<img alt="Philadelphia Phillies v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o9KPh8e2IV9iDka4gAeFb8cQiDU=/0x1:5393x3596/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73481843/2160948246.0.jpg">
Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images
Diehard fans stay with a team during the goods times and the bad. Right now, Braves fans are being tested. Yes, the Atlanta Braves suck right now.
There are no two ways about it. Although they still lead the Wild Card standings they have been struggling since May and have yet to be able to turn things around.
We all know one of the major reasons they are scuffling: injuries.
No team could lose the reigning NL MVP, a Cy Young favorite, the rotation ace, a starting center fielder, former All-Star second baseman and catcher, and decent list of relievers and starters for an extended period of time and expect to run-away with a division.
If you fielded a team comprised of the players who have either been lost for the season or will have missed a significant number of games during the year, there’s a chance that every single one of your reading this would pick a team comprised of the injured Braves to beat the team built around the non-injured Braves in a head-to-head match-up.
Yet the Braves, some how, are hanging on … barely.
Three years ago things were as - if not more - bleak.
Like this season, Ronald Acuña, Jr. had been lost for the season. Marcell Ozuna missed most of the season due to off-the-field issues. The team had so many injury issues at catcher that seven different players saw time behind the plate - including 29 games by Kevan Smith and 23 by now Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. In the rotation, Touki Toussaint, Kyle Muller and Bryce Wilson all made eight or more starts.
At the deadline (the actual deadline, which like this year, was on July 30), the Braves picked-up reliever Richard Rodriguez, Jorge Soler, Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario all in separate deals. Rosario was hurt, Soler had been struggling until a few weeks before the deadline and Duvall was basically league-average when Atlanta re-acquired him from the Marlins.
All that is to say, while Atlanta threw a bunch of things at the wall hoping one or two of them (including the pick-up of Joc Pederson two weeks prior to the deadline) would stick, some how all four of the bats played a key role in the Braves winning the World Series.
Is that going to happen this year?
No one knows. Even if the front office goes on a major shopping spree in the next few days, only time will tell if the moves work, don’t work or keep the status quo.
Maybe the Braves will turn things around and get hot going into the post season. That’d be awesome. Maybe they play .500 ball the rest of the way and limp into the playoffs. Maybe they don’t make it at all.
That is the unknown.
This is what is known: This is why we are fans.
In many, many decades I - as have many of you - have rooted for the Braves when they were good and some times great. We have also rooted for them when they were just okay. We were fans when they struggled. And, as hard as it may have been, we were fans with they outright sucked.
If you are a bandwagon fan. That’s cool. Do your thing. Come back when the wheel haven’t fallen off.
For the rest of us - the ones that were there for George Stone, Mickey Mahler, Rick Cerone, Andres Thomas, Jo-Jo Reyes, Eric Stults, Rio Ruiz or any other players from those down-year teams - this is just part of what comes with being a fan.
I doubt there is a fan out there who wouldn’t agree that none of us ever want our team to lose. We want to win it all every year. But that just ain’t how it works.
We can cheer, jeer, root or boo all we want but our jobs aren’t on the line if our team doesn’t do well nor do we get an financial reward if they win it all.
It doesn’t matter - there is a pride that comes from being a fan of your team ... of our team.
Being a fan is an escape from our reality. We all have our own crap we are dealing with. Sports fandom offers a distraction if things aren’t going well in our personal lives. When our team is struggling, that makes it that much harder to get that relief we seek. And that sucks. But it isn’t the end of the world.
This too shall pass.
In 60 days, as we are a week or so from the playoffs, hopefully we can all look back at this stretch of the season as the low point in a year that rebounded in August and September.
If it doesn’t, it will be okay, because this too shall pass.
Hopefully the Braves win tomorrow. And then hopefully they will win the next day. And if they win the day after that, you know what that is? That’s a winning streak.
Only time will tell.
Good or bad. Win or lose. This is why we are fans.
This is why we are Braves fans.
<img alt="Philadelphia Phillies v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o9KPh8e2IV9iDka4gAeFb8cQiDU=/0x1:5393x3596/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73481843/2160948246.0.jpg">
Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images
Diehard fans stay with a team during the goods times and the bad. Right now, Braves fans are being tested. Yes, the Atlanta Braves suck right now.
There are no two ways about it. Although they still lead the Wild Card standings they have been struggling since May and have yet to be able to turn things around.
We all know one of the major reasons they are scuffling: injuries.
No team could lose the reigning NL MVP, a Cy Young favorite, the rotation ace, a starting center fielder, former All-Star second baseman and catcher, and decent list of relievers and starters for an extended period of time and expect to run-away with a division.
If you fielded a team comprised of the players who have either been lost for the season or will have missed a significant number of games during the year, there’s a chance that every single one of your reading this would pick a team comprised of the injured Braves to beat the team built around the non-injured Braves in a head-to-head match-up.
Yet the Braves, some how, are hanging on … barely.
Three years ago things were as - if not more - bleak.
Like this season, Ronald Acuña, Jr. had been lost for the season. Marcell Ozuna missed most of the season due to off-the-field issues. The team had so many injury issues at catcher that seven different players saw time behind the plate - including 29 games by Kevan Smith and 23 by now Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. In the rotation, Touki Toussaint, Kyle Muller and Bryce Wilson all made eight or more starts.
At the deadline (the actual deadline, which like this year, was on July 30), the Braves picked-up reliever Richard Rodriguez, Jorge Soler, Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario all in separate deals. Rosario was hurt, Soler had been struggling until a few weeks before the deadline and Duvall was basically league-average when Atlanta re-acquired him from the Marlins.
All that is to say, while Atlanta threw a bunch of things at the wall hoping one or two of them (including the pick-up of Joc Pederson two weeks prior to the deadline) would stick, some how all four of the bats played a key role in the Braves winning the World Series.
Is that going to happen this year?
No one knows. Even if the front office goes on a major shopping spree in the next few days, only time will tell if the moves work, don’t work or keep the status quo.
Maybe the Braves will turn things around and get hot going into the post season. That’d be awesome. Maybe they play .500 ball the rest of the way and limp into the playoffs. Maybe they don’t make it at all.
That is the unknown.
This is what is known: This is why we are fans.
In many, many decades I - as have many of you - have rooted for the Braves when they were good and some times great. We have also rooted for them when they were just okay. We were fans when they struggled. And, as hard as it may have been, we were fans with they outright sucked.
If you are a bandwagon fan. That’s cool. Do your thing. Come back when the wheel haven’t fallen off.
For the rest of us - the ones that were there for George Stone, Mickey Mahler, Rick Cerone, Andres Thomas, Jo-Jo Reyes, Eric Stults, Rio Ruiz or any other players from those down-year teams - this is just part of what comes with being a fan.
I doubt there is a fan out there who wouldn’t agree that none of us ever want our team to lose. We want to win it all every year. But that just ain’t how it works.
We can cheer, jeer, root or boo all we want but our jobs aren’t on the line if our team doesn’t do well nor do we get an financial reward if they win it all.
It doesn’t matter - there is a pride that comes from being a fan of your team ... of our team.
Being a fan is an escape from our reality. We all have our own crap we are dealing with. Sports fandom offers a distraction if things aren’t going well in our personal lives. When our team is struggling, that makes it that much harder to get that relief we seek. And that sucks. But it isn’t the end of the world.
This too shall pass.
In 60 days, as we are a week or so from the playoffs, hopefully we can all look back at this stretch of the season as the low point in a year that rebounded in August and September.
If it doesn’t, it will be okay, because this too shall pass.
Hopefully the Braves win tomorrow. And then hopefully they will win the next day. And if they win the day after that, you know what that is? That’s a winning streak.
Only time will tell.
Good or bad. Win or lose. This is why we are fans.
This is why we are Braves fans.
Link to original article
