35 Games to Go, and 35 Wins Would Be Nice
There’s an ancient joke in which Jesus, Moses and an old guy are playing golf. If you don’t know it, there are dozens of versions of it available with a number of different, albeit similar, punch lines. When I first heard it, the punch line was: “Dad… you gonna screw around or you gonna play golf?”
I think it’s fair to say that, for the Braves, the time for screwing around is over. In practice, that means winning every series for the rest of the year. There are still 11 series left. The players have to play one game at a time, but the fans are allowed to dream any way they like.
Pedal to the metal for the rest of the season.
Destroyers versus Underdogs
In his recap this week, tfloyd (who I mistakenly called cliff in the comments — apologies to both) asked the following question:
Would you rather pull for a talented team that underachieves, never quite living up to its potential, continually losing games they should have won?
Or would you prefer to root for a scrappy underdog team, one that faces unbelievable misfortune, but never gives up and manages to stay in the thick of a pennant race despite mountains of adversity?
He is clearly correct that the underdog is more fun to watch than a bunch of underperforming superstars. Underperforming superstars who make the playoffs are really more annoying than enjoyable to watch.
But I want to think about it differently. Let’s compare the scrappy underdogs not to the superstars who underperform, but to the superstars who perform. The 2023 Braves were a joy to watch, but if I’m being honest, their domination eliminates playoff races, eliminates the sting of defeat (except in the playoffs, where it is accentuated) and while it lets you go through your summer with a jaunty spring in your step, it (IMO) unbalances the required balance between joy and stress. Optimal fandom requires both, and if you have to wait until the playoffs to get stressed you are missing something.
In the comments, ububba disagreed with me,
But usually, when one of my teams does have overwhelming talent, I’m more than happy to ride with it. No apologies for crushing the opposition because, at some point in my sports-lovin’ life, my team has been the crushed. If you’ve ever taken some lumps, it’s more than fair to give some out. We Braves fans beyond a certain age know that all too well.
He’s making a fair point, and it’s rare that I disagree with him. As I interpret his argument, fandom is a multiyear endeavor, and the 2023 Braves should be counterposed not against the other MLB teams of 2023, but against the 2017 Braves or the 1977 Braves. With a long enough perspective, any fan can savor their own juggernaut.
ububba, you’re not wrong, but I would think that as a fellow exile to Yankeeland, you would see that the swagger that comes from a good team is — how shall I put it? — obnoxious. Any thing that makes me more like a Yankees fan is automatically suspect. If my team can make the playoffs, I’d rather they win 90 games than 107. Don’t get me wrong — I’ll take 107 gladly. And as we know, it’s all ephemeral and a very similar team might struggle mightily to make 90 in the next year. And if they fall short of the playoffs, you can shove your scrappy underdoggedness into a very dark orifice. Welcome to 2024.
Alumni Weekend
Who showed up?
John Schuerholz, Chipper Jones, Dale Murphy, Tim Hudson, Leo Mazzone, Marty Perez, Craig Skok, Gene Garber, Bruce Benedict, Terry Harper, Luis Gomez, Gerald Perry, Pete Smith, Ed Olwine, Dion James, Francisco Cabrera, Tommy Gregg, Jeff Treadway, Ron Gant, Mike Bell, Mike Bielecki, Nick Esasky, Marvin Freeman, Charlie Leibrandt, Mark Wohlers, Greg McMichael, Ryan Klesko, Brad Clontz, Marquis Grissom, Jerome Walton, Michael Tucker, Bret Boone, Keith Lockhart, Rafael Furcal, Julio Franco, Kevin Gryboski, Chris Hammond, Tim Drew, Johnny Estrada, Kyle Davies, Chuck James, Anthony Lerew, Kelly Johnson, Jo-Jo Reyes, Jair Jurrjens, Brian McCann, Kris Medlen, Jonny Venters, Jeff Francoeur, Andrelton Simmons, Chase d’Arnaud, and John Smoltz. Oddly, C.J. Nitkowski was not introduced, even though Frenchy was and they were both in the booth.
I don’t have a lot of observations about watching these guys walk out, except to note that Klesko and Franco look like they could still play. That, and Keith Lockhart still has the pictures. In any case, we all have our own memories, except that I have exactly zero memories of Ed Olwine and Mike Bell and there are a couple of guys who engender memories that are at best mixed. If you tell me you remember Mike Bell‘s best moment as a Brave you can take over my spot at Braves Journal. (He once had 4 RBIs in a game the Braves won 16-7.)
The Game
Notwithstanding my comments above, while I prefer scrappy underdog teams, I love world-class talent performing at a world-class level. It’s really impossible to watch Chris Sale on the mound and not feel joy and awe. Not only is he awesome, he isn’t flash-in-the-pan awesome. He’s a great player who had 7 years in which was a Top 10 Cy Young finalist buried in the South Side of Chicago and it is a genuine privilege to get to watch him work.
Sale was opposed by MacKenzie Gore, backed by a team of genuinely scrappy underdogs fighting to make a name for themselves. Gore gave up a leadoff homer to Michael Harris II, but the lead did not hold when a swinging bunt and a ball the nearly-immobile Jorge Soler could not field in right led to a two-run single by Andres Chaparro.
It is an Inconvenient Truth about Gore that he is a not-very-good pitcher who seems to baffle the Atlanta Braves. He was aided by yet another spate of putrid hitting with men in scoring position. He was replaced by Jacob Barnes in the 7th, who promptly gave up the tying run on a sac fly. Gore’s party was over and he could cry if he wanted to.
Jesse Chavez had been warming up when the Braves were down 1 in the top of the 7th, and I wondered whether or Snit would stick with him with the game tied in the 8th. Sense prevailed, and he did not; Joe Jiménez pitched an uneventful 8th. However, the specter of a Chavez extra innings stint remained. (Can you tell I’m down on Jesse now?) Rafael Iglesias continued his absolute mastery in the 9th, retiring the side on 7 pitches. That earned him the 10th, which he started somewhat ominously by hitting the first batter with the first pitch, but a popup and double play gave the Braves the chance to win with a scoring Manfred Man.
Gio Urshela got the Manfred Man, Luke Williams, to 3rd. Orlando Arcia lined out, which brought up Harris, who put the Braves on the board with the first Braves at bat and won it on the last at bat, when his grounder to short off Rosemary Clooney’s husband was thrown away by C.J. Abrams.
As I post this, the Phillies are losing 7-2 going into the 7th. I will update when the game is over. [They lose 7-4. Their lead is down to 5]
Statistical Anomaly of the Day
In the of the 3rd, with one out and a runner on third, the Gnats attempted a safety squeeze. Sale fielded the bunt, looked the runner into a stop and then threw to first, whereupon the runner broke for home and was thrown out easily by an Olson to Murphy strike. In Retrosheet terms, that play is coded 13(B)2(3). This was the 26th such play in MLB history and the first in over 20 years. It’s unsurprising that this play hasn’t happened much lately because nobody bunts and squeezes are mostly suicide squeezes. Also, the more common play is to actually look the runner back to third so that he doesn’t even try to score.
In any case, the last time it happened, in this game, was also turned by the Braves. Kevin Gryboski, who was in the park tonight, fielded a grounder from Edgardo Alfonzo, threw to Adam LaRoche to retire him and LaRoche then threw home to Eddie Perez (also in Truist tonight) who tagged out Deivi Cruz to complete the double play.
The Braves pulled off the same play in 1969. Claude Raymond to Orlando Cepeda to Bob Tillman.
If the Braves keep winning, that 4 game series with the Phillies is going to be must watch baseball!
Urshela has played in 4 games for Atlanta. We’ve gone 3 – 1 with 2 one run wins and a two run win. He has played a significant part in all 3 wins – especially defensively. If we don’t pick him up we are likely 1-3 during that stretch and only .5 games in front of the Mets for the final wildcard spot. I would say he has been a good pick up so far. Season outlook and optimism around here would be a lot different if we would have lost 3 of our last 4.
I’m not really sure whether I stand with JonathanF or with ububba on preferring a dominant team or a scrappy but competitive team. I know all three of us agree that either dominance or scrappy competitiveness is far preferable to teams like the 1977, 1987, or 2017 Braves.
My original point was not comparing one team to another, but about how we view the team that we have this year. This team has underperfomed preseason expectations (at least as to the offense), and that’s led to a lot of negative commentary.
But they have overperformed what you might have predicted had you known ahead of time about the overwhelming rash of injuries. At the moment, they are playing well in a tight pennant race. That’s the lens I prefer to view them through. We do have a few commenters who would prefer to always to see and complain about the negative. I don’t understand that perspective, but I’ve accepted the fact that that’s just the way some fans roll.
I think people feel like they get burned when they are optimistic, so they hedge with pessimism. That has definitely felt true for Atlanta fans over the past half century. My biggest gripe with the Braves has been that they let my favorite player ever go to the hated Dodgers. In the end, I will always get my hopes up. I imagine Whit Merrifield and Gio Urshela finding that last bit of magic and going on a storybook run. Stranger things have happened. A movie will be made about it. Mark it down.
I’ve thought a lot about this question of optimism vs. pessimism as a sports fan. I’ve realized that in my case, my persistent pessimism is rooted in my psychology. I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression about ten years ago, but it was only recently that I realized that anxiety, in particular, always colors my experience of Braves baseball, right down to most of the comments I’ve made on this very forum over the years. So, I decided to limit my posts, because being Eyeore is a drag for everyone, including me.
Still, at the risk of playing Eyeore, I will say that I notice that currently, the two best pitching staffs by ERA are Seattle and Atlanta. And it hit me how much this Braves team reminds me of a lot of Seattle’s teams over the last five seasons or so, teams that have had good to great pitching and anemic offenses, and have, as a result, usually just missed the playoffs or got bounced in the first round. It’s hard for me to get too excited about that, even recognizing that the only reason ATL is so Marinersesque (how’s that for a coinage) is because of the catastrophic injuries they’ve endured.
Fundamentally, as to the question of whether I’d rather win 2-1 or 11-2 – to win the division by 12 games or by a 163rd game playoff – I’ll take either with a sloppy grin on my face. The latter is more enjoyable in the moment; the former is more stressful while it’s happening but more satisfying from a “moral victory” standpoint. But, again, I’ll take either in a heartbeat.
I’m happy with 102-60 or 92-70! What I don’t want is 82-80, 72-90, or 62-100. (And vade retro, 52-110.)