Nov 27 2008
Giving thanks for Braves’ struggles, as dawn follows the dark
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
ATLANTA — And so, the day of giving thanks is nearly gone, soon to slip into the swarm of people – including my wife – who will descend on stores before dawn’s early light.
Then, we’ll launch full blast toward Christmas. Then we’ll welcome in 2009, and with that, the anticipation really will build, as spring training will sit just six weeks away.
But first, let me offer a moment of thanks.
It would be easy for me to sit here and thank baseball, thank my grandfather (who introduced me to this great game), thank the sports editors who allowed me as a young scribe to cover baseball, thank the Braves for being my favorite, team, thank all the people who have read my writings, from covering high school games for my hometown newspaper as a high school senior to you good people who have made this blog a pretty happening and cool place the past seven months.
And indeed, I thank God for each and every one of the things mentioned above, not to mention about a million other things for which I’m thankful. On this night, though, I want to thank the 2008 edition of the Atlanta Braves.
What the heck, you say? That team that posted the franchise’s worst record since 1990? That team that drove this correspondent crazy night-in and night-out?
Yes, and yes.
I sit here in the Sports Garage on this night, just as I did for almost every night of the 2008 campaign. And on this night, I find myself looking back at the Braves of ’08 with sincere thanks.
You see, we good people of Braves Nation got spoiled rotten from 1991-2005. All those division championships, five pennants, a World Series title and memories to last a lifetime. The exhilarating highs of following a team that’s a serious title contender year after year after year.
Even in 2006 and 2007, seasons in which the Braves missed the playoffs, there was hope in late August, in early September. But not in 2008. That train left the station in mid July, the Braves left standing on the platform, no ticket to the dance, no hope for the postseason.
I believe when we look back a few years from now, we’ll be thankful for 2008 and all the misery and heartache it caused fans of this proud franchise. It served as a heck of a wake-up call, loud and jarring …
Much like the wake-up call my wife will get in five hours, but I digress.
What happened in 2008 shook this franchise to its core. There is no way the Braves can endure another season like this, and it took a season like this to make everybody from senior-level management to the average fan realize this team needs to reshape itself if it wants to compete in the NL East in 2009 and beyond.
It also gave us an acute sense of perspective when it comes to looking back at those championship seasons. The cord clearly has been cut now. The Braves moving forward will be different, not linked to the streak of division titles or of the heyday when Atlanta baseball stood among the giants in the game.
Tonight, on Thanksgiving Night 2008, the Braves are poised to move into a new direction, one that we all hope will return this team and its fan base to the upper echelon of the sport.
You go through pain to achieve gain. We’ve all been through plenty of pain this season. Now, it’s my belief we’ll see the gain we all want moving forward.
And for that, I say thanks.
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