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What do the Braves mean to you?

 

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Braves vs. Dodgers - NLDS Game 3

Braves vs. Dodgers - NLDS Game 3

Braves in Los Angeles on Oct. 6, 2013.

2013 Atlanta Football Classic

2013 Atlanta Football Classic

Photos from the 2013 Atlanta Football Classic

Braves vs. Dodgers - NLDS Game 2

Braves vs. Dodgers - NLDS Game 2

Braves even series with Dodgers with victory in Game 2 on Friday, Oct. 4, 2013, at Turner Field in Atlanta.

 
  • On May 6, 2003, I sustained a life-threatening injury in which I shattered my neck and pelvis in a fall at my house. I spent 24 days in the hospital and six months in a wheelchair. Every night, after visiting hours were over with my family, when I needed something to lift my spirits — the 2003 Atlanta Braves team was there for me. That year, that team, and that circumstance, made me the fan I am today where I never miss a game and share every exciting Braves moment with my 4-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter.
  • As an Atlanta native for 56 years, I’ve lived the highs and lows of our Bravo boys. I’ve carried a neon tomahawk with a battery pack since the 90s to games and usually buy a poster in support of them. I love them for all the October games they gave us in the 90s and this year’s team reminds me of that same rekindled spirit! Proud to be a native of America's team!
  • My very first introduction to baseball was when my dad bought a 9-inch TV in summer of 1948. I spotted the Boston Braves, on their way to the World Series with the Indians. I was hooked on MLB from that moment on! He took me to Braves games in Boston, until they moved. Then I went to Milwaukee a few times on my own. Then they moved on to Atlanta and I watched on TBS. Now I am 74 years old, retired and still a Braves fan, 65 years later. I watch them on mlb.tv now and seldom miss a game.
  • My father loved baseball and so did his five boys. The Braves were always on TV. We couldn't afford to go to games on a used car salesman's income, but we watched all the time. Most of us played baseball, but we all watched the Braves through the good times and bad. After my father passed away 16 years ago, it always made me feel so good to visit Mom and see the Braves game on when I got there. Now I long to hear my Mom talk about Murph whiffing at sliders, Smoltz dominating hitters or Bobby Cox waddling out to the mound again; she passed 4 years ago.
  • I was an 11-year-old kid living in East Point when the Braves moved to Atlanta. I became an immediate die-hard fan. I was at that age when a baseball player were like idols - We all wanted to be them, we wore the numbers of our favorites and we knew the player’s stats/hometown, etc. When they played on the West Coast, I would take my transistor radio to bed with me and listen to Ernie and Milo. Joe Torre opened up a sub shop near where I lived in ‘67 or ‘68. I got his autograph and a lot of his teammates during that time. I can remember hanging out in the parking lot and seeing if any of the Braves would show up to hang out with Joe. I have spent a lifetime in sports as a coach, but the Braves remained my team, regardless my location. Since I have semi-retired and moved to the Atlanta area, it has been great to continue to have the Braves as my team.
  • The Braves have always been reliable. Living on the West Coast, the Braves were the first game I watched after coming home from school. Being able to sit at the table, do homework and watch baseball was the perfect way to end my day. From April to October, the Braves are always there, regardless of the box score and no more TBS.
  • The Braves mean so much to me! My sons were born in the 80s and they were brought up to love the Braves with every pitch and every bat. Having divorced, the Braves gave my sons and me a bond that continues to this day. It has always been our one constant in our lives. We discuss the stats and recap so many of games -- From Sid Bream to the infield fly. My first Braves game was in 1969 with my Dad. We had our Sunday best on! Generations of memories that never die. I love those Braves!
  • The Braves mean listening to WSB 750 on a transistor radio while sitting in THE swing under the oak trees with my grandfather. I can still hear Pete, Ernie and Skip describing the action. It's jumping up and down with my dad after Bob Watson got a hit to finally beat the hated Dodgers. It's one bad trade after another. Then 1992 - It's Sid and Fransisco but Lonnie didn't run hard enough. Finally, 1995. Now it's me and my two sons watching, listening and cheering searching for 1995.
  • The home opener of 2012 was the last sporting event my wife, Debbie, and I attended before she died from cancer on July 3, 2013. We wanted to get to a game this season but she was just too sick. She loved the Braves as much as I did. We went to several games together and we had so much fun. All of the folks at Turner Field are top notch and we always walked away after a game happy. I will cherish the memories from those times forever.
  • The Braves were on TV when I was born at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital in 1992. My first gift was a little tomahawk and since then I haven’t quit loving my Braves and I will always love the Braves! GO BRAVES! This Is Why I Chop!
  • To me, the Braves mean: worst to first, Sid’s slide, blazing Blauser, neon Deion, Crimedog McGriff, Chipper, B-Mac, J-Hey and Huddy. The FIVE aces, 1995, Carey, Van Weirien, Sutton, Turner, Scherholtz, Wren ,Cox, Gonzalez. 1995, 14 straight. # 3,#10,#29,#31,#4 . Spring, summer, and fall from Fulton County to Turner field, The Braves mean AMERICA's TEAM.
  • My 97-year-old mother, Edna Cadenhead, watches the Braves every time they are on TV. She knows their names and talks to them when they are up to bat. What a joy to watch them with her! She is their best fan.
  • To me, the Braves represent a childhood friend and a place where I learned so many life lessons, like: always be selfless but carry yourself with confidence, reach out to others, do small things well and know the value of teamwork. From the first Braves game I went to as a 10 year old to the postseason game I will be going to next week, Braves have taught me all these lessons and I have been able to share with my family and friends!
  • When I moved to Atlanta in 1980, I started going to Braves games. I grew up as an Army Brat and I remember listening to a World Series game on the radio while living in Germany and I never thought I would get to go to one. However, I went to three Braves games in the World Series and I was there when the Braves won it all. I remember how I would go to games in the 1980s and the Braves would lose yet it made in my heart a connection to the team. Thanks to the Braves this Army Brat at age 57 is a Braves fan always.
  • As someone with cerebral palsy unable to play team sports, the Braves have taught me that perseverance goes farther than any talent or ability. At the same time, they’ve taught me that there are other, creative ways to make a career out of enjoying the game and providing that enjoyment for others in similar situations to my own.
  • Game 3, 2010 NLDS, bottom of the 8th - Eric Hinkse knocks a pinch-hit 2 run homer. The following inning is less favorable, but at that moment I experienced sports euphoria. 50,000 plus became one solid entity in Atlanta that moment. Everyone instantly became friends and family to the person next them. That’s what the Braves mean to me. It gives the fans a commonality and closeness that we ride the tides of triumph and setbacks together.
  • 1990 was a rough year for me. My health and my family were both suffering. But when the Braves began their “Miracle Season” run for the pennant the next year, they put a healing balm on both. My little family would put everything else aside when the Braves were on TV to do the tomahawk chop and cheer them on to victory. By the end of the season, we were a family again. I will ALWAYS be thankful for that common denominator that was a catalyst for healing in my life.
  • Over the years the Braves have been an escape, a conversation topic and a reason to get up in the morning. Many difficult times in my life have been made easier by the chance to discuss a pennant race involving the Braves. When John Smoltz recorded the final out in 1991, I jumped around my room like a maniac. When Sid Bream slid across home plate in 1992, I woke my entire family, and quite a few neighbors, with my celebration. When Tom Glavine limited the Indians to one hit over eight innings and Mark Wohlers slammed the door in the ninth, I sprinted around my back yard like a lunatic. Since then I've lived and died with quite a few Braves teams. Once again, I find that I'm filled with optimism about how the post season will go. Hopefully this will be a good year.
  • In 1991, I was just learning what CompuServe and email was all about. You had to pick an unusual screen name because all of the normal ones were gone. I did a play on letters relating to my Braves. Omibraves@compuserve.com was my first email address. I have used some form of that with different providers ever since and oh my Braves have sure been fun to watch over the past 22 years!
  • Kevin Grigsby, 28, Dawsonville: The Braves are like an extension of my family in the summer. Summer in the South would not be the same without Braves baseball.
  • Michael Wong, 62, Forney, Texas: At my first Brave's game in the early 80s, the Cardinals went up 9-0 after two innings. I decided to buy some hotdogs and drinks and I heard a big cheer while at the concession booth. When I come back, my wife said that Dale Murphy just hit a 3-run homerun. A couple innings later, I had to make a visit to the men' room and I heard another big cheer - Chris Chambliss hit a 2-run homerun that landed just two rows in front of us. Later in the game with the score at 13-5, my wife wanted another Coke and Dale hit 2-run homerun while I was away. My first MLB game and I didn't see a single run scored by the Braves.
  • I was nine when Hank Aaron hit homer 715. I was supposed to be in bed, but I stood in the doorway of my bedroom and listened to the game while my father watched from the couch. Four years later, I moved from Maryland to Doraville, Georgia where I spent my teenage years. I spent the majority of my Atlanta summer daylight hours playing stickball with friends and then we would watch replays of the Braves games on late night TV.
  • I grew up watching the Braves with my dad. After college, I went into a pretty deep depression and the Braves were there every single day to dig me out of it. Their camaraderie on the field and off helped me see the light. The best thing to get me through a tough day is knowing that there’s a Braves game at the end of it.
  • The Braves have been a part of my life since moving to Georgia in 1979. I actually went to a game on my wedding night in 1991. It's a key part of the father-son bond my boys and I have today.
  • My 16th birthday was October 15, 1992 -- the day the Braves won the NL West for the second time in a row. One week earlier my grandfather had passed away, so my mom and I were both in tears as the Braves clinched. That is easily one of my most memorable sports memories of all time.
  • What do the Atlanta Braves mean to me? Family. Memories. Constant. Escape. Love. Passion. When I was a little girl, my father was not around. But my PawPaw, John A. Marchant, was. He took my sister and I to many games. We would scream our heads off and cheer for OUR Braves! We were all hoarse the next day! I would sit in his lap, in his favorite chair and watch them on his TV at his home. For me, the Braves represent everything my PawPaw was for me and now I am passing along his legacy to my children, their friends and mine.
  • My father, the late Jim Beauchamp, was both a player and coach for the Braves. His first year as bench coach was ‘91, so you can imagine the memories we have shared as a family. Although (Brian) McCann, Huddy (Tim Hudson) and (Jordan) Schafer are the only players left that my father had a hand in coaching and developing, many of the people still part of the organization were very important to my father. Bobby Cox and Fredi Gonzalez were both there in his final days. Bobby and John Schuerholz spoke at his memorial. Frank Wren continues to host the charity golf tournament that my dad began in his honor. The Braves mean more to me than your average fan. They were my family’s livelihood, my dad’s second family and the reason for the greatest childhood a girl could dream of. Every time I watch the Braves, I’m watching with my father “Beach” and rooting for their legacy along with my father’s.
  • When I was about 12, I used to share a room with two brothers and we used to listen to Braves baseball on WSB, Atlanta 750. We lived in Ontario, Canada and the game would fade in and out due to the power of WJR, Detroit. We all learned to love the Braves. I am now 58 and I have indoctrinated my four children into the tomahawk tradition. We are still all avid Braves fans and we all appreciate the awesome Braves tradition. I waded through many losing seasons but the wait was truly worth it.
  • Portable AM radios and Marshall Mann's booming voice at old Fulton County along with old men at the time talking Crackers, the times they shared with me. Now, I’m doing the same with my daughter. The Braves are our “thing.”
  • To me, the Braves are not just a baseball team. I see them 162 times a summer, so they are more like 25 members of my family. For 7 1/2 months a year, they are part of my life. And when the season ends, it seems like they go on vacation for 6 months before I get to see them again!
  • “Dodger Blue!” As a kid growing up, that's all I heard. I should have expected this living in Central California. That and “Go Giants!” After all, it was the Lopes, Cey, Scioscia, Garvey and Fernando years. That's the EXACT reason I DIDN'T like the Dodgers. So as not to be a bandwagon guy, I searched for a team to follow besides my hapless Angels. The brilliance of Ted Turner brought me to a very mediocre Braves team with a still under-appreciated Dale Murphy. From that time on, I've loved the Braves through the bad years into the 80s, the glorious 90s and now into the 2000s. My entire family roots for the baby Braves - it's a family thing. We've even taken vacations around the Braves schedule and flown to Atlanta to watch at the Ted. The Braves give my entire family something to root for, and each of us has our favorite. Go Braves!
 

More Braves on myajc.com

Gonzalez sticking with Garcia for Game 4

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has been keeping open the possibility of bringing back Game 1 starter Clayton Kershaw for Game 4 on three days’ rest, if the Dodgers were facing elimination.

 Janish has broken nose
 Gonzalez sticking with Garcia for Game 4
 Braves quotes after Sunday’s loss to Dodgers

Braves quotes after Sunday’s loss to Dodgers

**BRIAN McCANN On what wasn’t going right with Julio “Early, Carl hit a slider that hung up a little bit more than Julio wanted and put a good swing on it, and I tip my hat to the middle of their order.

 Janish has broken nose
 Gonzalez sticking with Garcia for Game 4
 Braves quotes after Sunday’s loss to Dodgers

Rough night for Braves young guns

The Braves advanced to back-to-back World Series in the early 1990s on the strength of young pitching.

 Atlanta Braves news

Game 3 Review

DEFINING MOMENTS1. Carl Crawford’s three-run homerSituation: Braves up 2-1 with runners at corners and two out in the second inning.

 Atlanta Braves news