I'm just going to say it. I miss my Braves baseball. Right now, sitting in Southern Siberia (Cincinnati) the city that denies that its southern because its in Ohio, I miss my Braves baseball.
Why can't we go back to the days of the superstation? You, I suppose could argue that if I miss it so much, I should just by the MLB package on DirecTV or MLB.com. And you know what; you are right, I could spend the money, but that would take only part of the pain away.
Even when we lived in Atlanta, we didn't go to a lot of the games. Sure, I would work them from time to time and there was a stretch where I would take my credential and just go and hang out, but that is no longer an option.
((Braves Spring Training//Courtesy: Me))
You see, I grew up on Braves baseball. When I was a kid, we didn't have a Major League team playing in Florida, now there are two. Sure, they came for Spring Training, but that is not quite the same thing. No. The closest thing we had were the Braves. WTBS was on the cable as far back as I can remember and we could on occasion pick up 750 WSB Radio.
My first Major League regular season game. A Braves game. In 1976, we saw the Braves play the Pittsburgh Pirates at Fulton County Stadium. I don't remember much other than they lost and Richie Zisk had a ton of RBI's.
Even as I got older. I would make the pilgrimage. In college, we went once or twice. Got cheap centerfield tickets and made our way around the stadium. The Braves weren't very good back in the 80's (understatement) and you could get away with it because there might have been 5,000 people in a 50,000 seat stadium.
I had to live without them for a year or so when I moved to my 1st job in Virginia, but I came back. My parents moved to Atlanta by 1990 so I always had an excuse to come visit and I would drag the Chief (father) with me. He's not much into baseball, but always humored me.
There were more trips. The drunken Jacksonville sojourn with 3 some friends from work. Seeing my 1st World Series game in 1996. Unfortunately it was the Game 6 that the Braves lost late to the Yankees and ended up losing the series. Heck, I even got to see the Braves play the Cubs...at Wrigley Field (Scratch one off the list).
Once I got to Atlanta, I lived the dream, I got to cover my favorite team. The 1st time that I walked into the locker room, the producer I was with had to punch me in the arm to keep me from drooling. I got to know some of the guys. Good people. Sure, they sort of lived in their own universe, but pretty friendly. I would run into a handful of the guys at the LA Fitness that I was working out in for awhile. They would play pickup basketball. I played a couple of times and we got some good laughs out of it.
Now I'm not anywhere close to Atlanta (7-hours away). Plus I work on the weekends. We get a steady diet of Cincinnati Reds baseball. Yeah, we've been to a few games. The stadium is actually very nice, a comfortable place to go watch baseball. But when the national games are regionalized on TV, we get the Northeast team. Not the Southern team.
We do have tickets to see the Braves when they come here and we are really looking forward to it. I still know a few of the guys on the team and who work for them, but I probably won't get to visit. But I'll be happy. I'll get my Braves fix. I'll see my team play in the town I'm currently located in. Not ideal....but it will do....for now.
Check this out. The Superstation TBS Braves Open from 1986. Pretty Cool eh? Thanks You Tube:
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