Feb. 28, 2021.
Talkin’ Sports By Justin Hanover
F
or me living in Atlanta began with a BOOM thanks to that miraculous worst to first Braves run back in 1991. Then four years later it was capped off with a World Series Championship as Marquis Grissom raced down Carlos Baerga’s fly ball and the city erupted in celebration. But ever since? Well, Atlantans have certainly seen their share of disappointments. The Falcons blew that 28-3 Super Bowl lead against the Patriots and the Dawgs fell similarly in that National Championship game in Overtime against Alabama and on and on and on. So many examples and so little time. I’m not oblivious nor naive to the pain that has been experienced here for awhile now. It has been above and beyond what the average city should have to deal with but I’m a glass half full guy when it comes to the recent Braves 2020 season. Some would say it was “another epic Atlanta collapse” after leading the Dodgers three games to one. But not me and here’s why:
situations, including against the eventual star laden World Champion Dodgers. By the way those Dodgers went 43-17 in the regular season, lost one series all year long and were as good of a club as we have seen in a long, long time. Therefore losing three straight games to that team is far from equaling “an epic collapse”. In fact, winning three of the first four shows a ton. And how can we forget about that mash unit of a lineup. These guys were as good as they came in 2020, proving themselves to everybody, and it’s not like it was a bunch of aging veterans. Ronald Acuna Jr. is a young, 22 year old five tool superstar and an MVP Candidate. Dansby Swanson , Ozzie Albies, Johan Camargo, Austin Riley, Christian Pache and a few others form the core of a team that will compete for years to come. Oh and that Freddie Freeman guy, well yeah, he just won the MVP and still obviously has a lot left in the tank!
We witnessed a third straight division title and the emergence of some young players that have an amazingly bright future. We winced in horror as the ace of the team in Mike Soroka went down early in the season and yet Brian Snitker’s hurlers amazingly tossed four shutouts in its first five playoff games in sweeping away both the Reds and the Marlins. We knew Max Fried had an upside but with Soroka injured the lefthander turned into an absolute stud who even had a shot at winning the Cy Young award.
So, you can lazily lump the 2020 Braves into another city of Atlanta blown leads, if you would like, but in fact it was the complete opposite. Our boys from the Battery rose to the occasion in developing the young talent and came within a hair of slaying the dragon.
Other young fairly unknown pitchers like Ian Anderson, Kyle Wright and Bryse Wilson went from, well, “young fairly unknown pitchers” to potential rising stars in the blink of an eye. All of them stepped up in the most crucial of moments against quality playoff teams in pressure packed
Justin Hanover is a sports reporter/analyst who has worked in the business since 1996. His stops have included ESPN, CNN, 790 The Zone and 680 The Fan. He has also done play-by-play analysis and color commentary ranging from the high school level all the way through the professional level. Justin lives in Smyrna with his wife and three children.
PAGE 10
Of course, the end game is to win a Championship but only 1 of 30 teams can do so. The bottom line is that 2020 was an absolute success for the Braves and I will scream atop the highest mountain in saying so.
Our Town
