Let's go Braves!

    Having grown up in Kansas, you'd expect that I'd root for one of the local teams around here i.e. the Royals or Cardinals. Although I love baseball, it might be a surprise to learn that I'm not really a fan of either team. As a kid, no one I knew wanted to root for the Royals...they were just.that.bad. I didn't really know any Cardinals fans, and St. Louis was far enough from my hometown that going to games was really out of the question. Thank goodness for TBS.
    I am a die hard Atlanta Braves fan. My dad is from Atlanta, and just like any kid, I grew up rooting for any team that he liked. My grandfather was best friends with a home plate umpire, so I got to hear stories my father told about sitting behind home plate during summer games at Fulton County Stadium and watching the great Eddie Matthews belt homers. In the summer, I'd go back to visit, and my dad would take us to games. Luckily for me, Ted Turner decided to buy the Braves and place them in heavy rotation on his TV station.
   I watched every day and night game in the summer. Back then, the Braves roster was loaded. David Justice, Terry Pendleton, Fred "Crime Dog" Mcgriff, and Ron Gant were household names on my block. Deion Sanders blazed the base paths when he wasn't shutting down receivers in a Falcons uniform, and the pitching, oh man the pitching! The Braves had the best rotation in baseball. Steve Avery, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz stymied batters while Mark Wohlers shut them down in the 9th. They won 14 straight division titles. From 1991 to 2005, they never finished second, and I'm supposed to root for the Royals?
    True, there was only one World Series title (1995), but they made FIVE world series in 9 years! These days, times aren't as grand. Turner sold TBS, and the Braves went off the air in Kansas. The current incarnation of my favorite team is coming off a next-to-last finish in the NL last season. Management sold off the marquee names and imploded the roster to rebuild the team, and our GM just retired. However, the future looks bright. Our farm system is loaded with prospects we traded those marquee names for. We took a cue from Royals GM Dayton Moore ( KC fans, guess which team gave him his start?) and are trying to make a run at the World Series in the next few years. We're on our way back. GO BRAVES!