While he always had to remain a professional when around the club, longtime TV sports reporter Craig Sager has always deep down been a huge Braves fan.
It started growing up in Chicago when began following baseball. His two favorite players were Cubs infielder Ernie Banks and Braves outfielder Hank Aaron, then playing in Milwaukee.
“My father took me to Milwaukee in 1958 to a World Series game when they played the Yankees,” said Sager. “The Cubs never really won anything but the Braves did.’’
Always an aggressive reporter, Sager camped out with his media pass and tape recorder in the third-base photographers’ well at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1974 when Aaron hit his record-breaking 715th home run. Only 22 and working for a television station in Sarasota, Fla., Sager jumped on the field as soon as Aaron hit the memorable shot and met him at home plate with a tape recorder.
Sager can be seen in replays of the moment, wearing a trench coat and waiting on Aaron as he crossed the plate. His tapes are in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Today, Sager is still battling leukemia and undergoing more treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But he still watches the Braves. In 1995 when the club brought the World Series title home, he was working for Turner Sports. He was also an owner of the Jocks & Jills Sports Grills, which sent a bus-load of fans to every game.
Q: You didn’t miss many Braves games when you came to Atlanta in 1981.
A: From when I came here, I don't think I missed a game for 10 years. I was doing all the baseball stuff for CNN back then and we were far more popular than (ESPN) SportsCenter. I was always at the ballpark, whether getting information or just wanting to be at the game.
Q: You also liked going to the games on the Jocks & Jills bus in the 1990s.
A: That was great. We sat in center field and it was crazy for the Indians series (in '95) because we had two radio stations from Cleveland at two of our Jocks' locations doing remotes and it created such a competitive, crazy atmosphere. You knew that team had a great chance to win it all. Their pitching kept them in every game.
Q: What do you remember about the clinching game over the Indians?
A: What I remember is we partied all night long. Then we took the kids out of school and to the parade. It's pretty cool to think that my son, from when he was in kindergarten until college, never saw the Braves finish out of first place for all those years. Now that is something.
