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As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2009 > January > 08
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Time for the Braves to look forward, not back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Look at it this way. Even if John Smoltz does wind up with the Red Sox in 2009, the Braves can always bring him back for a farewell tour in 2010. Or 2020. Or in the year 2525.
Sad to say, that has become the Great Grand Organization’s modus operandi. No ex-Brave is ever finished until he gets to return to the GGO. The Braves brought back Tom Glavine. They tried to bring back Javy Lopez. They tried to bring back Rafael Furcal. They’re considering bringing back Andruw Jones.
Who’s next? Larvell (Sugar Bear) Blanks? Andy (Channel 17) Messersmith? Terry (Tub of Goo) Forster?
The trouble with becoming a Great Grand Organization — John Schuerholz’s immortal description — is that you’re forever tempted to take curtain calls. As heretical as this may sound, the Braves would be wise to take a tip from the Falcons, who have rarely been great or grand or even very good. Thomas Dimitroff arrived from New England and proceeded to lop four Pro Bowlers and his team was the better for it, and he’s about to dump more big names this winter
Put simply, the professional team that isn’t going forward is falling back. The Braves keep recycling old ideas, which is a sure sign they’re running out of new ones. Not coincidentally, they’ve also finished third, third, and fourth over the past three seasons.
As difficult as it would be to see Smoltz in a different uniform, it’s nothing the Braves couldn’t get over. (They got over seeing Glavine work for the hated Mets.) This is big-league baseball. These things happen. Better to let a 41-year-old pitcher take a guarantee of $5 million to play for the Red Sox, who toss millions around like pennies, than to risk $5 million of your own on his surgically altered shoulder.
By trying to repeat the past, the Braves are guaranteeing they won’t have much of a future. They need to learn how to say goodbye and mean it. If Smoltz wins 20 for the Sox, more power to him. But you can’t plan for tomorrow on the basis of what a 41-year-old might (or might not) do. You have to move on.
If he indeed leaves, fans will wring hands and gnash teeth, but in the end they’ll either have to get over it or find a new team. We on the periphery get all sentimental over sports, but we’re also reminded on a daily basis that these teams are businesses and these players are independent contractors. Yes, Smoltz has done meritorious service here for two decades. He was also handsomely compensated for so doing.
The trouble with being a Great Grand Organization is that you tend to view all paradigms from within. There are, believe it or not, good players out there who have never been Braves. It’s time — way past time, actually — to go find some of those.
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