The Brave Face

By Shari "7 Train" Forst
Posted Saturday, April 28, 2007

This is a condition that affects any player that comes to the Atlanta Braves, they get this annoying look on their faces. The best way I can describe it is the “Thrill of Victory” look. God, I just want to punch everyone on that team ‘s face inside out-for real.

I can’t stand them.

Larry “Chipper” Jones I think set my standard for hating this team; especially naming his kid Shea because he loves to play at Shea stadium. Then there is Andruw Jones; just the way he spells Andruw makes my blood boil. I used to really despise Greg Maddux, for no particular reason other than he resembled an ex-boyfriend I had years ago. His is another face I’d love to launch a cream pie into. Then there was Smoltz; he always looked like a characterization of The Devil to me. Hey I even hated Glavine back then, and it took me almost two years to accept him as a Met.

I think the thing that annoyed me most of all was this teams ability to take old washed up players and motivate them to regain their glory days. It never mattered who they plugged into what position - this team just steamrolled on into the playoffs. A lot of their infielders never stayed for more than a season or two – who was their last mainstay at first base? They had Julio Franco of course, former Met Rico Brogna at one time, Adam LaRoche, Robert Fick, now Craig Wilson; it never mattered. Marcus Giles I used to hate just as much as the Jones boys. He always looked like the actor Robby Benson had he smacked head first into a tree. Then there was John Thomson who the Mets got years ago after hanging on to Jay Payton too long. Thomson was horrible as a Met and then went on to becone of the mainstays of the Braves pitching staff.

I always compared the Braves to this one particular episode of the Twilight Zone. In the episode a bum finds a brand new pair of shoes in an alley. He puts them on and goes on to live the life of the former owner who turned out to be a very rich gangster. He then gets killed in the very same alley, and then another bum happens by, takes the shoes, puts them on and lives the same life of the gangster. The Braves had the same kind of thing going on. Whoever puts on a Braves uniform becomes fiercely competitive, even if they stunk on ice before, or should have retired years ago.

What is even more annoying about them is that they have been in the playoffs consistently for years and their fans don’t seem to care.

With all of my hatred towards them - to think that last season just for a split second I almost felt bad for them. I thought to myself "now they know how it feels to not be such a good team", but I figured they would bounce back and be a pain in the ass of the New York Mets in 2007.

So far the only season series' the New York Mets have lost have been to the Braves. Last Sunday, when the Mets were down 3-1 in a pitchers duel between Tom Glavine and John Smoltz I thought we were going to be treated to what would be one of the most dramatic wins of the regular 2007 season after Jose Reyes hit a bases clearing triple allowing the Mets to take a 5-3 lead, and by the end of the inning a 6-3 lead.

However, just like in season’s past, the Met bullpen giftwrapped the game and handed it back to the Braves. It made me sick to my stomach. The Mets have to find some way of beating this team this year, for me even if they win the division it won’t feel completely right, and just like last year.

Back in 2000, when the Mets went on to face the Yankees in the World Series I never felt that they really deserved to be there. I always felt had the Cardinals not knocked the Braves out of the playoffs the Mets would have never gotten there. It just never sat right with me. I could never embrace that season like I did back in 1986, 1988 and now 2006.

I guess beating the Braves is how I measure Mets greatness the last 15 or 16 years. Being old school I always felt that the teams that go to the World Series should be the best out of both leagues. If you can’t beat everyone in your division then you shouldn’t be going to the playoffs. Last season was a different story, the Mets beat everyone in their division and rightfully so went on to play October baseball. It also happened to be the first year in a long time that the Braves didn’t have their act together. Incorporating a new pitching coach-former 1986 World Champion Met Roger McDowell (OUCH THAT HURTS). Their pitching was in disarray, and their team wasn’t hitting much.

This season it’s clear that it will be a see-saw affair between the Mets and Braves. They seem to be back on track, and right now they are jockeying for first place with the Mets.

The Mets need to find a way to start winning the rest of the series between the two of them, because I believe that beating them and the rest of the NL East will be the key to going to the World Series this year. They can’t allow the Braves to be like Met Kryptonite again and expect to reign supreme as World Series Champions.