There's an old saying that any publicity is good publicity, but the Atlanta Braves and their fans might not feel that way today after the team completed an epic collapse -- failing to make the NL playoffs after leading by 8 1/2 games a little more than three weeks ago.
At least the Braves had company, as the Boston Red Sox completed a similar collapse by losing to the Baltimore Orioles, one of the worst teams in baseball.
Here's what the national media and fans were saying the morning after the Braves lost their final game to the Phillies in 13 innings, allowing the St. Louis Cardinals to clinch a wild-card spot that many had ceded to the Braves back in August.
-- "[Fredi] Gonzalez struggled all season long to get his best players on the field, while riding the three relievers he trusted into the ground. For the second straight season, the Braves had a championship-caliber pitching staff and an offense not worthy of it. For the second straight season, the Braves had no path to victory when the pitchers let them down." – Joe Sheehan, SI.com
-- "There will be consequences, in Boston and Atlanta, some of it undoubtedly unfair, because if either the Red Sox or the Braves made the playoffs Wednesday then had success in the postseason, the same people would be lauded as heroes." —Buster Olney, ESPN
-- "In the end, though there might have been greater pennant-race collapses in Major League Baseball history, never have the mighty fallen so quickly at the same time, leaving the Cardinals and Rays as the Wild Card teams representing their respective leagues." — Barry Bloom, MLB.com
-- "Neither the Red Sox nor the Braves could find that one guy to come up with the key hit, or get the key out when they needed it most." – Bob Harkins, NBC Sports
-- "Gonzalez will take plenty of fan heat but, then, so did Cox for the perceived underachieving of teams that won 14 division titles but just one World Series." — Paul White, USA Today
-- "It was one more reminder of why the Cards are still alive and the Braves are done. Some folks look at the bright glare of a playoff hunt as if it were a scalding heat lamp (see: Atlanta Braves). Others bask in the warmth of the intense pressure and act as though it's some soothing morning sun. That would be the Cardinals." – Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
-- "I'm sure the city of Atlanta will be devastated by the Braves' collapse for another five or six minutes.” – Dan Wolken, Memphis Commercial Appeal
-- "My heart goes out to the Atlanta Braves, mostly because they didn't play with any in September." – Matt Sussman of Detroit, on Twitter
