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Mariners vs. White Sox |
Braves vs. Cardinals |
Mets vs. Giants
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Friday, October 13
Down and out in Atlanta
By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
ATLANTA -- Remember when the Braves were cool?
When a chubby Terry Pendleton guarded the third-base line as some kid named Chipper tooled around in the minors?
When ageless veteran Sid Bream came off the bench and played first base while a slimmer Andres Galarraga toyed around in Montreal?
|  | | Braves fans didn't exactly show up in optimistic fashion on Saturday. |
When a skinny, impressionable Greg Maddux showed up, praying for postseason success after struggling there with the Cubs?
It was a long time ago. Nine years to be exact. Since then, the Braves, baseball's version of the Clippers in the late 1980s, haven't missed one National League Championship Series. Until Saturday, that is, when the Mark McGwire-less Cardinals finished off their three-game clubbing of the reigning NL champs.
Up next for the Braves is a new challenge -- postseason spectator.
"I don't know what it will be like because I've never done it before," Braves general manager John Schuerholz said. "But I don't think it will be too enjoyable."
Against the Cardinals, it wasn't just that the Braves lost, it was that St. Louis dominated. Crushed. Embarrassed. The Braves are built around pitching, but three former All-Star hurlers -- Maddux, Tom Glavine and Kevin Millwood -- each crumbled, losing by a combined score of 24-10. In a span of 27 innings, Atlanta's season was done. The Cardinals hit better, pitched better and fielded better.
The Braves should have known something was up when the hotel they stayed at in St. Louis for Games 1 and 2 was holding a coroner's convention. Maybe the Braves caught at least some tips in the hotel lobby.
"They jumped on us early and then held those leads, completely shutting us down," Maddux said.
Added Jones: "They were the aggressors, putting the pressure on us and doing the damage they had to. I knew they were playing well, but not quite like that."
The "like that" Jones refers to is the energy, passion and fun the old Braves used to splash across their faces and the magical feeling that used to surround their team. On Saturday, that feeling belonged to the Cardinals.
Take the fourth inning, with St. Louis leading 3-1. Javy Lopez led off with a single, only to get buzzed at second on a strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out double play when Brian Jordan swung through a Garrett Stephenson changeup.
Or take the fifth inning, the score now 4-1. Cardinals pitcher Britt Reames walked Bobby Bonilla and Rafael Furcal back-to-back. The Atlanta fans slowly realized this was a prime scoring chance, only to watch Fernando Vina stomp on Andruw Jones' ground ball up the middle and turn a 4-3 twin killing.
"I remember a lot of series, a lot of times, where breaks like that used to go our way," Schuerholz said. "It just didn't happen this time."
Some suggest the Braves didn't have the hunger or the desire to beat the Cardinals and that St. Louis just wanted it more. Glavine, the only player (along with the injured John Smoltz) still around in 1990 when Atlanta last headed home this early in the season, bristled when asked about his team's commitment.
"People say we are complacent, but that's a bunch of crap," Glavine said. "They're just looking for excuses. I guarantee you the guys in here want to win as much as anyone.
"We can sit here until we're blue in the face trying to figure out why this happened, but nobody wants to win as much as we do."
Is this the end of an era? Possibly. The end of the Braves? Probably not. Schuerholz said after the game he isn't worried about the future of his team. Glavine and Maddux will be back. Chipper Jones signed a new longterm contract. Andruw Jones, Furcal and Millwood are still years from free agency. Unsigned free agents include Galarraga, Sanders, Andy Ashby and Terry Mulholland. At 39, Galarraga is expected to mull a possible retirement.
Chipper, meanwhile, who made two critical errors in the series at third base, said he would be open to anything, including moving to the outfield next year, if it meant helping the team.
Whatever the case, the Braves are no longer the cool, hip team. Oakland is a fan favorite, what with Jason Giambi and his college-aged buddies creating havoc in the American League. Perhaps it's because fans want to see a different uniform, a different team, a different face on the mound. Even some in Atlanta aren't hot on the Braves anymore. The city has become so spoiled by its baseball success that empty seats are common for first-round playoff games.
Some figured that Saturday's game against the Cardinals would bring out all the diehard fans. Ha. The shiny glare from the backs of empty seats was visible throughout Turner Field, especially in the corners of the upper deck.
And as soon as the Cards jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the sixth, Braves fans began filing out. By the eighth inning, the place was two-thirds full at best, with the majority of that group wearing Cardinal red. Styrofoam tomahawks, handed out to fans as they entered the game, flew from the upper decks and were seen torn to shreds along the main concourse.
"You have to give their fans credit, for coming all the way down here and making the drive," Sanders said. "But from our point of view, it's disappointing with our fans. But that's baseball, I guess. It's a tough situation here."
Even in the most tension-filled moments of the game, Turner Field hardly had a playoff buzz. It felt more like the season opener than season ender. At one point, the scoreboard demanded, "Let's hear it Atlanta," with little to no response at all.
And remember the Tomahawk Chop? That intimidating chant that guys like Pendleton, Bream, David Justice and Ron Gant used to rally around to instigate a comeback? It's now piped-in by a high-tech sound system, which easily drowns out the few fans that are cheering.
What happened? Where did the Braves go wrong? This is the same franchise that that made a name for itself with its comeback heroics.
Down three games to two, heading to Pittsburgh in the 1991 NLCS? No problem. Steve Avery and Smoltz throw shutouts. Down 2-0 to the Pirates in the ninth inning of Game 7 in 1992? Francisco Cabrera to the rescue. Down three games to one in 1996 against the Cardinals? Cake.
Down two games to none against the Cardinals on Saturday, trailing 7-1 in the sixth inning? Time to beat the traffic.
And a longer offseason to think about just what went wrong.
"We are terribly disappointed," manager Bobby Cox said, repeating the dreaded "D" word. "We did not make any of the games real close. We did not hit well or pitch very well the entire series, and that is unlike what we've done in the past."
Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com.
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