Thanks For The Memories

Timing is everything.

The first year I was old enough to remember being an Atlanta Braves fan was the year after they won the National League West. I came along at the beginning of a downward spiral that would see them finish last or next-to-last six straight years. The year of my thirteenth birthday they lost 106 games and finished 39.5 games out of first place. Let that sink in. In a season of 160 games (two rainouts weren't made up), they managed to finish nearly 40 out of the playoffs. The Braves like to tout themselves as the oldest continually operating franchise in baseball. The only year worse than my thirteenth? When they lost 107 games...as the Boston Rustlers...in 1911.

There was a running joke in Atlanta back then about winning a contest. First prize? Two free tickets to a Braves game. Second prize? Four free tickets to a Braves game.

But I was hooked for life. I loved the game (still do). I loved the team (still do) and I loved watching Skip, Ernie and Pete every summer night on TBS (wish I still could).

From left: Skip Caray, Ernie Johnson and Pete Van Wieren

Turns out, as we are unfortunately learning again, the benefit of being lousy is that you get the top pick in the following year's draft, meaning you get to pick the best amateur player in the world. During the summer of my fourteenth birthday, thanks to 97 nights of disappointment the summer before, the top pick belonged to the Atlanta Braves.

As is currently the case, the Braves were using their picks to stockpile young arms (see also: Glavine, Tom and Avery, Steve). That year the top young pitcher in America was a Texas high schooler named Todd Van Poppel. The story goes that the Braves wanted Van Poppel, but Van Poppel wanted nothing to do with the Braves. He made it clear he would not sign with the cellar-dwelling Braves if they drafted him. I remember as a teen growing up in Gwinnett County thinking, "If he doesn't want to come to Atlanta then we don't want him to come to Atlanta". Instead he ended up going to the defending World Champion Oakland A's with the fourteenth pick.

The rest is (Braves) history, as they say. Atlanta turned its attention to a high school shortstop in Florida named Larry Wayne (Chipper) Jones, on whom they used that No. 1 pick. Had Atlanta not lost 97 games the previous summer they might have gotten Van Poppel, who spent his major league career bouncing from team to team winning just 40 games in 14 seasons. Instead the Braves got a future Hall of Famer who spent his entire 19 year career in Atlanta and has repeatedly said "I never wanted to play anywhere else".

Four years later I was a freshman in college and the Braves had gone from worst-to-first, won three consecutive division championships and captured the hearts of the nation via the Superstation. By that year Chipper was the top prospect in the Braves organization and ready to become the Braves' regular leftfielder. But the baseball gods had other plans.

I was watching that spring training game against the Yankees on my little 13-inch dorm room TV, anxious to see the prospect play for the first time, when he landed awkwardly while running out a play at first base and crumpled to the ground. Torn ACL. His rookie season over before it began.

You know when you hear about the Braves' string of 14 consecutive division championships from 1991 to 2005? Well it would have ended at three were it not for the players' strike of 1994. The Braves were six games behind the ridiculously loaded Montreal Expos when the season came to an abrupt halt. The Braves had lost 6 games in the standings in the previous three weeks and were headed in the wrong direction. Montreal would have won the National League East that year, but either greedy owners or ungrateful players (depending on which side you were on) intervened and no one won anything that year (especially not us fans).

So rather than burst onto the scene in that ill-fated 1994 season, Chipper assumed his full-time role in the Braves lineup in 1995. You may have heard of 1995. To this day it's the only championship season in Atlanta sports history. Chipper was named Rookie Of The Year, hit two home runs in his first postseason game and took his first steps down the road to Cooperstown.

1995 World Series (cleveland.com)

Timing is everything.

I can't imagine what winning a championship in your rookie season does to a player, but I have to imagine you expect there will be more. As fans, we assumed there would be many more 1995s. But there haven't been. You know the rest. The Braves' frustrations have been well documented: 14 consecutive division titles (with the above mentioned exception), 5 National League pennants...and only one World Series trophy to show for it before Chipper retired after the 2012 season. He was National League MVP in 1999...but the Braves were swept by the Yankees in the World Series and haven't been back since.

Along the way there were too many big hits to recall (often against the Mets, so much so that he named one of his children "Shea" after the Mets' former home). There were impossible-to-believe plays at third base and, yes, even a few in left field. There was the home run in front of the home crowd at Turner Field during the 2000 All-Star Game. And then there was the Grand Finale...

After 467 career home runs, and six months after he announced that the 2012 season would be his last, Chipper stepped to the plate late on the Sunday afternoon of September 2nd trailing the much-hated Phillies 7-5 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. His three-run home run off of the then-virtually-unhittable Jonathan Papelbon earned that season's "Walk-Off Of The Year" in the Greatness In Baseball Yearly (GIBBYs) Awards. He would have 70 more official at-bats as a major leaguer after that day, but that would prove to be his final and, in his words, most ecstatic home run.

"Nothing beats that," he was quoted as saying later that night. It was Roy Hobbs knocking out the stadium lights in his last at-bat, with the role of the lights being played by the Philadelphia Phillies.

Saving his best for last.

Timing is everything.

The following season the Braves retired Chipper's number 10 at Turner Field. During his acceptance speech he was sure to thank Todd Van Poppel. Every Braves fan of a certain age still does.

Braves retire Chipper Jones's No. 10 (AJC)

We didn't know it at the time, but that was the beginning of the end for the Braves as we knew them. The Chipper-less Braves won the East again the next year but broke our hearts in walk-off fashion in the Division Series in L.A. In 2014 they lost 16 of their final 20 to miss the playoffs, which led to the complete rebuild in which we currently find ourselves.

This year we are told there is hope. A new General Manager. A new top prospect in all of baseball. Sounds familiar. Sounds like 1991. Maybe this is the year our dreams in Spring Training finally become October reality. Maybe this is the year we reclaim our rightful spot in the postseason. Maybe the Braves' return to baseball royalty will coincide with Chipper joining baseball's most exclusive club.

After all, timing is everything.

What I Learned At Spring Training

It's been a while since I've written one of these. And what better time to start again than Spring Training? It's the time when everything begins anew and anything is possible.

As I do every year, I spent the better part of this week in Florida following the Braves at Spring Training. If you love baseball, you don't need to put Spring Training on your bucket list...you need to put it on your "every year no matter what else is going on" list. I went for the first time in 2008 because I happened to be in the Orlando area and I will never miss another.

Spring Training is the closest adults can come to reliving Spring Break: One hundred percent fun with zero responsibilities. I'm not rubbing it in, I'm trying to inspire you to go. Or don't. The more people that show up the harder it is to get tickets. You know what? Stay home. Home is good.

Anyway, this post is pretty esoteric. If you're not a die-hard Braves fan you should probably stop reading now. For the rest of you, I thought I'd list a few things I learned in Lake Buena Vista this week as we get ready for that holiest of days: Opening Day.

While I make my living in the news business, I was anything but a reporter this week. So I didn't have access to the locker room, nor did I get any insight from players, coaches or officials. I did take several selfies with various points of interest in the background. My point is, this is a fan's perspective, but not just any fan. No one has followed this team closer for the last 30 years than I have. If I need to I'll show you every scorecard from the 1991 Worst To First season to prove it. While my colleagues in the press box can provide the inside scoop, they can't give you the feel from the cheap (and not-so-cheap) seats.

Here are 5 Things I Learned At Spring Training:

1) The Need For Speed - I remember going to Spring Training last year and being very impressed with the Braves new "small ball" approach. I thought Eric Young, Jr. was going to be a breakout player. I was wrong, but the team was much more entertaining than watching the Uptons stir up a gale force wind every night the year before. Don't forget the Braves were only 6 games out in late July last year before Jason Grilli got hurt and management used that as an excuse to pull the rug out from under the team...and us. This year's lineup is like last year's on steroids. Okay, bad analogy in baseball. But what I mean is this lineup has the chance to be a LOT of fun to watch. There's a lot of speed and Fredi Gonzalez is not afraid to use it. When someone reaches base, it's not a matter of if, but when they will be running. That approach created a number of runs during my stay. When a walk usually ends up on second, almost every base hit is an RBI. Most preseason periodicals I've read say some variation of "there's nothing in this lineup other than Freddie Freeman". These people are morons. This lineup is fun and you will enjoy watching it.  My only concern is third base. Adonis Garcia did homer while I was there, but didn't do much else. I was hoping Gordon Beckham would recapture his UGA magic, but he was less than spectacular. This could be a glaring weakness in an otherwise solid starting eight.

2) Pitching and Moaning - Here's where the preseason pundits seem to be dead on. The pitching is miserable. This was the team's downfall last year. The Braves simply could not hold a lead...and they couldn't during my week at Spring Training either. And it wasn't low-level rookies giving up all the runs. Setup man Jim Johnson got tattooed more often than a sorority girl on spring break. One of my sleeper picks to have a big year, Jhoulys Chacin, gave up a run in every inning I watched him pitch. And I'm pretty sure somewhere Manny Banuelos is still trying to get out of the first inning of Saturday's game. Now, this is a small sample size, but it does feed the fear that this pitching staff has issues. The one bright spot was Julio Teheran. He was dominant during my stay. But after him I have very large worries about the rotation. Like I said, I like the lineup, but I don't like it enough to believe it can score nine runs a night to win.

3) Fight For Your Right To Inciarte - Meet your new favorite player: Ender Inciarte. He only played two games during my trip, but it was enough to let me know you're going to enjoy watching him play every day. The Braves' haul from the Shelby Miller deal has been well-documented, but Inciarte may prove it to be even better than expected. He can flat-out go get it in center field. I honestly think he might be better defensively than Andruw Jones. Granted, I was never much of an Andruw fan, but you get the point. He will make an immeasurable difference at the top of the lineup. He appears disciplined and aggressive at the same time. And he can fly. I really liked Cameron Maybin, but I will readily admit Inciarte is a huge upgrade with All-Star potential. The Gold Glove should be his to lose this season. And speaking of that Miller trade...

4) Everybody Loves Dansby - No one had bigger rock-star status at this Braves camp than shortstop Dansby Swanson. If everything works out as planned, I predict this guy will be the face of the franchise over the next decade, not Freddie Freeman. Part of it is, well, his actual face. Pretty much every female fan in eyesight was on the edge of her seat every time he came to the plate...and it wasn't because there were runners on base. Secondly, he's really good. There's a reason he was the number one pick in the draft last summer. He made a handful of Andrelton Simmons-type plays while I was in Florida and actually appeared ahead of schedule at the plate. But what makes him different than every other player in camp (with the possible exception of Jeff Francoeur), is that he really, truly loves the Braves and the city of Atlanta. He is living his dream. Atlanta pro sports needs that. If you haven't read his thoughts on this subject, you need to. I'm glad I went to Florida when I did this year, because he was sent to the minor league camp the day after I left (along with Ozzie Albies and Mallex Smith, who were also fun to watch). But I sincerely hope he's in Atlanta at some point this season because, frankly, I can't wait.

5) Everybody Hates Disney -  The Braves' complex at the ESPN (formerly called Disney's) Wide World Of Sports used to be the crown jewel of Spring Training baseball. When the place opened, the Braves were its biggest draw. But now it's home to every amateur baseball, lacrosse, cheerleading, tennis and/or lawn darts competition for which ESPN can find room on its schedule. What that means for you, the Braves fan, is having to fight your way through traffic that will remind you of I-285 at 5:00 on a Friday and then thousands of people Braveheart-style just to get to the front gate of Champions Stadium. It also means paying two-to-three times as much for a ticket as you would at Turner Field for a game that ACTUALLY COUNTS. That's because Disney sets all of the prices, not the Braves. And it's one of the main reasons the Braves want out once their lease is done in 2017. Unfortunately they're having some trouble finding a new home, which means we may be stuck at Disney longer than any of us hoped. Another reason they want to move is location. Once the Astros leave Kissimmee for West Palm Beach after this spring, the Braves will have just one opponent within an hour's drive (the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland...45 minutes away). The Braves want to move closer to the Tampa area where the Blue Jays, Phillies, Yankees and Tigers would all be right next door, or possibly back down to South Florida where there is a cluster of teams as well. For the fan, this is a huge consideration. You want the Braves as close to as many teams as possible so you can see as many stadiums and games as possible during your trip.  This week we saw the Braves play in Lakeland and Kissimmee in addition to Disney. But after this year that won't be possible. This team and its fans can't get away from Disney fast enough.  I will say one thing in Disney's defense: Parking for games is free. It's the only free parking I've encountered at pretty much any sporting event I've ever attended above the high school level. It's a nice touch, but considering the price of everything else at the complex Disney should actually pay YOU to park.

Bonus Observation - Bucket hats are everything at Spring Training.

As for what I think will happen with the Braves this season, I'll save that for a couple of weeks. I have to have SOMETHING to write about. I will say this, I don't think it's going to be AS bad as the experts think.

Of course, the experts think it's going to be pretty bad.