and Words
…
It feels like the first time
Feels like the very first time
It feels like the first time
It feels like the very first time
I have waited a lifetime
Spent my time so foolishly
But now that I found you
Together we’ll make history
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
It was 1982; I was a freshman in high school. I knew next to nothing about baseball. Popular team names, like the Dodgers and Yankees, sounded familiar but that was about it.
And then something happened to capture my interest. A little team called the Atlanta Braves had a dismal record the year before yet started their season defying the odds. I was lucky that Ted Turner, the then owner of the Braves, used his television network TBS to broadcast most of their games.
The Braves started the year 13-0; no team had done that before. Who were this misfit collection of overachievers? This was the start of decades of listening to the voices of Ernie Johnson, Pete Van Weiren, Skip Caray, and John Sterling. To me they were the voices of the team. They were my education.
I learned about sacrifice bunts and hit-and-runs. I marveled that players don’t bunt with two strikes and then discovered why. Not only did I learn about the infield fly rule; I also witnessed a number of trick plays surrounding that rule. I watched as left-handed pitchers were able to more effectively pick runners off first base than right-handed pitchers. Subsequently, I listened as these wonderful broadcasters painfully explain the details of the balk. Numerous reasons why pitchers may pitch from the windup or the stretch and why relief pitchers typically do the latter. I heard these wild stories about how some teams played with an abominable, freakish rule called the ‘designated hitter’. They mentored me.
I still remember the Braves’ starting line-up, the starting pitchers and even some of the relievers. I can almost see the mannerisms of the infielders as they played their positions and the way they moved in a magical choreography as the balls were hit… their moves committed to muscle memory. Regrettably, I remember the powder blue away uniforms, which were certainly bad, but not nearly as bad as the Astros’ home uniforms of the era. I can still see Bob Horner’s compact swing which was often described as ‘beautiful’. I can recall Gene Garber’s unconventional pitch delivery, though still effective even if he didn’t overpower you. If you needed a power pitcher from the bullpen, there was Steve Bedrosian, who was occasionally called “Kid Smoke”. Of course, I remember the theatrics of Al Hrabosky on the pitching mound, who picked up the moniker “The Mad Hungarian”.
The broadcasters gave the team depth on and off the field, they gave context and history to the faces we saw…
They described how Bob Horner was drafted out of high school and became a starter for the Braves when he was 20; he got the Rookie of the Year award.
They told the tales of Dale Murphy, who is a kind and decent human. Murphy was an All-Star outfielder, but actually started as a catcher. Unfortunately, he had a habit of overthrowing the ball into center field when runners tried to steal second base. They moved him to the outfield where he thrived.
The most amusing tale of that year may be the one of pitcher Pascual Pérez, who was freshly acquired from the Pirates. On his first scheduled start at Atlanta, he got on the I-285 freeway, figuring that he’d eventually reach the stadium. Little did he know that the I-285 is a 64-mile loop around the city, which he drove multiple times, and he didn’t make it to the stadium in time. Phil Niekro started that game.
That season was bookended by two unconventional plays that you rarely see in baseball, even after watching for decades:
First, during that 13-game winning streak to start the season, there was a late inning where the Braves were behind but were threatening to score. There was a runner on first and the batter hits the ball sharply between first and second, almost directly to the second baseman. It’s a tailor-made double-play ball. The ball appears to take a bad hop and eludes the fielder; everyone is safe.
Except that’s not what happened. As the ball is hit on the ground, the runner takes off from first. The ball hits the runner which caused it to go in an unexpected direction. The play on the field is that the runner is automatically out when hit by a batted ball, but the batter is safe at first (since you can’t assume a double-play). The Braves still end up winning that game.
Second, it’s the last game of the regular season; the Braves hold a one game lead over the Dodgers. The Braves have an afternoon game against the Padres. Going into the bottom of the fifth inning, they hold a slim one run lead. The Padres have a runner on first, but a ball is hit directly to Glenn Hubbard, the Braves’ second baseman. It’s a tailor-made double-play ball. The second base umpire in unable to get out of the way of the batted ball. I simply cannot make this up. The umpires rule it a dead ball, and everyone is safe, since you can’t assume that it would’ve produced an out. The Padres end up scoring five times that inning; this was the final score.
The Braves will have to wait for the outcome of the Dodger’s game against the Giants to know if they win their division. The Dodger’s Terry Forster gives up a 3-run homerun to Joe Morgan in the bottom of the seventh, giving the Giants the lead. The lead stood and the Dodgers lose that game.
The Braves win the pennant. I watch them celebrate in the locker room. The man who plays the San Diego Chicken, the mascot for the Padres, is a Braves fan and celebrates with them in the locker room still in costume; champagne is poured down his beak.
The Braves won the pennant with the narrowest margins. If any of the 89 wins had gone the other way, they wouldn’t have won it. On the flight back to Atlanta, Dale Murphy, the epitome of class, chats with individual players. He reminds them of at least one thing that they did during the season to contribute to a win, to let them know that they wouldn’t be there if not for their contribution.
This was all in 1982 and I remember it as if it were yesterday. How can you not love baseball?
After the Braves won their division, Phil Niekro started the first game of the league championship series against the St. Louis Cardinals. They led that game after four innings when it was called due to rain.
Instead of continuing that game, the umpires called it. The Braves had to start that game from scratch nullifying their lead. They lost that series to the Cardinals.
And that’s how that magical season ended.
It was the year that followed that fateful Atlanta Braves 1982 season. A film crew had been following the team the entire year, though none of the broadcast crew had mentioned it. As Opening Day approached, they announced a baseball documentary on TBS. The name of that documentary was “It’s a Long Way to October”.
As I watched the documentary, Foreigner’s “Feels like the First Time” played along with clips of some of the players celebrating, sometimes dancing like children. It was indeed the first time for many of them as it was for me. I was reflecting back to that moment and celebrating with them, even if I now know that after all the trial and tribulations the Braves came up short.
Many years have passed since that memorable season and now I’ve lived in the Seattle area far longer than I’ve lived elsewhere. I’ve gotten into conversations with friends about baseball. I could talk for quite some time with some detail about baseball. The one topic on which we never agree… That one should identify with the Seattle Mariners (or any team for that matter) based strictly on geography. I will always root for the Atlanta Braves; it doesn’t matter where I live.
That said, it seems a little unfair to borrow the title from William Forrester’s fictitious New Yorker article and otherwise not make any references to the movie, but don’t worry… it’s coming. 😉