SJ24
New member
Smoke is billowing out of the SunTrust Center in downtown Atlanta and from the US Bank Center in downtown Los Angeles. The people are congregating at the CNN Center and LA Live. They are angry. Scared. But hopeful.
They are ready for war.
No baseball team on Earth outside of the fabled Yankees comes with more cultural trappings. Indeed, the Dodgers are as illustrious as the Hollywood sign and the blessed locales of Malibu and Laguna Beach are themselves. You see, that town is about winners. No city in the world catapults its icons into a stratosphere of invincibility quite like the City of Angels. And the names associated with Dodger Blue are simply etchings of the transhistorical: Scully. Koufax. Gibson. Campanella. Snider. Reese. Maybe the most consequential baseball player, nay, athlete, in the history of the American republic: Jack "Jackie" Roosevelt Robinson.
Dating back to their history in New York City, the Dodgers and Giants have won more National League pennants than anyone else. The Dodgers have supplemented those with six rings over the years- the ultimate prize and reason young men across this land play the game. However, as surprising as it may seem, the Dodgers have not experienced the uniquely saccharine ecstasy of a world championship since 1988. 32 years. A drought of that magnitude in an area of such import is crippling to the psyche of a city- of a people. The Braves should therefore expect every avenue for victory to be explored by such a hungry opposition.
Meanwhile, here come the Atlanta Braves.
In many ways the Braves were America's team. The years of the industrious Ted Turner and the SuperStation left a cultural imprint on the nation that won't be fully washed away for potentially another hundred years. In the early years, the draw was simple: the greatest power hitter ever, Henry Aaron. An African-American in the South playing for the South's team, he beat Babe Ruth's record for home runs in 1974. Pandemonium reigned. Cokes were imbibed, babies were made, and baseball was the talk of the town.
Further entrenching the Braves into the cultural lexicon, the entire country watched with great enthusiasm as legends like Maddux and Smoltz and Chipper made the playoffs their annual destiny. A 1995 world championship was not merely the cherry on top of a reign of supremacy the likes of which a medium-sized market may never see again: it was the chief signal that Atlanta had arrived at the mountain top. Coca-Cola and The Home Depot are nice, but it was the Braves who paved the way for the explosion in Atlanta's cultural identity.
Like all things, the Braves' magical run had an expiration date. The brisk October breeze felt throughout the Southland hasn't carried the smell of that fresh pine tar in nearly two decades. The Atlanta baseball team has been in such a slumber as to render them almost of no consequence on the global stage.
Until now.
The Atlanta Braves have assembled a roster full of youthful exuberance and cagy maturity. The city is hungry- starving for a winner.
So just as Braves fans should expect the Dodgers to pursue every avenue in the hopes of a pennant, the fans from Southern California need to expect the same thing in return.
We're loyal. We're loud.
We are Atlanta. We are the Southland.
They are ready for war.
No baseball team on Earth outside of the fabled Yankees comes with more cultural trappings. Indeed, the Dodgers are as illustrious as the Hollywood sign and the blessed locales of Malibu and Laguna Beach are themselves. You see, that town is about winners. No city in the world catapults its icons into a stratosphere of invincibility quite like the City of Angels. And the names associated with Dodger Blue are simply etchings of the transhistorical: Scully. Koufax. Gibson. Campanella. Snider. Reese. Maybe the most consequential baseball player, nay, athlete, in the history of the American republic: Jack "Jackie" Roosevelt Robinson.
Dating back to their history in New York City, the Dodgers and Giants have won more National League pennants than anyone else. The Dodgers have supplemented those with six rings over the years- the ultimate prize and reason young men across this land play the game. However, as surprising as it may seem, the Dodgers have not experienced the uniquely saccharine ecstasy of a world championship since 1988. 32 years. A drought of that magnitude in an area of such import is crippling to the psyche of a city- of a people. The Braves should therefore expect every avenue for victory to be explored by such a hungry opposition.
Meanwhile, here come the Atlanta Braves.
In many ways the Braves were America's team. The years of the industrious Ted Turner and the SuperStation left a cultural imprint on the nation that won't be fully washed away for potentially another hundred years. In the early years, the draw was simple: the greatest power hitter ever, Henry Aaron. An African-American in the South playing for the South's team, he beat Babe Ruth's record for home runs in 1974. Pandemonium reigned. Cokes were imbibed, babies were made, and baseball was the talk of the town.
Further entrenching the Braves into the cultural lexicon, the entire country watched with great enthusiasm as legends like Maddux and Smoltz and Chipper made the playoffs their annual destiny. A 1995 world championship was not merely the cherry on top of a reign of supremacy the likes of which a medium-sized market may never see again: it was the chief signal that Atlanta had arrived at the mountain top. Coca-Cola and The Home Depot are nice, but it was the Braves who paved the way for the explosion in Atlanta's cultural identity.
Like all things, the Braves' magical run had an expiration date. The brisk October breeze felt throughout the Southland hasn't carried the smell of that fresh pine tar in nearly two decades. The Atlanta baseball team has been in such a slumber as to render them almost of no consequence on the global stage.
Until now.
The Atlanta Braves have assembled a roster full of youthful exuberance and cagy maturity. The city is hungry- starving for a winner.
So just as Braves fans should expect the Dodgers to pursue every avenue in the hopes of a pennant, the fans from Southern California need to expect the same thing in return.
We're loyal. We're loud.
We are Atlanta. We are the Southland.
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