Braves Home Opener
. . . is one month from today. Nothing says to me, “Spring is here!” like baseball season.
Friday, April 6th
7:35 PM
Vs. The Mets
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And let’s not forget, James has declared June 19 to be “Err Night” at The Ted…yeay!
http://atlanta.metblogs.com/archives/2007/02/err_claims_anot.phtml
Good point, Miss Maigh.
Ah, another season in America’s most mediocre baseball town.
I agree that there is a dearth of Braves fans in this town, which is sad. As a native and lifelong fan, though, I can say that I am sure you can move to a city you like better at any time. I believe both Delta and AirTran have flights to the Boston area. :-)
“Love it or leave it” : the last refuge of a cretin.
Yay! I’ve taken the brunt of quite a few barbs here, but “cretin” is a first. By the way, the colon should be inside your closing quotation marks. While we’re being honest with one another. . . .
Ah, another idiot from the Baby Yankees Nation…
Ah, another idiot from the Baby Yankees Nation…
My beloved Mets and they’re here opening weekend and then they aren’t back for quite some time. MLB had to schedule them the one weekend people will actually show up at The Ted this season. :)
I’m so tired of this crap.
Short history lesson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Braves
No, the Braves do not have the diehard fanbase of many major league teams. There are some of us (Annie included, apparently) who are lifelong fans. That group is going to be limited because:
A) The Braves are a relatively ‘young’ team (vis a vis the Yankees or Red Sox)–there’s not a legacy that’s been passed on from generation to generation
B) For the most part, the Braves were horrible during the ’70s and ’80s
C) Atlanta is one of the most–if not THE most–transient cities in the coutry. D.Ortiz should know this better than anyone. Folks don’t change allegiance just because they move to a new place.
The Braves’ early ’90s success should be bearing fruit–as far as a fanbase with disposable income is concerned–about now. The underdog status will only help things.
At the risk of seeming pedantic, the “Braves” are the oldest continuous running franchise in the Major Leagues. It’s the Atlanta franchise that is relatively young.
Nitpicking aside, I completely agree and share your theory. “Atlanta” has damn near doubled in size since 1990 and the Braves have provided whoever was watching more memorable moments than any other MLB team (including the Yankees) during that stretch. These moments defined the childhoods of many youth in this city. I think that the future is bright for the club.
A championship would still help tremendously though.
John and Rashid, I agree with you guys. Great points, all. I do think that there are a lot of diehard Braves fans, and that the transient nature is part of the difficulty. I would also wager to say that there aren’t many teams that have as much of an out-of-state following as the Braves. For instance, I have a friend who lives in and grew up in Nebraska and she is probably the biggest braves fan i know – she doesn’t make it to the Ted very often, but she hasn’t missed many games on TBS. And then there is the fact that there aren’t many other MLB teams in the Southeast, so many Alabama, S. and N. Carolina, Tenn etc. people are fans. Again, they don’t get to the games that often, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t watching. You know, the “America’s Team” factor.
All of this being said, I would love a championship, and I would love to see the stadium sell out more. Go Braves!
oooh, i can’t wait for err night at the ted.
The weird thing about the Braves is that the fanbase outside of ATL is far more diehard than the fanbase within the metro area. I spent 12 years living in Americus, Ga (2.5 hrs south of ATL) and they were some rabid fans. Never missed a game on TV. Plus there was the “little old lady” Braves fan thing down there. These are women who have followed the Braves since they came to Ga and are now older (60 on up) and they are FANATICAL about their Braves. I use to work at the local Braves radio affiliate and these women would call up and demand to know what was going on if the game wasn’t on when they thought it would be. These women lived and died by the Braves. I had one in my church, Miss Ruth and she was a treat. She had a great story about going to a game with Miss Lillian (Pres. Carter’s Mom) one time and a representative of Ted’s coming down to their seats and asking Miss Lillian if she would like to come to the owners box and Lillian said “only if my friend can join me”. She they both got to watch the game with Ted in the owners box!
Now personally I hate the Braves…but I come by it naturally. See..I grew up outside of Philly, so I am a Phillie fan. And since we are in the same division, I have to root against them. To do otherwise, would be treason. :) But I have been to a few Braves games and have been amazed and pleased by the Brave’s fans and stadium staff reaction to me wearing the Phillies gear and cheering for me. They are very nice, as opposed to Philly, where doingt that could literally get you killed. So major props to ATL for that.
Deb, great point about the little old lady contingent – they cannot be discounted. I think that small-town Braves fandom is pretty widespread in the South, but most Atlanta transplants don’t realize it, because of course they hate to venture outside the fence into no-man’s land.
As far as you as a Phillie’s fan getting a great reception at the stadium, why, that has nothing to do with how much we love or don’t love our Braves, and everything to do with good old love of good-natured competition and sweet hospitality. Don’t worry, we still want to see the Braves kick Philly ass. :-)
::yawn::
Um, sorry we’re boring you, Maigh. :-)
Bickering makes me sleepy…
I like to think of it less as bickering and more as “healthy fan discourse,” otherwise known as the other national past time “trash talk.” The fun part about it is that you don’t have to really care about any of the teams to fake it, say something mean about somebody’s team, then watch people run around like chickens with their heads cut off getting mad about the whole silly thing. Go ahead, try it!
Is that like when I make fun of the pants weighlifters wear? Because I’m awesome at that.
I grew up in a land without professional sports, so it’s lost on me. However, the way you’ve explained it makes me want to try…I’m all about the smack talk.
I’ll begin to maybe respect Braves fans when they stop with the ridiculous, offensive, and blatantly racist tomahawk chop. And when they finally learn to make some noise when their pitchers have 2 strikes on a batter and are delivering the next pitch. Until then, sorry, worst fans in all of major league baseball. Nice ballpark, though.
Wonder what share of the credit for out of town/state fans should go to WTBS, seeing as how it opened up Braves viewership to so many people outside of the ATL area?
Same would go for WGN’s coverage of the Cubs, too.
God, what a lot of nonsense. You’ll pardon me for not addressing every last item.
“The Braves are a relatively ‘young’ team.”
Forty years ought to be enough to build a fan base. Fifteen straight years in the playoffs, for God’s sake. What do you people need? A paycheck?
Fact is, it’s not a problem with the Braves, it’s a problem with the South. People don’t play baseball down here, except in high school. The Northeast corridor has a ballpark located about every fifteen feet, and if there’s nobody playing baseball, they’re playing softball. You want to play softball in Atlanta, you have to go to some complex outside the Perimeter. Someone posted recently that Atlanta was the #3 video gaming city in the U.S. I don’t doubt it — there’s not a lot of real sports going on. Unless you count driving.
Maigh, that’s the spirit. It’s kind of fun to make fun of the uniforms (or outfits, as us girls like to call them). Totally acceptable form of trash talk, IMO.
See? Seb totally has the hang of the trash talk thing. Good one.
Good point, Todd, about TBS and the America’s Team thing. But i don’t think Cubs fans would like being compared to Braves fans. :-)
Oh what the hell ever D. Ortiz, from 1992 to 2000 the Braves outdrew the Yankees in every year but one and the Yanks have a bigger stadium (57,000 vs 50,000) and had been contenders since 93. They outdrew the Sox too but that’s not fair because Fenway is about as big as a double A park.
http://www.super70s.com/Baseball/Teams/Background/Attendance/
It’s funny how in the mid 90s the Yankees were drawing fewer people percentage-wise than the Braves are now. They drew fewer fans than we did last year in 1997 the year AFTER they won a title. They didn’t even break 3 million in their crushingly dominant season of 1998. They couldn’t reliably outdraw the choking Braves until they won their FOURTH title – in a market easily twice as big as Atlanta.
And you want to talk about terrible fans? I’ll take our terrible fans over those jackasses I saw in Yankee Stadium last year at a Yanks/Sox game that were actually fighting over a damn baseball game. Sheesh.
Interesting, Rashid – I had never seen stats comparing the attendance before. I have to say I’m a little surprised, but that is cool. Thanks for digging that up.
Uh, Rashid, I don’t think anyone’s ever accused Yankees fans of being die-hards. Gloryhunters, I believe is the term. But the fact is, other than when y’all are insulting Native Americans the Ted is about as loud as a library. Kind of amazing the future Hall of Fame pitchers have had the success they’ve had with such lame fan support. Of course, Braves fans then boo said Hall of Fame pitchers when they return to Atlanta with another team. You stay classy, Atlanta!
You should go check your stats Rashid. The Sox have outdrawn the Braves for the last five years, in a place with only about 75% of the capacity of that goofy circus you call a ballpark.
At any rate, if you honestly think draw is what makes good baseball, you must have the Atlanta disease, where good is regularly confused with big. The Braves could sell out every game for the remainder of their existence, but 50,000 rednecks in Nascar shirts packing down hotdogs and leering at those silly cheerleaders doesn’t cut it.
I won’t presume to school you in what makes for good hardball, except to say you won’t find out dabbling in baseball tourism.
You guys have your heads stuck so far up your asses I don’t even know why I’m dignifying your drivel with a response.
1. If the Sox fans can boo Clemens, Braves fans can boo Glavine so you can kill that BS. Of course Glavine is about the ONLY major former Brave to get booed and his situation was just like that of Clemens. He left the Braves to go to our most hated division rival. Of course Boston has a much more illustrious record of booing former greats (Boggs, Damon, Vaugn, etc.) and I’m sure they had a word or two for Babe Ruth while he was shoving Louisville Sluggers and World Series trophies up their clam chowdered asses.
2. Check the 10 years before those five years (Boston didn’t outdraw ATL til ’03) – and your glasses – Ortiz. A few of those years ATL outdrew Boston by over a million. With the amount of money that Boston has spent on its team as opposed to Atlanta over the past five years, if they hadn’t outdrawn the Braves it would have been an embarrassment. Just like all of those years of being the Yankees’ bridesmaid bitches.
I expect the likes of you to appeal to some mystical presence that explains the people of Boston constantly throwing themselves out to be flogged in the worst imaginable ways by their baseball team for 90 years. Around here we call it masochism, and you can have it. I’ve seen baseball in the Northeast and I saw a lot of drunks acting every bit as redneck as anything I’ve ever seen at the Ted. Attendance ain’t perfect, but it’s more empirical than whatever it is that you’re trying to appeal to.
If you spent any time at Fulton Country stadium during the 90s or the early days of the Ted, you’d know that fans around here can be as passionate as any place else.
And I like NASCAR too.
Rashid – “Clam-chowdered asses?” “Yankees’ Bridesmaid Bitches?” Let’s go make out. Oooh, never mind. Just read that NASCAR part. :-) Seriously, though – great comments, everybody. This may be pissing everyone else off and putting Maigh to sleep, but it’s just getting me excited about baseball season.
Hey D.Ortiz, if all ya’ll in Boston play baseball so much, how come I can count more major leaguers from Atlanta and the state of Georgia than from all of New England, huh? Let’s start with the Braves alone, shall we?
1. Kyle Davies
2. Brian McCann
3. Jeff Francoeur
4. Chuck James
3. Blaine Boyer
4. McKay McBride
5. Tim Hudson
Not to mention:
Michael Barrett (Cubs)
J.D. Drew (your BloSox)
Chone Figgins (Angels)
Adam Wainwright (St. Louis – remember him Mutts fans?)
Frank Thomas (Oakland A’s)
Jeremy Hermida (Florida Marlins)
Kenny Rogers (Detroit Lions)
Rondell White (Minnesota Twins)
Those are just the active players…
Now, lets try and name some from MA or New England:
Tom Glavine (Mutts – an easy one)
Mark Bellhorn (Reds – he’s still playing?!)
and um, oh yeah,
crappy Looooou Merloni (he may not be playing anymore).
Wow, that’s a bit of gap. Let me know if you can come up with some more who are active Major Leaguers (retired is another story).
I’m prepared to be unimpressed. You Bostonians talk baseball, it appears that Southerners (Georgians/Atlantans) can actually play big-boy ball.
Okay, this is a little off subject, but there was an article in the NYT today about how the Cherokee nation has revoked tribal membership for descendants of slaves owned by the tribe. This leaves those descendants unable to take advantage of tribal benefits, like healthcare. Just to put the whole tomahawk chop thing into perspective: if you are going to shout racism, maybe you should take a look at your own actions before doing so. Just something to think about.