When does a team win 106 games in one season and still have to say it’s sorry?
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When you’re the Atlanta Braves, the franchise of the ’90s. Baseball’s most admired organization, caught and passed, reduced to inhaling exhaust fumes again.
America’s Team isn’t necessarily October’s Team.
But let us be fair. The Florida Marlins were built for this race with cash and brains, so it wasn’t so shocking that they claimed the National League pennant Tuesday night with a 7-4 victory over the stunned Braves, who began their admirable run of six straight postseason appearances two years before the Marlins were even born in 1993.
For a while there, Florida’s expansion partners, the Colorado Rockies, made the giant strides by reaching the playoffs in just their third season. But no franchise, not even the miracle Mets of ’69, reached a World Series during only its fifth season of existence.
That’s one five-year plan, and bingo. Do you know what this means to those of us from Chicago? Since the Cubs won their last World Series in 1908 and the White Sox last won in 1917, they have combined for 169 years without a championship, or the equivalent of about 34 failed five-year plans.
So, everything is relative, just in case the Braves are feeling down about their plight. They lost eight of 12 games to Florida during the regular season, and four of six in this tournament. This was not an earthshaking development.
Still, the Marlins got only one start in this series from injured Alex Fernandez and just 15 innings from Kevin Brown, who was supposed to start three games. The Marlins batted a Mendoza-like .199, and still they’re going to the big show, not because they outspent the Braves, but outplayed them.
If pitching is 80 percent of the game, and the Braves have so much, how is it possible that they’ve taken another early bow? Perhaps we should have known from the first inning of the first game, when the Marlins scored three unearned runs against Greg Maddux, the best pitcher of the generation.
The Marlins beat him twice, and Tuesday night, they whipped Tom Glavine, who wasn’t himself. The other Atlanta defeat was debited to John Smoltz, so the Marlins didn’t even have to exploit the Braves’ soft bullpen. The Marlins went right to the top. The Big Three lost all four.
If the Braves are as professional as we think, they won’t dwell on umpires, specifically Eric Gregg’s expansive strike zone in Game 5. There’s a different strike zone every day. That’s the essence of the sport, and the Braves’ venerable rotation gets more than its share of marginal calls.
Also, the Braves needn’t accuse the Marlins of buying this pennant. True, owner Wayne Huizenga shelled out $89 million last winter to fortify his Marlins. But one reason is that the Marlins are in the same division as the Braves, who annually consume large quantities of Ted Turner’s fortune.
On the other hand, the Braves should be annoyed if they’re labeled as losers. They have a little of Greg Norman in them. They’re always in the fight, but they often get punched in the nose. The record is still far superior to the teams that have eliminated the Braves, then flamed out in a hurry.
Minnesota beat Atlanta in the 1991 World Series but hasn’t sniffed the playoffs since. Toronto ousted the Braves in 1992 and Philadelphia upset the Braves in 1993, but the Blue Jays and Phillies are in full retreat. The Yankees, who won it all last year, are gone. Ironically, Cleveland–Atlanta’s only World Series victim–is one victory from another big show.
But the Braves won’t be there. Five years ago this very night, Francisco Cabrera won a pennant for them in Atlanta against Jim Leyland’s Pittsburgh Pirates. Five years later, he returned with the Marlins and their first five-year plan.