Why I Love the Atlanta Braves

As some of you may know, I am a HUGE Atlanta Braves fan.

There are many, many reasons as to why I love this organization, and I will detail a few here.

The Base of My Beliefs

Where I live, near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, your options for baseball are limited; you have the Braves fans, Yankees fans, Red Sox fans, and non-baseball fans.  You can basically one of those three paths.

There was a time, not to long ago, when I chose the last of these three offers.  I was a NASCAR fan in the heart of the sport's region.

My grandfather had been an Atlanta Braves fan since the days of suckage back in the 70's and 80's, through the 14 straight division titles, and still is today because of the likes of TBS, Turner South, Fox Sports South, SportSouth, and all of the other stations that had carried the Braves. 

So from that, I had always had at least a mild interest in the organization.

But, that interest was never anything huge, as I would always watch the races on Sunday and watch between 20 and 30 games a year.

But, as time progressed, I looked around me and had a posteriori.  I started to look at NASCAR in Lehman's Terms: 40-some cars going 500 miles in a circle over the course of three hours.

It was then, that I fell into a love affair with the statistics and game in general of baseball.  The home runs, the defense, the strategy, and the list goes on.

The Beauty of the Game

In 2000, I went to my first Braves game at Turner Field.  It was my first live baseball game ever (I had never even been to any of the local MiLB games).

I was seven-years-old and was amazed by the sheer size of the park (54,000 seats) and the All-Star Game ceramic balls outside of the Stadium (my total height of about 4 1/2 feet).

We sat down the left-field line about 15 or 20 rows up.  I was wearing my official Braves T-shirt with "C.Jones" on the back of it, sitting next to my dad.  The Bravos were playing Sammy Sosa and the Cubs.

The metal pennants hanging in left, a lot of yellow, three red (I believe), and one blue and red that reads "World Champions" below it.

I can still remember looking at the big box score that used to be on the outfield scoreboard and being captivated by the numbers that would be changed after every activity on the field.

I truly enjoyed that day, even though the Braves lost.

Fast-forward eight years and I have been to: Turner Field, Ernie Shore Field, War Memorial Stadium, RFK Stadium, George M. Steinbrenner Field, Progressive Field, and Nationals Park.

From the simplicity of War Memorial (former home of the Minor-League Greensboro Bats-now the Greensboro Grasshoppers) to the ugliness of RFK, to the aura of a living legend like the Ted, and you have a great variety of good and bad baseball venues.

However, you find that the game remains the same: perfect.

The Winning & The Organization

The has never been a time in all of my almost 16 years, except for maybe last year, where the Braves have truly "sucked."

This has made it very easy to like the Braves.

But, even now, after three post-seasonless seasons, I still have the same passion that I had before 2006.

I am not a fair-weather fan.

If I were to be a resident of Atlanta, I guarantee you that I would be saving my money every year to get season tickets, regardless of where they may be (those $1 seats above third base aren't half bad, you know).

I also love this team because of the way they carry out their business.

Development, pitching, and minor signings.

There just seems to be something unique about a team that hasn't had to buy itself a World Championship.

Every year, I look at the minor league system, and I hope.

Since I started keeping up with this team, I have never NOT been able to find hope, even if it's not for the upcoming season, I see what could be for the future.

I hope this struck a chord with you, reader, and made you remember, even if you don't love the Braves, why you love baseball.