FanPost

The Bravest Sunday Of All

The 1990s were a magical, amazing time to be an Atlanta Braves fan. Beginning with their historic worst-to-first division championship and National League pennant in 1991, when they came within two runs of winning a world championship against the Minnesota Twins, I fell in love with this team. Stacked with phenomenal young talent, including the pitchers collectively known as "The Young Guns", John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Steve Avery, and up-and-coming sluggers David Justice and Ron Gant, the Braves came back from a 9 1/2 game deficit at the All-Star break and overtook the Los Angeles Dodgers on the last day of the season to win the National League West. Not only did the Braves become the first team in the National League to finish in last place in the division one year and in first place the next, this 1991 squad became the first team to ever reach the World Series just one year after having the worst record in baseball I watched them every night on the Superstation TBS back in those days, and I was addicted, hook, line, and sinker to the most exciting team in professional sports. Yes, I was crushed after Games 6 and 7 of the World Series in that hideous Metrodome – when all the Braves had to do was win one of those games for the world championship. But Kirby Puckett's walkoff home run in Game 6 and Jack Morris's phenomenal pitching performance in Game 7, outdueling my favorite Brave John Smoltz, broke the hearts of Atlanta. I still can't watch videos of those two games or hear the name Ken Hrbek without feeling physical pain inside.

The Braves continued their winning ways in 1992, running away with the National League West and finishing with a 98-64 record, the best record in baseball and a franchise record. Thanks to Francisco Cabrera's ninth-inning, two-out two-run single that miraculously scored Sid Bream from second base in Game 7 in the National League Championship Series, the Atlanta Braves became the first team to win back-to-back National League pennants since the 1977-78 Los Angeles Dodgers. "The Slide" by Sid Bream was one of the single greatest moments in Braves baseball history, and a couple of years ago, I was able to meet Mr. Bream himself at a function in downtown Atlanta. A gracious gentleman, a devout Christian, Sid was very kind to me, readily agreeing to pose with me for a picture, and I thanked him profusely for one of the most wonderful nights of my life. Unfortunately, the euphoria from that pulsating night in October of 1992 dissipated much too quickly when the Braves went on to lose the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games, breaking the hearts of Atlanta fans once again.

It was a brutal, cruel offseason in 1992. I could still hear the tomahawk chops in my dreams, and I hated waking up to the reality that the Braves had lost the World Series for the second year in a row. But Santa Claus came early for Braves fans that December – Greg Maddux, the greatest pitcher in the National League, shocked the sports world when he jilted the New York Yankees and signed a multi-year deal with my very own Atlanta Braves. The longtime Chicago Cub had a monster season in 1992 –a record of 20-11, an ERA of 2.18, and 199 strikeouts, and he won the first of his four consecutive Cy Young awards that year. His contract with the Cubs was set to expire at the end of the season, and Maddux sincerely wanted to stay in Chicago, but the negotiations fell apart inexplicably, and suddenly, the most outstanding pitcher in the league was a highly coveted free agent. The Yankees went all out to try and entice Maddux to wear the the pinstripes, and while these haughty officials were all smugly confident of landing the prized right-hander, they were left shellshocked when Maddux's agent notified them that he was going to the Braves. And when they learned that Maddux was taking a staggering $6 million less to sign with the Braves, the higher-ups in the Yankees' front office were apoplectic.

Yes, it was a very Merry Christmas in our household that year. Not only were the Bravos going to have the best starting pitcher in baseball in Greg Maddux, but we were also screwing those detestable New York Yankees by snatching him right out from up under their very noses!! I was giddy with excitement as Opening Day approached in 1993 – my Atlanta Braves were stacked with a phenomenal rotation of Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Steve Avery. Our opponents would be facing potential Cy Young contenders every single game!! The Braves did win the National League West for the third consecutive season, but it turned out to be a battle of the titans between the Braves and the San Francisco Giants. At the end of July, the Giants were 10 full games ahead of the Braves, but during the final two months of the season, the Braves made a furious push to the postseason, thanks to their incomparable pitching and an offense rejuvenated with the acquisition of the slugger Fred McGriff. The division title was decided on the 162nd game of the year, just like in 1991, and even though the Giants won 103 games during the 1993 regular season, they were going home, shut out of any postseason playoff appearances.

I will always wonder if the pressure of that division race caused the Braves to run out of steam by the time the National League Championship Series came around. The heavily-favored Atlanta Braves lost the NLCS to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games, so there was no return trip to the World Series that year for my team. The Phillies eventually lost the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays, just as the Braves did the year before, so the Blue Jays were repeating champions after Joe Carter homered off of the Wild Thing Mitch Williams in the deciding game walkoff. The disappointment after the 1993 season was especially hard to fathom for us Braves fans, but we could take solace in the fact that our team was so loaded with exceptional starting pitching that we could look forward to winning year after year after year.

And that's exactly what the Atlanta Braves did – they won an unprecedented 14 consecutive division championships from 1991 through 2005. They even won the World Series in 1995, and we all grew accustomed to the Braves' sustained level of excellence during the regular season. Bobby Cox, the Big Three of Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz, the face of the franchise Chipper Jones – all of these constants throughout those years gave us Braves fans a lifetime of indelible, priceless memories. I refuse to dwell on the disappointments that are inevitable in baseball, and I am so loving this new generation of Braves baseball, built on a solid core of exciting young players like Freddie Freeman, Craig Kimbrel, Julio Teheran, Jason Heyward, and Andrelton Simmons. These new fresh faces burst onto the scene in the years following Bobby Cox's retirement in 2010, and for the first time in nine years, the 2013 Braves ran away with the National League East division.

But as hopeful as I am for my Braves this season, the year 2014 will be most memorable for me because of what happens on Sunday, July 27. On that date, Bobby Cox, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, (along with Frank Thomas, Joe Torre, and Tony LaRussa), and my heart is bursting with pride for what this means for my Atlanta Braves. I will be recording every minute of the ceremony on Sunday, and in the spirit of the kinship shared by the starting pitchers on those teams of the 1990s, I feel compelled to share my favorite memory of Glavine and Maddux.

The Braves began the 1994 season 13-1, and although the players' strike would eventually force the cancellation of the remainder of the schedule after August 11, I can still recall specific details about a very special pitching duel between Tom Glavine and Jeff Fassero on the 7th of May. The Braves were playing the Montréal Expos, who had an immensely talented team that year, and neither Glavine nor Fassero had given up a run through eight innings. But in the top of the ninth, the Expos managed to score one run off of the Braves' southpaw, I distinctly remember Tommy walking off of the field in disgust, angry and frustrated at himself, and as the camera continued to follow him into the dugout, Glavine sat down on the bench, thoroughly dejected. But sitting there beside him was Greg Maddux, who had won his first Cy Young Award with Atlanta in 1993 and his second consecutive overall. There could have understandably been a lot of tension and jealousy between these guys over who was the true ace of the pitching staff. Tom Glavine was the Cy Young Award winner in 1991, and in fact, Tom Glavine had been a shoo-in to win the award in the summer of 1992 until a late-season injury caused his pitching numbers to take a significant downturn. Maddux dominated the National League in that breakout season for him and overtook Glavine handily as the Cy Young favorite down the stretch. Glavine might have felt resentful of all the accolades the baseball community was pouring on Greg, and even more so when Maddux signed with the Braves. After all, the Atlanta Braves were Tom Glavine's team – he was prized homegrown talent, fresh from the highly lucrative Braves farm system, but now suddenly this new guy was getting all of the attention. Superstars are well known to have very fragile egos, so it would not have surprised anyone if Glavine wasn't too eager to cozy up with his main competitor.

While we were waiting on the Braves to come to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, the camera continued to focus on the conversation between Maddux and Glavine. I was fascinated watching the two of them – neither one was distant or aloof with the other. On the contrary, they were talking like friends!! But it was even more than that – Greg was comforting his unhappy friend, doing his best to cheer him up after a tough outing. There was no mistaking their body language… Maddux, who had defeated the Expos 5-0 the night before, was urging a teammate to hang in there, pointing to the scoreboard and reminding him that they were only down by one run.

When the ballgame resumed for the Braves' final at-bat, Jeff Fassero was still on the mound for Montréal, and things looked bleak for the Bravos when our 2nd baseman Mark Lemke came to bat with two out. Lemke was a postseason hero for us in 1991 World Series, but he wasn't known as a slugger in the regular season. We did have a runner on base, representing the tying run, but Fassero had been so dominating all night, I figured he was going to be the winning pitcher on a complete-game shutout. Until the pitch to Lemke, however. Our switchhitting second bagger smacked that left-hander's pitch over the left field wall at the old Fulton County Stadium, and the Atlanta Braves won the game 2-1!!! The fans in the ballpark erupted in jubilation as the Braves won in walkoff fashion, and I was screaming happily from my bed in my apartment in Lexington, South Carolina. But the biggest smile I saw on the team was on the face of Tom Glavine, who was running onto the field with his buddy Greg Maddux and the rest of his overjoyed teammates to hug Mark Lemke and celebrate the come-from-behind victory.

That is only one of the precious memories I will be reminiscing over this Sunday, but it is one of the most poignant. The bond between Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz was something extraordinary – of course, they were all fiercely competitive with each other, from the baseball diamond to the golf course, but they shared a camaraderie that rose above the petty jealousies that can plague a pitching staff. From 1993 until 2002, when Glavine left to sign with the New York Mets, these three guys gave us their best every time they took the baseball, and I respected them and cherished the priceless moments they brought to our lives. Sunday afternoon in Cooperstown will be another one of those priceless moments, and I want to thank Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and most importantly, Bobby Cox, the greatest manager of his time, for making me especially proud to be a diehard fan of my Atlanta Bravest

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