The Atlanta Braves are Burning

"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace."

These words belong to General William T. Sherman, the man who burned Atlanta, in 1864. He then set off towards the sea, scorching the earth like a human flame thrower. Needless to say, he is not well-liked by Georgians.

I was at National Park for two games last weekend. I saw the Braves lose in ten innings to the Nationals on Saturday night, and then I saw them lose on Sunday afternoon. Yes, the Braves were swept by the Nationals last weekend. The only positive I can see in the whole calamity that was last weekend is that I didn't have internet, so I couldn't write a four-letter-word-laced tirade on what transpired before my eyes--Atlanta is on fire and probably has been for some time.

The starting rotation is old, tired, and beleaguered. The bullpen is nonexistent, and the lineup is full of disappointments and fading stars. Jeff Franceour is the Prodigal who never found his way home again; he's still dining with the pigs one strikeout or fly out at a time. Chipper Jones hit a home run on Saturday night, but never made it onto the field Sunday. Yunel Escobar is a good book that's last fifty pages keep it from being a great book, and Brian McCann is all alone it seems.

When I got to the ballpark on Sunday and looked at the lineup, I felt like I was looking at one of the railroad ties Sherman's men twisted around an oak tree and left as a symbol of the south's ever-futile attempts to win an impossible victory.

The Braves have made the same mistakes as the Yankee organization, only we don't cover up our faults as well with cash. Both franchises dominated the '90s and were poised to do the same in the '00s. The only problem is both teams mortgaged their long term futures for quick fixes, neglecting the cake for the icing. Whenever I look at our platooning set of outfielders, I can't help but wonder what might have been if the franchise had only held onto more players like Jermaine Dye, instead of trading them away for the Michael Tucker's of the world. Dye has 32 home runs this year and a .297 average. He could have been our number four hitter, behind Chipper Jones, this past decade, as opposed to our Stonewall Jackson.

Last year, we gave away several prospects for Mark Teixeira. Teixeira played well, but the Braves still missed the playoffs. This season we traded him to the Angels, but we didn't get market value for him. We didn't get the young pitching prospects that it would have made sense to trade him for...another Atlanta landmark collapses under the pressures of heat and smoke. The city is burning.

This fire will burn the Atlanta Braves to the ground, and I'm not saying that cities and franchises can't be rebuilt; the south is a living, breathing phoenix, both physically and culturally, but history shows us that after the torching comes a long march to the sea and a slow, humiliating reconstruction.

Right now, I fear we are only present at the stoking of the flames.


(Atlanta's 62-80 season put to music)