This photo, taken right before the opening of the Braves’ National League Championship Series against the Padres in 1998, was shown to three of its subjects over the weekend.
Their response?
“I was always the class clown,’’ said Denny Neagle, the one with his tongue out.
Chipper Jones, front and center, just laughed and the tall one in the back, Kevin Millwood added, “Well, at least you had someone good looking in the photo.’’
The other player was outfielder Michael Tucker, one of the few players not in town for the club’s three days of alumni festivities.
The ‘98 team had won a seventh straight division title, going 106-56 and finished an astonishing 18 games ahead of second-place New York. Neagle (16-11) and Millwood (17-8), along with Tom Glavine (20-6), Greg Maddux (18-9) and John Smoltz (17-3), were part of a rotation that accumulated 88 wins, the same team total of the Mets. Glavine won his second Cy Young Award that season.
The Braves swept the Cubs 3-0 in the division series but ran into problems against the Padres in the NLCS, falling 4-2 and earning the reputation as one of the greatest regular season teams not to win a World Series.
For Neagle, it was his last season with the Braves. He would be sent with Tucker in the offseason to Cincinnati.
Neagle said the photo shows his personality, something he remembers suppressing early in his career in Pittsburgh when he was once demoted to the minor leagues
“I remember being sent down and becoming real serious and sort of lost that fun part of me,’’ said Neagle, now 46 who splits his time between homes in Colorado and Maryland.
“But then I saw a press conference Johnny Oates had when he was manager at Baltimore, who said he had wished he had enjoyed himself when was playing and wasn’t going to allow that to happen again. I thought about that. That photo is who I am. I’m always the one having fun, telling jokes and even pulling a prank or two. I had a lot of fun in Atlanta and I always felt you have to enjoy every moment.’’
