Season ran off rails at trip’s start

Yogi Berra may have had a point when he said, “It’s not over till it’s over.” Well, let me say this: That in the case of the Braves, our Braves, it has been over several times. The loyalists just wouldn’t accept the cruel fact.

It was over first early in the season, when Peter Moylan and Rafael Soriano, aces of the bullpen, went down. You lose a pair like that and you may not accept it at the time, but you’re dead. It ain’t like it used to be, when you sent Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette out there and you got your nine innings out of them. You got to be juiced up in the bullpen.

Not just the loss of your best in the bullpen, but —- ho-hum —- when the chief of staff gambled on the revival of John Smoltz’s weary old arm, and Tom Glavine’s, and on Mike Hampton’s return to a form matching his stupendous salary. Bobby Cox was left to depend on a rookie from Curacao; another rookie who had never pitched above the Pearl, Miss., level; another rookie with an ERA higher than his hometown population; a 30-year-old Mexican rookie set adrift by Seattle, and, of course, Tim Hudson, a veteran of good standing.

If it’s milestones you’re looking for, then this one was the whopper. Hudson himself went down and Mark Teixeira was traded to the Angels. That was the signal. The white flag was hoisted. They threw in the towel. It was, indeed, over. Frankly, not that they had much left in the tank, anyway.

You know, you have to keep kidding yourself. Just a few days ago the Braves were leading the Phillies by five, and got beat. Then they led the Phillies by six, and lost again. (Oh, how handy that Moylan and Soriano bullpen would have been then.) And how a bat like Teixeira’s might have put some runs on the board. In other words, was it necessary to send him packing so soon? He’d have still been as valuable to the Angels as he was then. Get a little more mileage out of him for those five young’uns they’d sent to the Rangers last season.

Actually, it all came crashing down on this old codger last Friday night. They were playing the Cardinals and losing. Not just losing. The dam broke, there was I, sitting there watching the disaster on television. What’s this? A flashback to the ’80s? When they devised new ways to lose? When they lined up with names like Blocker, James (first name Dion), Virgil, Oberkfell, Thomas (first name Andres) and on the mound, their leading pitcher Rick Mahler, whose record was 9-16 in 1988.

Fast-forward to St. Louis, and it takes Charlie Morton 57 pitches to get the first four outs. Later, the game was placed in the hands of a stranger named Matt DeSalvo. By the time he departed, he had thrown 42 pitches, the Cardinals had scored six runs and the sad fellow left with an earned run average of 31.50. And a ticket back to the farm at Richmond, where his record was 2-ll. It has been a long time since I’ve been that depressed. I felt that old ’80s sadness creeping inside me, and I wondered —- is this it? Is this really the end? Are we really turning the clock back to those dismal days of 3,402 crowds —- on a good night —- and Chief Noc-a-Homa?

Then danged if they don’t come back the next night and beat the Cards with Jorge Campillo and Buddy Carlyle. Jeff Francoeur had sounded the woeful battle cry: “We needed a win bad.” He drove in two runs, but his average still lurked around .230. It’s the kind of season you wouldn’t wish on a New York Met. What made being trampled by the Cards in that Friday game smart more than usual, they’d been beaten by another of those bright prospects they traded away to get a one-season fix. Adam Wainwright of St. Simons Island. You can’t always blame losing on the ones who got away, you have to step up and face the music for bad decisions.

furman@ajc.com