I was hoping to write this column not now but in early November, when the World Series was over and the Atlanta Braves had whooped and hollered and jumped up and down while hoisting their championship trophy high above their heads. Alas, it was not to be. The Dodgers defeated the Braves in the National League division series earlier this month, ending their season in back-to-back losses at home.
I didn’t watch the Braves until the postseason, which began in late September. That’s a crying shame.
Back in the good old days, the whole country, including me, could watch them play pretty much every game of the season. Ted Turner bought the team in 1976—ten years after they moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee–and launched superstation WTBS, which broadcast the games nationwide and quickly made the Braves “America’s Team.”
I’d been a fan before Ted entered the scene. I went to college in Atlanta in the early 1970s, when the Braves were often in a terrible slump. You could buy an outfield ticket for two dollars and, because Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was sometimes almost empty, move from your assigned spot and sit almost anywhere you wanted. Even behind home plate if you were lucky. That changed when, late in the 1973 season, it looked as though Hank Aaron would almost certainly break Babe Ruth’s homerun record. The stadium was almost always full. When the new season began on April 4, 1974, Hank was only one homer away from tying it. And, yes, I was in the sold-out stadium when he hit Number 715 on April 8.
It was the thrill of a lifetime.
I moved away from Atlanta in 1980 but never stopped being a Braves fan. If I was home (or anywhere else I could control the TV) and they were playing, I watched. That was true of most baseball fans in the South. Watching the Braves is what we did. We were overjoyed when they won the 1995 World Series. I bought myself a World Series champion sweatshirt soon afterwards. The neck was too tight and the sleeves were too long but I wore that sweatshirt out.
The Braves moved to Turner Field in 1997 and then to Truist Field in 2017. These days, unless you’re able to attend games in person, you may see them seldom or not at all. It’s hard to watch Major League Baseball on TV. Used to be, fans needed only basic cable to enjoy regular season games. That luxury ended when streaming took over. Watching baseball grew increasingly complicated and expensive. Now, games are scattered across a confusing hodgepodge of possibilities. Not until the playoffs in late September is it easy to watch baseball again.
It’s enough to tempt me to shop for a cheap transistor radio with a corded earphone like I had back in the 1960s. I could tune it to local station104.7, which broadcasts some—though not all–of the Braves games. Though I wouldn’t be able to see the game, at least I could follow the play-by-play.
Sadly, several of my Braves favorites aren’t with us anymore. Among them are Skip “Voice of the Braves” Caray. Hammerin’ Hank. Ted Turner and Bobby Cox, both of whom died in May of this year within days of each other.
Back in 2021, when the Braves won it all again, I didn’t get a shirt. Instead, I bought an oversized coffee mug with the Braves logo and the words WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS on it. I pulled that mug from a dark corner of a kitchen cabinet when the playoffs started and drank from it every morning until the Braves were eliminated. And as I washed and dried and put it away, I repeated the words baseball fans say whenever their season ends without the big trophy.
Just wait till next year.
(Jennie Ivey is a Cookeville writer. Her email is jennieivey@gmail.com)