A Brief History of My Braves Fandom

The year was 1991. The worst-to-first Atlanta Braves have just won the division for the first time since 1982, the year I was born.

The Atlanta Braves team that I knew had always lost more than they won. Usually they lost many more than they won.

In 1987, my first year watching the Braves, they went 69-92. In '88, 54-106. During that time my favorite players were Dale Murphy, obviously. Catcher Bruce Benedict, Ron Gant, and Gerald Perry. I also like that guy they called "Smoltzie."

In 1989 they went 63-97. This team was horrid. Still my dad and I watched as many games as we could on the TBS Superstation.

I remember watching guys like second baseman Mark Lemke, outfielder Odibe McDowell, Gerald Perry, and Jeff Treadway.

I loved when the Braves visited the West Coast. Mainly because it meant I could stay up late and watch my team until 1 AM. Looking back I realize that I was lucky to be able to do that, as I was only eight years-old. But I digress.

I remember watching when the Braves played at San Francisco in mid-June of 1990. Young hurler, Pete Smith was on the mound when Giants catcher, Terry Kennedy came to the plate. All I heard was two pops.

The ball hitting the bat and the ball hitting Smith in the head. There was blood and Pete Smith in heap near the mound. Smith would be okay, but it was scary nonetheless.

Later that month, General Manager Bobby Cox fired Manager Russ Nixon.

I remember watching TBS the night Bobby Cox was introduced as the new manager of the Atlanta Braves. It was the beginning of his second stint as manager of the club.

As GM, Cox had drafted players like Ron Gant, David Justice, Tom Glavine, and Steve Avery. Prior to taking over as manager Cox drafted some high school kid named Chipper.

It was time for a new breed of Atlanta Braves. On Aug. 3, 1990 (my dad's 37th birthday) the Braves did the unthinkable. They traded Dale Murphy. "The Murph" was getting older and he was no longer the tremendous player that he used to be. Still, many fans, including myself, cried when the news came.

Murphy's departure paved the way for David Justice to become the face of the franchise. Justice quickly replaced Murphy as the fan favorite by winning the 1990 Rookie of the Year award.

In 1991, many of us Braves fans figured we were in for another bad season. Yet we thought that this young team might surprise some people.

Those phenoms that Cox drafted when he was GM—Justice, Gant, Glavine, and Avery; the one he traded for John Smoltz; and the one that was signed by new GM John Schuerholz, Terry Pendleton; would become the cornerstones of a run never seen before in professional sports.

The Braves went to their first World Series in 39 years that season. And what a series it was. The Minnesota Twins led by Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, and Jim Morris would win the series in seven games. Thanks in part to a Game Six, bottom-of-the-11th home run by Puckett to win the game 4-3 and send the series to a seventh game.

During that time my town was giddy with Braves fever. I grew up almost exactly 100 miles from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. So the Braves, however horrible they had been, was about all we had. Chattanooga, TN was home to the Reds double-A club, but this was still Braves country.

I remember the commemorative coke cans that honored the 1991 NL Championship and World Series appearance. As a matter of fact, I still have one. There were people selling NL Championship T-shirts on the side of the road.

This was clearly a new era in Braves baseball.

That December, fresh off of a World Series appearance, Braves second baseman Mark Lemke came to my hometown to sign autographs. My dad took me. We stood outside in 30-degree weather for an hour, only to see Mark Lemke walk right by me as he was leaving. I was heartbroken that I couldn't get the Lemmer's autograph.

Lemke never was an amazing player. As a matter of fact, he wasn't a very good player at all. In that 1991 season, he hit .234 with two home runs and 23 RBI in 136 games.

But it was my chance to get close to one of the guys that brought baseball back to Georgia.

In 1992, the Braves would continue their great play. They signed the speedy Otis Nixon during the offseason and had another speedster named Deion Sanders who would contribute greatly that season as well.

On July 25 that season, Otis Nixon would make what will forever be known simply as "the catch." In a 1-0 game in the top of the ninth inning, the Pirates had a runner on for slugger Andy Van Slyke.

Van Slyke crushed the ball to right-center and Nixon seemingly burnt the ground running toward the wall. At the last second Nixon leapt, placed his foot on the wall and propelled himself even higher. Skip Caray's immortal words, "He caught the ball! He caught the ball! I don't believe it!" rang out through the TBS Superstation airwaves.

Another great play would take place in October of that season as a play simply called, "the slide" would send the Braves to their second consecutive World Series; a Series that they would lose in six games.

Perhaps the single-biggest moment of the Braves run would take place in December of '92. The Braves signed a guy named Greg Maddux. Placed in a rotation that included young, but tremendous talents Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, Maddux would have the best years of his career in an Atlanta uniform. "The Big Three" was born.

The first game I ever attended came in 1993. My family is deeply religious and my father simply did not want to take me around the beer and cursing that went on in Atlanta. But after pleading with him to take me, he finally did.

I'll never forget walking into Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The place was huge. The Braves played the St. Louis Cardinals. It was a Saturday, day game. John Smoltz was on the mound for Atlanta.

The thing that still sticks out in my mind about that game was an Ozzie Smith error. Smith was about as sure-handed at shortstop as anyone in history, and I actually got to see him make an error in my first ever major league game. I also got to see my favorite player, David Justice, go 3-for-4 with an RBI.

The Braves would lose the game 10-3, but I was hooked by this wonderful game and my team, the Atlanta Braves.

Later that summer the Braves made another important move. They traded for Fred McGriff of the San Diego Padres. McGriff would become another important piece of the Braves over the next few seasons.

The Braves lost to the Phillies in the '93 NLCS, and the '94 strike would eliminate any chance for a postseason that year.

In 1995, the season was shortened to 144 games when the '94 strike lasted into April of that year.

Greg Maddux would go 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA that season. 19-2! That is completely unheard of. Maddux won his fourth consecutive CY Young Award and finished third in MVP balloting.

The Braves won 90 games and won the division by 20 games.

Then, on a cold October night in 1995 my dad and I watched with sheer jubilation as Marquis Grissom squeezed the final out of the World Series in his glove to clinch the title. People were honking horns, dancing in the streets. And those street vendors were out in full force again.

The next few years the Braves would continue winning and disappointing us in the postseason. But I would not trade all my wonderful memories of Braves baseball for anything. It has been a great 22 years being a Braves fan.

By the way, that elusive Mark Lemke autograph was finally obtained last night. The Lemmer is one of the Braves pregame radio announcers and I was able to watch he and Chip Caray do the live pregame from the Turner Field plaza last night.

The opportunity was too cool to pass up. He signed my ticket. My 19-year quest for his autograph has finally come to an end.