Blog

I’ve never been happier not to be able to watch an Atlanta Braves baseball game on cable where I live. When I lived in Chicago, there were a few years where I would have died to watch a Braves baseball game. I lived in Wrigleyville then, but the Cubbies were never my thing. There’s only one baseball team I care about, and right now that team absolutely sucks.

After yet another steaming heap on the baseball field that no one on Comcast’s bill could see, I seriously wonder if this team will ever win another game. Manager Brian Snitker doesn’t like to interfere, but doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Braves Country, are we taking crazy pills?! At least Matt Olson is trying to take some responsibility here.

Atlanta’s first baseman knows that a “Come to Jesus” meeting will not save the team.

“That seemed like a mistake, a lack of focus at times. It doesn’t feel like that right now. The bats are sleeping right now. But we’re working. Right now, things aren’t going the way we want them to. We’re continuing to work. We’re pretty good at treating each day as a new one. Good or bad, we’re pretty good at it. So we’re just keeping that mindset, showing up and trying to get a winning streak going tomorrow.”

I don’t know if it’s a lack of leadership or if a new voice is desperately needed, but something has to give here.

I’m currently more optimistic about the Atlanta Falcons’ upcoming season than the Braves’.

The last time I felt this strongly about Atlanta, Fredi Gonzalez was in the process of ruining the team.

During another terrible postseason run last October, I kept coming back to this one question: Where are the 2021 guys? Pretty much everyone who was on that World Series championship team is no longer here. Yes, key players like Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, AJ Minter and Charlie Morton are still making important contributions, but I think Atlanta has lost a little of its identity with each new transaction.

So, instead of having a team meeting, I suggest that General Manager Alex Anthopoulos comes into the locker room and says he made a mistake. He can tell the players and coaching staff that he’s sorry and that he wants to fix the problem, but he doesn’t know how. A practice vote has shown that the Braves want a new margarita machine in the locker room, so of course there will be a pizza party at Papa John’s!

Since I’m always in a better mood after a visit to Dave & Buster’s, I’d suggest that the team hold a mandatory team-building event at the location on I-75 near the South Loop near Marietta on one of their days off. If skeeball, wave racing, and a giant pile of tokens falling over can’t bring this team back from Loserville, then I don’t know what to tell you. I’d just make a trade at that point.

I really believed that Snitker might retire voluntarily, but I’m not so sure anymore.