They did it.
The Atlanta Braves played their way to a World Series championship late Tuesday night.
This great region began rejoicing even before the 6th game of the series ended with our Braves steamrolling the Houston Astros. Calling the win decisive doesn’t do the final score justice.
As the team celebrated the big win, Atlanta did too.
Days later, this is still a great moment; a high point that we’ve waited a full generation to achieve.
World Series champions.
We like the sound of that.
It fits who we are; what we’re about; what we can do when we dream big and put our backs into it.
Yes, technically it was only the persistent souls actually on the team who snagged the championship by besting the Astros 7-zip – in the opposing team’s home stadium, no less.
The Braves deserve all of the credit and kudos large and small that will be coming their way, likely for a good while to come.
Fans both deeply devoted and fair-weather alike are cheering on the team for their hard work-triumphed victory.
Which is altogether appropriate for this hometown team that worked long and hard toward a victorious end. They deserve all of the praise and thanks we can muster.
And, really, Atlantans should celebrate ourselves just a bit too. Some of us started doing that late Tuesday night as the sound of fireworks echoed across the skies around town.
We are winners. Let that sink in for just a bit.
True, this spunky place we call home has long believed that we have what it takes to make great things happen. We’ve done it so many times – on so many fronts.
The Braves’ victory reminds us of that. It is as sweet as the muscadine grapes of Georgia vineyards. And it should be savored the same way.
The broader lessons here should not be forgotten once the parades have wrapped up and life returns to normal around here.
Never give up.
That’s how The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter Gabriel Burns summed it all up in a story last week.
Burns wrote of the Braves that “They entered this season believing they had assembled a roster, both talent- and chemistry-wise, that could finally break through.”
The team did just that, in spectacular fashion.
In Atlanta fashion.
That’s significant to keep in mind at this moment – as trying times and tough breaks seem to snip incessantly at the ties that used to bind us together as a region, state and country.
We live in an rancorous time where division, partisanship – and even a ruthless pandemic – have divided us. That’s taken a toll on everybody. It’s sapped our spirits and our collective strength.
Yet the beauty of sports still holds the power to lift us above all that and points the way toward what’s possible – if we just believe and put in the hard work.
Together.
Toward a common goal, whatever that might be.
In an editorial last week, we quoted the late Nelson Mandela on the strengths of sporting competition. It’s worth repeating now that victory reigns at Truist Park.
Mandela, a man who had seen more than most just how deep life’s low points could be – and how high its triumphant peaks – said, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair.”
A city whose symbol is a phoenix rising above the ashes exemplifies that spirit more than most.
The successful crack of the Braves’ bats remind us of that cornerstone of the Atlanta Way.
For that, we owe the team our thanks.
The Editorial Board.
