Braves’ dream season is Atlanta’s finest moment in sports history
Editor's Note: Here's a look back at 1995 season from the late Furman Bisher, who died in 2012 after spending nearly six decades as a sports writer, editor and columnist in Atlanta. This outtake appeared as the foreward to the book "Bravo! The Inside Story of the Atlanta Braves 1995 World Championship" produced by the Atlanta-Journal-Constitution.
In the spring there was little indication that such joy was ahead.
The mood was sullen. Major leagues stayed home while applicants for their jobs took the field in Florida and Arizona.
When an uncertain piece did settle over the game, the Braves got away to a plodding start. At one time, they were five games behind Philadelphia.
Accordingly, the fans were slow to come back. In time, the nightmare would turn into a dream.
Those sullen times dissolved into a distant blur. Could this be real? Were we hallucinating, or was this parade down Peachtree actually in celebration of a World Series that didn’t get away?
They had conquered all, swept the season championship by 21 games, reeled through Colorado and Cincinnati like a destructive storm, then choked down the Indians with pitching.
There had been some presumptuous speculation in the spring, when Marquis Grissom was brought home, that this might be one of those teams to be compared with the finest in major league history, usually measured by the 1927 Yankees or 1930 Athletics. Whatever their caliber, the Braves brought the city its finest moment in professional history, dotted with occasional minor league successes of the old Atlanta Crackers.
So brilliant was Tom Glavine in the game that cinched it that Greg Maddux’s brilliance in Game 1 was lost in the afterglow. David Justice supplied the only run needed when he sent a shot over the right field fence that sealed his peace with fans whose feathers he had ruffled.
Now they paraded. They had achieved the crest. They were the champions of all they surveyed and Atlanta ascended along with them. This was a moment to be framed forever in one’s mental scrapbook. As slow as fans had been to take them back to the bosom, when they made the turn into September and the race became a jaunt, the romance was renewed.
So now they cheer the Braves, World Champions of baseball. Roll that around in your mind for a moment. What an easy and delectable phrase. They stand proud and the city stands proud alongside — happy and aglow.
