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Monday, June 19, 2006
Last Place: What is first thing to do?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Braves are alone in the NL East cellar. Dejected and devastated, the team is trying to figure a strategy. What should they do as early as today? Should someone be fired? Traded?
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1991: The day Atlanta moved into first
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC
Braves cheer on Aug. 28, 1991, the night their team moved into sole possession of first in the NL West.
Would you like a little irony with your coffee this morning?
Hangdog Braves fans probably don’t need any reminders of the glory days of 1991, when the Braves rode pennant fever and went from WORST to FIRST.
This morning, Atlanta finds itself in last place in the National League East.
“This is the lowest point since 1990 that I can remember,” pitcher John Smoltz said Sunday after a 10-7 loss to the Boston Red Sox. The Braves’ seven-game losing streak is their longest since 1990.
But let’s return to a time when things were looking up.
On Aug. 28, 1991, the Braves — a franchise with a brutal history — took sole possession of first place in their division, the NL West.
What else was going on that week? The U.S.S.R. was unraveling, QB Billy Joe Tolliver had joined the Flacons, C&S/Sovran still existed and “I’ll Fly Away” and “Brooklyn Bridge” were about to roll out on television. Unleaded gasoline was going for $1.15 per galloon.
But in Atlanta’s 1991, all the talk was about the Braves. The town was going crazy and attendance had soared.
Fourteen division titles later, here’s the irony.
Guess who the Braves beat on Aug. 28, 1991, to take first place after the Dodgers lost later that night?
The New York Mets.
Guess who pitched for Atlanta that night?
Tom Glavine.
Flash forward to June 18, 2006.
Guess who are leading Atlanta by 14 games?
Tom Glavine and the New York Mets.
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