If you are like me, those of you who suffered through year-after-year of dismal Atlanta Braves' seasons probably still have to pinch yourself occasionally to believe that the Braves of the last 14 years are for real.
Who would have thought after another losing season in 1990, the world of Braves baseball was about to change - leading to one of the most memorable and treasured experiences of my life.
Sure, they've only won one World Series during the stretch and more often than not they falter once the playoffs begin and end the season before reaching the Fall Classic. But, I've run into few longtime Braves fans who are complaining.
Do you realize there are teenagers and young adults today whose only first-hand knowledge of the Braves is as a winning team? They've never lived through a season when there were, at times, only 3,000, 7,000 or 10,000 fans in a 50,000-seat stadium? They've never known what it's like for the Braves to be out of the race by July 4, if not Memorial Day? They've never known what it's like for the Braves to finish the season 30 or 40 games out of first place.
I have a special place in my heart for the 1992 Braves. They provided me with one of my most memorable father-daughter outings.
Lisa was 16 and at the last moment we came in possession of tickets to the League Championship Series game to propelled Atlanta into its second World Series.
That's the game that when ended with Francisco Cabrera's 9th-inning, two-out, two-run, pinch-hit single and, as the Braves' Web site describes it, "Sid Bream's photo finish slide at home plate, giving Atlanta a stunning 3-2 triumph over the Pirates" and sending the Braves to the World Series for the second straight year.
It had been a dismal night for Braves fans. They had played badly, trailed most of the night, and about 10:30, I'm wondering "what am I doing sitting here? I have to be up at 4:30 in the morning. This is crazy!"
But, unlike a trio of fans in the row just in front of us, who left at the start of the 9th inning, we hung in there.
And, of course, I wouldn't take anything in the world for being at that game and what it means to have shared it with Lisa - the whole party atmosphere outside the stadium before the game, the electricity of just being at a playoff game, the absolute almost endless thrill that followed the winning run. We and thousands of others must have stayed in our seats (actually on our feet) for 30 minutes after the game ended - chanting and tomahawking - before we finally began to file out of the stadium. The celebrating continued in the parking lot - and in the car, where there was still no letup - horns honking, fans with their windows down, arms outside, "chopping."
If Lisa had had her way, we would have stayed up all night and roamed the streets of Buckhead with everybody else. But, alas, we headed back home.
"How sweet it is!" I remember thinking while standing in line to pay for gas at a Suwanee convenience store about 1:30. So what if I had to be up in another three hours!
It had been a special night for a dad and his daughter - and, for that, I thank you, Braves for a treasured memory.
Ken Stanford is the News Director for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, SPORTS RADIO 1240 THE TICKET, and MAJIC 1029 and is Editor of AccessNorthGa.com.
Saturday
May 18th, 2024
10:21PM
