The 2021 [plus most of 1922] Season in Review: The Atlanta Braves
August 22, 2022
Time moves slowly; but passes quickly. Alice Walker
Introduction
On June 25th of 2022, first baseman Freddie Freeman returned to Atlanta Stadium* for the first time since celebrating on that same field as a member of the 2021 World Champion Atlanta Braves. During the off-season, Freeman had signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. At that time, the story line about Freeman’s departure was that the Braves had been unwilling to pay him what he deserved, forcing his exit. Freeman held a tearful press conference about his time with Atlanta before the game. Remarkably, Freeman’s public display of sorrow soon exploded into a complete rewriting of how he came to leave the Atlanta Braves. The Braves blamed Freeman’s Agents, the Agents blamed the Braves, and Freeman, showing what he believed, fired his Agents. While I watched the press conference, I remembered that I had intended to write two “2021 Season in Review” articles: one for the Atlanta Braves and another for the San Francisco Giants. It can certainly be argued that an article reviewing the 2021 season, now more than halfway through the 2022 season is more than just little overdue. But, fortunately, it’s my blog and there is no actual punishment for my own tardiness here. More importantly, the extra days of reflection have given me more time to contemplate my thoughts about the 2021 Atlanta Braves season. I will try to get the San Francisco Giants article done before the end of the year, only if just to maintain a shred of my own dignity.
* The current Atlanta Stadium opened in 2017. It was originally named, with zero panache, SunTrust Park, for a corporate sponsor. In 2020, SunTrust Banks merged with Truist Financial and it was renamed Truist Park. I refuse to bow down to whichever corporation pays and will simply call it: Atlanta Stadium.
My History as a Superficial Braves Fan
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s rooting for the Boston Red Sox. As a teenager, I would take the T (the Boston trolley and subway system) to Fenway Park and sit in the bleachers (at that time, an exciting place to be as there were no rules against excessively drinking alcohol and/or brawling in place). In 1978, I went to college in New York; and got to make the first of many visits to old Yankee Stadium to soak up some history. The BoSox remained my favorite team, but I started rooting for the Yankees too. If the BoSox could not win, I rooted for the Yanks (making me an atypical Red Sox fan). By the 1980s, I was working for a living and free time was scarce. If the Red Sox or the Yanks were being televised, I would try to set aside time to watch. But, at that time, there was only one team that was on all the time: the Atlanta Braves. The Braves were owned by Ted Turner. He also owned WTBS (Turner Broadcasting System), a cable channel. TBS, like most cable systems then, was desperate for content. In fact, Turner bought the Braves team for the express purpose of giving TBS much needed content.* To say the least, this was a gutsy, you could even say really brave, gamble. Turner filled the airways with every Braves game and nicknamed them: “America’s Team” to boot. If I was unable to watch a Red Sox or Yankee game, TBS and the Braves became my default option. They became my third favorite team after the Red Sox and the Yankees. Since, the Atlanta Braves had been the Boston Braves before I was even born, it seemed somehow right that I should end up rooting for a team originally from my home town.
* Ted Turner actually bought the Atlanta Braves with a bank loan backed by the team’s future earnings. This Wimpy from Popeye strategy [ “I’ll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today”] is not supposed to work in real life.
The Braves from 1980 to 1990: Turner’s Team
Despite that, I never got attached to any of the Braves players as deeply as I did (and still do) to many members of the Red Sox and Yankees. Perhaps, I just came to Brave fandom too late and it never cut as deep. Also the 1980s Atlanta Braves were often a second-rate sad-sack type of team. In 1982, the Braves finished first with an 89-73 record before losing the National League Championship Series to St. louis. They followed that season up with an 88-74 record good enough for second place in 1983. But then from 1984 to 1990, the team was either mediocre or worse. I admired the Braves best player Dale Murphy and his nice guy image (which, as far as I know, is still untarnished). When the 1988 expansion of the strike zone derailed his career and probable election to the Hall of Fame, I was mystified and saddened. I practiced trying to throw a knuckleball like Phil Niekro. There was something very seductive in the thought that, if you could just master this odd pitch, a major career was just sitting there waiting for you, talent be damned. I was strangely awed by Bob Horner. I admired his short-armed, beautifully smooth but viper quick batting stroke almost as much as I was dismayed by his evident lack of any real interest, other than for the cash, in playing the game or keeping himself in shape. But my favorite Brave might have been Ted Turner himself. Turner was endlessly interesting. He was a hyperactive alpha male, part drunken frat boy and part Snidely Whiplash with touch of George Steinbrenner’s madness to boot. But unlike King George, Turner had a sense of humor. I rooted for these Braves, but unlike the Red Sox and the Yankees, I did not live and die for them.
The Braves from 1991 until 2006: Baseball’s Alydar*
After spending the 1980s as mostly lovable underdogs, the Atlanta Braves turned into Overlords in the 1990s. From 1991 to 2005, the Braves won their division every year, except for the strike year of 1994. Despite their sudden emergence as a dynastic team, the Braves would win only one World Series, in 1995, during their 15 years of dominance. The backbone of these teams was, as even the most superficial baseball fan would remember, its pitching staff. I used to wish that the Red Sox could put together a rotation half as good as Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz. During the 1990s, the Braves had quite a few good position players too. Early on, the best two were Ron Gant and David Justice. Like so many players, they seemed to be on Hall of Fame paths. But Gant badly broke his leg and his chances at immortality (and also his career as a Brave) went up in flames. Justice married the beautiful actress Halle Berry and went off the road too. In the latter part of the Braves dynasty, their best positional players were the unrelated Jones: Andruw and Larry. Both looked headed to the Hall of Fame too, but only Larry “Chipper” Jones would make it (so far). I could never bring myself to really personally root for either Jones. It was apparent from the beginning that Andruw had a little Bob Horner in him. The new face of the franchise, Larry (Chipper) Jones left me cold. He seemed oddly rednecky. After the turn of the century, the Braves slowly faded in my life. I was able to get all the Red Sox and Yankee games I wanted. The Braves were my distant third, rather than usually my only option.
*The thoroughbred Alydar finished second to Affirmed in all three of horse racing’s triple crown matches in 1978.
In hindsight, the Braves fifteen year run as the National League’s perennial powerhouse was fairly disappointing. The Yankees were the true dynasty of that time period, winning four World Series from 1996 to 2000. The Braves seemed to lack a killer instinct that would have put them completely over the top. The players seemed like a laidback bunch, lacking the insane competitive energy of a Pete Rose type individual. The great rotation aged and broke up. In 1996, Ted Turner sold all his cable holdings, including the Braves to Time Warner. Turner, as a large stockholder of Time Warner, was still on the scene, but would slowly fade away (it always seemed appropriate that these Braves won their one World Series in the last year of his ownership). In 1997, Fulton County Stadium, where the Braves had played since they moved to Atlanta in 1966, was knocked down and replaced with Turner Field. Finally, in February 2007, Liberty Media, another large stockholder of Time Warner, bought the Braves for the obviously insider price of $480 million dollars. The chairman of Liberty Media, John Malone, has made a career of peeling valuable assets off of publicly traded corporations for a dime on a dollar.* The sale of the Braves to Liberty Media ended the last vestiges of Ted Turner’s ownership and also, for all intents and purposes, the team’s status as my number three team (the two things were basically unrelated though). By the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, I watched the Braves no more than I did any other team that was not the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees.
* In 1991, Liberty Media itself was peeled off of TCI (Tele-Communication Inc.), the giant cable provider. TCI’s chairman was John Malone. As the controlling stockholder of Liberty Media, Malone became a billionaire and the remains of TCI were sold to AT&T IN 1999.
The Braves from 2007 to 2020: Liberty Media Years
In 2006, Time Warner’s last year as owners, the Braves had their first losing season [79-83] since 1990 (in fact, the team never won less than 88 games in a full season from 1991 to 2005).* After Liberty Media took over the Braves, they rebounded and went 84-78 in 2007 before crashing down to earth with a 72-90 record in 2008. However, after briefly touching the bottom, the Braves seemed to gearing up for a new dynasty. From 2009 to 2013, the Braves won 86, 91, 89, 94, and then 96 games. The team finished first in 2010, 2012 and 2013 but lost in the playoffs each year without reaching the World Series. To be honest, I was not really aware then of what appeared to be the team once again starting a dynasty. I was not really following the Braves all that closely. And, of course, the Braves new run of excellence came to a quick and decisive end in 2014. For the first time since the 1980s, the team had a run of losing seasons. From 2014 to 2017, the Braves finished 79-83, 67-95, 68-93, and 72-90. Long time fans must have been in shock. In 2018, the Braves once again rebounded. From 2018 to 2020, the team went 90-72, 97-65, and then 35-25 (a 94 win pace) during the Covid wrecked 2020 season. I didn’t really start to pay attention to the Braves again until 2020. With Covid keeping me home, I actually watched a whole bunch of their games that year. I was surprised at how good and how interesting the team had become. And the ability of the Braves franchise to run off multiple long streaks of 90 or more win seasons is certainly pretty amazing.
* During the strike seasons of 1994-1995, the Braves finished 68-46 and 90-54 which are 95 and 101 win paces over a full season. If you substitute those two full season finishes in, the Braves would have won 94-98-104-95-101-96-101-106-103-95-88-101-101-96-90 games from 1991 to 2005. That’s ridiculous.
But I could never really recapture the rooting interest that I had for the Braves in the 1980s and 1990s. The faces of the Braves’ franchise in the 21st Century were first, Chipper Jones [1993-2012, every year of his career an Atlanta Brave player] and second, Freddie Freeman [2010 until leaving town in 2021]. Jones and Freeman, to me, both seemed to give off a ‘good old boy’ vibe. In other words, my own prejudices against their possible Dukes of Hazzard* mentalities kept me from fully appreciating or rooting for either player. Despite the fact that their careers did not overlap by much, Jones and Freeman were evidently good friends. In the beginning, Freeman seemed to be nowhere near as great as Jones. But he eventually turned out to be basically just as good a hitter as Jones. But more importantly, the Braves franchise itself, under Liberty Media, also began to take on a the character of the Confederacy. In 2017, the Braves moved from Turner Stadium in downtown Atlanta to their new stadium (which will probably eventually be renamed Hobby Lobby Stadium or something else just as embarrassing) in the suburbs. Atlanta is an unusual metropolitan area. The city itself has the highest percentage of African-American residents of any major American city. In fact, Atlanta is sometimes called the “Black Capitol of the United States.” On the other hand, outside of the city proper, the suburbs are basically all white. Liberty Media relocated the Braves from the city to the suburbs. Proving once again that God must have a great sense of humor, the team moved from Fulton County to Cobb County.
*Dukes of Hazzard was a top-rated TV series that ran from 1979 to 1985. The show was about two white cousins bombing around the state of Georgia in an American muscle car with the Confederate Battle Flag painted on it.
The Braves and Henry Aaron
During the whole time that the I followed the Atlanta Braves, Henry Aaron, who broke “Babe” Ruth’s career Home Run record first, was indisputably the overall franchise icon. Aaron had played for the Milwaukee Braves from 1954-1965 and then, after the team moved, in Atlanta from 1966-1974. He ended his playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1975 and 1976. But then he returned to the Atlanta Braves to work in the front office. From 1982 to 1988, Aaron was the Director of Player Development for the Braves. Just how much credit should be given to Aaron for the Braves 15 years of success from 1991 to 2005 is debatable. But it seems quite substantial. Many people from the Braves organization have spoken about how Aaron started and nurtured their careers. I’ve never heard Aaron himself, in his own infrequent appearances, claim any credit for the Braves late 20th century dynasty. He always carried himself with class and dignity and it seems like boasting was not in his nature. More importantly, Henry Aaron, the greatest player to ever put on a Braves uniform, was the last player from the Negro Leagues to suit up and play in the Major Leagues for real.* In many ways, Aaron and the Braves were made for each other. Atlanta, the largest city in the South, had a vibrant Afro-American population. The team, the park, the city, and Aaron himself seemed to all be a fitting finale for the story of Jackie Robinson and the integration of Baseball. But, of course, time eventually sweeps all things aside. To me, the Braves slide from the team of Henry Aaron to one more ode the lost confederacy seemed to be exceptionally sad.
* Minnie Minoso was technically was the last Negro League player to appear in the Major Leagues in 1980. But that was just a two game publicity stunt.
The 2021 World Champion Atlanta Braves
The 2020 Atlanta Braves team lost the National League Championship Series to the eventual World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. In a cosmic sense, the franchise that had integrated Baseball beat the southern redneck team. Then, on January 22nd of 2021, Henry Aaron passed away. The Braves started the 2021 season sluggishly. They soon lost their best player, Ronald Acuna Jr., for the year to an injury. The Atlanta leftfielder, Marcell Ozuna, was arrested for domestic battery. After their game on Sunday, August 1st, the Braves record stood at a subpar 52-55. It certainly looked like they were going to mark the passing of Henry Aaron with a bad year, not exactly a fitting memorial. But, after August 1st, the Braves got hot, going 36-18 to finish the season 88-73. They were even hotter right at the very end, finishing the year on a 12-2 run. This incredible run carried right on through the playoffs and into the World Series itself. The Atlanta Braves then defeated the Houston Astros in 6 games to become the 2021 World Champions. In each World Series game played in Atlanta, a gigantic “44” was mowed into the outfield grass. This was certainly a much more fitting tribute to Henry Aaron. Of course, Henry Aaron wore the number “44” because black players, even those as awesome as Aaron himself, were not assigned the single digit numbers reserved for white stars. I thought about the fact that Liberty Media, when they moved the Braves out of Atlanta, talked a lot about making it easier for suburban fans to get to the Park. This was code for: “our white fans do not want to travel into the mostly black city.” That the Atlanta Braves became the World Champions in the same year that Henry Aaron passed away was tinged with bittersweet irony.
The Future of the Atlanta Braves
In an earlier post, I postulated that 2021 was the first year of the Third Age of Baseball history. The Second Age, the Age of Integration (1946 to 2020) had ended, and the Third Age, the International Age, was under way. That would make the 2021 Atlanta Braves the first Championship team of the New Age. If that is true, the question lingers whether there is anything different about this team from all the Champions that proceeded it? I believe there is. The Braves seemed poised to be the first regional super-team. Other teams have tried in the past to concentrate on their individual territories. The teams from Canada always try to represent their whole country. The Boston Red Sox work hard at being New England’s team. Some teams use, or have used, the name of their States (California Angels, Florida Marlins, Minnesota Twins). But this current Atlanta Braves organization has taken a regional emphasis even farther. The Braves appear to be actively trying to stock their roster with players from the South. After the World Series victory, the Braves let the current franchise icon, Freddie Freeman* leave by free agency. They replaced Freeman at first base with Matt Olson, who was actually born right in Atlanta. Olson, who obviously very much wanted to play in his home town, immediately signed a long term contract that gave the Braves a considerable discount from his market value. Although the results will not be in for many years, this was a brilliant strategy by the Braves. They replaced a player who was not going to continue to play for them unless he got top dollar with a similar and younger player who was willing to play at a greatly reduced rate. This strategy of locking up players at a reduced rate obviously works best if, like Matt Olson, the players are from the region that the Braves represent [the prototypical “hometown” discount].
* For some reason (probably personal prejudice), I believed, without checking, that Freeman was born in the South. It came as a total surprise to me that he was actually born in California.
I don’t believe that any team has ever concentrated on being a regional team to the same extent as the current Braves. They seem to be drafting, trading, and signing players from their local area (the “South”). Then signing them to early undervalued contracts. Matt Olson is signed through 2030 when he will be 36. Austin Riley, from Tennessee, is signed through 2032 when he will be 36 [with a possibly cheap team option for 2033]. Michael Harris, from DeKalb, Georgia, is signed through 2030 when he will be 29 [with two probably cheap team options for 2031 and 2032]. On top of this, the Braves have also signed both of the team’s best foreign players to long-term undervalued contracts [Ozzie Albies until 2027 when he will be 30 and Ronald Acuna Jr. until 2026 with two team friendly options to bring it out to 2028 when Acuna will also be 30]. The reason Albies and Acuna signed is obvious. By signing early, they guaranteed their family’s futures and made sure that injury or even death would no longer matter.* The Atlanta Braves, in other words, have tied up five of their core players into their 30s or beyond, when baseball players’ skills traditionally decline. It will be fascinating to see how the Braves handle the upcoming 2023 free agency of Dansby Swanson (from Marietta, Georgia). Do they sign him to a market priced contract? Swanson will surely get a much more lucrative contract on the open market than any of the core five players [It doesn’t hurt that he is having a career year at just the right time]. Will the Atlanta Braves upset their salary structure for him? If they do, will this cause team discord?
*It would be interesting to know whether the case of the Miami Marlin’s pitcher Jose Fernandez was brought up in these negotiations. Fernandez, of course, was killed in a speed boat accident right before getting a 200 million dollar or more contract in free agency. His family, including an unborn daughter, was denied the money that would have made them very wealthy.
If the Braves are able to sign Swanson, six of their nine batting order slots will be tied up long term.* This is a very interesting contrast to their 1991 to 2005 dynasty, which was based on a core of pitchers. It actually makes more sense to have a core of everyday players, rather than a core of starting pitchers. The pitchers are much more likely to become ineffective, or even totally shattered, by injuries. The 2022 Braves have a very good and very young rotation led by Max Fried (from California), Kyle Wright (from Alabama), and Spencer Strider, (who was born in Ohio but seems to have grown up in Tennessee). They also have veteran Charlie Morton to add the voice of experience. The Braves seem to be content to wait and see if this rotation can survive until they reach free agency. This is not a bad strategy at all. There is a very good chance that the Braves have set themselves up for another decade of excellence or more. Of course, the Gods of Baseball can be quite cruel. There is always a chance that this new Braves Dynasty will end up being aborted by fate like the 2009 to 2013 run of excellence. But it is very obviously a good time to be a Braves fan. And, much like the NFL, the Braves have positioned themselves to exploit a primarily white fan base which will root for a international and interracial, but primarily local team. It is very doubtful that I will find myself rooting for the Braves again.**
* With Vaughn Grissom, from Florida, perhaps being a potential seventh core player.
** Interestingly, John Malone and Liberty Media recently acquired CNN, which used to be Ted Turner’s main news channel. CNN, which had positioned itself as the defender of Democracy and the anti-Fox News disinformation channel, was quickly changed into a: “just the news with no editorial content station” by Malone.