Saintman2884
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Oye, you know what's strange and a bit ironic about that 1983 Atlanta Braves team photo? That was one year removed from the famous, almost legendary 1982 Braves season where Atlanta won the NL West for the first time in 13 years, advanced to the NLCS where they held their own pretty well against a loaded, HOF-laden St. Louis Cardinals team that IMHO, always get overlooked for what they accomplished throughout the 80s. Won a WS in 1982, made 2 more WS appearances(1985 and 87) and lost both in close 7-game series.
FOR LIFE!!!!!
also, **** the Astros
Still, in 1983 IIRC, Braves lost the NL West division race to LA Dodgers by two games and it was really their last legitimate postseason run for the rest of 1980s until those great Bobby Cox Braves dynasty teams from 1991-2005.
What's strange through, is that despite all the success, accolades, HOF players, coaches, pitchers, managers, GMs Atlanta's had over the past 3 decades now, and most of the current Atlanta population wasn't born yet or too young to remember, the 1982 team still retains a large amount of curiosity, interest in it because unlike the highly talented, hugely successful teams that succeeded it, it seems like an pleasant outlier, a landmark, one-in-a-million run that seemed improbable.
Because unlike now, Atlanta in the early 80s wasnt the New York of the South yet. It's best sports teams were the Hawks and Falcons sometimes but they always choked enormously in critical moments terribly in postseason(1980 NFC Div. Round loss to Dallas at home, 1982 1st round playoff road loss to Vikings where Minnesota scored the go-ahead TD with less than 2:00 less in a game Falcons had dominated). Atlanta's population was more closer to what Nashville's is now, it was perceived as geographically isolated compared to Washington D.C., it didn't have the glitz, excitement or tropical paradise of a Miami. It was seen by outside observers as a city on the rise, a city of enormous potential but what it was capable of rising to and how realistic and how long would there window of potential last?