning…
Brooks Conrad hit a walk off grand slam.

I really didn't think we could win a game against the Marlins down 7-1 in the 8th…
A timely error and a Matt Diaz home run tied it up… Heap made sure we didn't need to go to extras.

I had no idea Derrek Lee could hit a 94 MPH fastball out of the park…
He did, with three runners on.

I really never though we'd see Nate McLouth successfully hitting MLB pitching again…
He came back and was a success, suddenly people were saying things like "WHY ISN'T NATE IN THE LINEUP?!"

I really thought after losing a series to the Marlins and a series to the Pirates the Braves would collapse in on themselves like a dying star…
We tied a series against Cards, dropped one to the Nationals at home, and then shockingly swept the Mets at Citi Field.

After being swept by the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and losing two of three to the miserable Nats I didn't think we would actually win the wild card.
The Braves swept the Marlins at home and squeaked out a wild card berth without the need for game 163.

After losing to the Giants in game 1 I felt miserable, even more so after going down 4-0 in game 2.
Rick Ankiel, Kyle Farnsworth, Alex Gonzalez, and third baseman Troy Glaus brought the Braves back from the dead.

Let's be honest... this team being here at all already defies logic.

Belief isn't something that you decide on a day to day basis. I would need extra hands to count the number of people that said after we finally made the playoffs they were behind this team only to re-abandon hope in the face of a 3-0 FIRST INNING deficit. I'm guessing they'll be back today.

Last year the Braves went on a sudden 15 - 2 run at the end of the season… and if you remember correctly it came out of absolutely nowhere.  The Braves were in third coming off of a 1 - 6 stretch and were barely an afterthought in the playoff picture.  During the run the front office got into the believe campaign and even ESPN started paying a bit of attention.  People started to think in the back of their heads that this could really happen.  After a loss to the Fish on September 29th (5 - 4) a lot of people seemed ready to give up.  I posted the following (Yeah that's right, I went back and found the OT):

"Well all knew, coming in to this game we could probably go 5-1 and still have a shot at this.
And we adopted this fucking motto: Believe… To believe is not to believe for just one game and lose and give up. (I love how the Rockies score again as I type this). I for one have never THOUGHT we were going to make the playoffs, I simply believed we had a chance. And I still do.
So GoBravesNY…
You, and me, and anybody else who wants to come… Same time, same place, tomorrow.
I still believe."

The next day the Braves were down three runs going into the ninth inning.  Yunel Escobar and Omar Infante both got RBI singles and the bases were loaded with two oats for Martin Prado.  Prado took ball one and never saw another pitch, Matt Diaz was picked off at third base to end the Braves season… and it was utterly deflating.  But the point was that we didn't stop believing until we saw Diaz get tagged out at third.  The Rockies ended up going 3 - 2 over the last five games when we would have needed a perfect record and a 2 - 3 record for Colorado to make it.  So it would have all been for not, we would have wound up a game out even with a perfect record… but that's wasn't the point, was it?  The point is we were there with our team till the bitter end, living and dying with every pitch, and even if we didn't think it was going to happen, we still believed it could.

My point is this… Who knows what's going to happen next?! The Braves can win the World Series this year. Don't get me wrong, it probably won't happen, I don't really think it's going to happen, and even if it does there will be frustrations along the way… We're going to ground into double plays, we're going to make errors, we're going to give up some home runs, and we're going to lose some games, it's baseball folks, that's just what happens. But until I see number 6 walk off the field for the last time… until I see the final out in the playoffs… a part of me is still going to know what this team can do, that they can defy my expectations as they've already done so many times this year.