The Playoff Push: Hard To Handle for an Atlanta Braves Fan

(Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

The 2009 Atlanta Braves' season.

You wanna talk about an emotional roller coaster?

How about we start with this topic and then move on to your example?

This is setting up to be, by far, the most exciting final week that I've seen since...well...ever.

You can talk all you want about the 14 straight, but you will find few that can rival the excitement (and deflation) that Braves fans have felt over the past four or five weeks.

Most of those seasons, the division was locked up a week, two, or three weeks before the season ended.

If they weren't, the Braves' magic number was about six or seven heading into the season's final three weeks.

This season, my friends, has been a lot different.

This season, I have declared the Braves dead approximately 14 million times.

And each and every time, the clubhouse attendant found the defibrillator behind a pile of jock-straps in the laundry room at Turner Field.

You may be saying now, "Well, you're an idiot for giving up so soon-you're not a real fan."

Well, I ask, "Can you blame me???"

Remember Andre Ethier?

After that homer that fateful night in LA, I was thinking "dead, not a chance now-no way they can survive an emotional blow like that."

The next night, I WROTE that they were close to done following a Casey Blake homer (preceded by a BS call by an umpire).

Then, they came back.

They took the last three of that series and the Braves went on a mini-streak.

Hope was back in town.

Now, remember two straight nights of hellacious Kris Medlen innings in Florida and a sweep at the hands of the Reds?

Once again, I said they were done.

Then, jock-strap shuffling came-CLEAR-and the Braves got hot again.

Now, the heat is back on (not surprisingly following an embarrassing series against Philadelphia), and the Braves find themselves only two-and-a-half back of the NL Wild Card leading Colorado Rockies.

Wow.

The might-have-been's (see an in-depth review of those here) will be prevalent if the season ends the way my gut says it's going to (though you see how accurate it has been to this point).

Braves fans will be saying that they shouldn't have be where they are right now.

That they should be in fifth in the Wild Card.

And that they should have rolled over and just died on Sept. 1 and saved us another heartbreak (at least at first when the sting of another postseasonless season is still stinging).

But, regardless of how the season ends (be it positive or negative), it will be impossible to refute that the 2009 Atlanta Braves are the most resilient and awe-inspiring team that we've seen in a while.

The Braves have proven again and again that they fear no ace and that they can take licks of adversity with the best of them.

As I said, it was not that long ago that the Braves had Mills Lane over top of them.

To be 2.5 back of the Rox, even with only a week remaining, is impressive.

Anything can happen now.

With five left against the Nationals (all but one at home) and another three with the Fish (at home), the blue-hot Braves are nipping at the heels of the Rockies (they have one game against the home-field seeking Cardinals, three at home against the Brewers, and three at LA).

The Braves could easily go 7-1 (91-71) or 6-2 (90-72) with the way their playing. 

But the Rockies could also easily go 5-2 (that's not good, 92-70) against opponents with nothing left to shoot for (maybe MIL is looking for respect, maybe LA is in the same situation that I said St. Louis is in).

BEAT-L-A used to be the chant at Atlanta Fulton-County.

We need to turn that around, WIN-L-A.

A Dodger sweep of the Rox makes this very interesting in terms of the title.

Vice versa, and Atlanta fans are forced to wait another year.

So, what's it going to be Braves?

Are you going to win and set yourself up for success and the sequel to this action packed thriller that you call the regular season?

Or are you going to pull a Sopranos and just leave us all...

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