Good morning. This is LEADOFF, the early buzz in Atlanta sports.
If you were following the Braves way back in 1982, you experienced one of the team's more interesting seasons. A 13-game winning streak at the start. A 2-19 tailspin in the summer. Big seasons by Dale Murphy, Bob Horner and Phil Niekro. Joe Torre's first year as the Braves' manager. And ultimately an NL West title, clinched on the final day of the regular season.
From start to finish, the 1982 season was chronicled in a Ted Turner-ordered, Glenn Diamond-produced, behind-the-scenes documentary perfectly titled “It’s a Long Way to October.”
On the 35th anniversary of that season and that TV special, Sporting News' Jason Foster takes an in-depth look at how the Emmy Award-winning documentary was done.
“By any measure, it was an unprecedented undertaking,” Foster writes. “Decades before HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ and other productions brought the inside-access idea into the mainstream, this was a groundbreaking attempt to give fans a season-long, intimate look at the human side of professional sports.”
The show also wound up capturing what Foster calls "one of the more unexpectedly dramatic team seasons in MLB history." Check out his story (and accompanying clips from the show) here.
The story got a recommendation Tuesday on Twitter from the 1982 National League MVP, Murphy, who called it a “great read” and “great memories.”
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Chatter
• Four more home runs at SunTrust Park on Tuesday night. That’s 23 in nine games.
• Including a $4 million signing bonus, Alabama football coach Nick Saban’s new contract will pay him $11.15 million in 2017. Saban’s team will open the season in Atlanta vs. Florida State in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff.
• Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze and Wesley Walls won the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge golf event for the second year in a row, finishing with five straight birdies Tuesday.
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ICYMI
