The Death of a Braves Fan (Part 1)
By: Wyatt Lowe

We knew this day would come. We said it was over in 1998 when John Smoltz and Javy Lopez turned watching the Braves into more of a Leaning Channel special on surgery than a baseball team. Against all odds though, they found a way. We said it was over the moment Time Warner both the Braves from Ted Turner and suddenly the word profit replaced the word winning.  And yet, they somehow disproved everyone.

We said it was over in 2002, when Hall of Fame names like Tom
Glavine and Greg Maddux started to disappear and were replaced by names like Russ Ortiz, Jaret Wright, and Juan Cruz. But like a 50 year old boxer refusing to give up, they fought back and shocked everyone. We stopping watching last year after Raul Mondesi turned into one of the worst additions in team history,
and 3 members of our mighty pitching rotation went down with injuries.

And almost like they were laughing at our doubts, they casually brought up some kids named Jeff Francoeur, Brian McCann, and Kyle Davies and blew the rest of the National League East away.

14 years of joy for those proud to call the Braves their team. 14 years of Braves baseball, 14 division championships.
Something no one in the history of sports has ever done. The evil empire that is the Yankees has never come close. The mighty Hockey Red Wings of Detroit could only dream of winning the division 14 years in a row. The powerful Lakers of Los
Angeles could only imagine something that great. And yet, in all our celebrating the past, we miss the present and the downfall that was inevitable.

It happened so quickly that we had no chance to grasp the reality of it all. 2006 hasn’t been division title 15 like we thought was our right as fans, it has been more like “Bad News Bears“, or “The Mighty Ducks” before they were ever so mighty. It has been a nightmare, that with the team’s current state, we
are not willing to bet on waking up from it. It’s been our doomsday we always feared, yet knew had to happen.

Continue...