1996 Ad

Sporting News, The, Nov 4, 1996 by Michael Knisley

With a two-games-to-none World Series lead, the comparisons started buzzing around the Braves like mosquitoes at a Minnesota picnic. They were the New York dynasty of the late '30s and early '40s. They were Cincinnati's Big Red Machine in the mid-'70s. Someone actually wrote that the '96 Braves were the '27 Yankees, revisited. Maybe that's when the hoo-ha about Atlanta finally reached the saturation point.

Because surely by the time their reign ended last weekend, the Braves had soaked up enough soppy acclamation to waterlog even the best of intentions to keep a solid-ground perspective on their place in the game's history.

The 1996 World Series certainly further identified Atlanta's niche there. It told us that the Braves have a seat in the Great Hall of Baseball, but it's a little farther from the head table than we might have suspected.

Team of the '90s? That's still true, even after they lost four consecutive games and the Series to the Yankees. No other team in this decade has sustained a postseason presence as have the Braves, even if they have won a grand total of one World Series title in the last six seasons. All indications are that they should be back in the Series next year, too.

There is, in fact, no end in sight to Atlanta's preeminence in the National League. The Braves probably will be better next year than they were this year. They'll have a full season with Andruw Jones and Jermaine Dye, the rookie outfielders who started most of the World Series games. They'll have a full season with Denny Neagle, the fourth starter in Atlanta who would be a No. 1 on a number of other staffs. They'll have a healthy David Justice (shoulder), who will regain his place in the lineup or bring substantial booty in a trade. They'll have a healthy Pedro Borbon (elbow), whose left-handed presence in the bullpen was sorely missed in the Series.

And they'll have a new stadium in which to play, a factor that shouldn't be overlooked in light of the on-field revitalizations that conjuncted with new stadiums in Baltimore, Cleveland, Texas and Denver.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the hammer to drop even when the John Smoltz-Greg Maddux-Tom Glavine days are done in Atlanta, either. The next generation of pitcher is already in waiting in the low-minor league names of Robbie Bell, Jimmy Osting, Ben Wyatt, Bruce Chen, Luis Rivera, Odaliz Perez, Jason Shiell and Delvis Pacheco.

"We feel that by the year 2000, we could have a pitching staff like we have here right now, and maybe even a little deeper." says Paul Snyder, the Braves' director of scouting.

But a dynasty worthy of those rapturous teams of yore? No. In fact, Atlanta's 4-games-to-2 Series loss to the Yankees lay bare the sort of on-field schizophrenia in the National League champions that nags every strong club in baseball's free-agency era-namely the impossibility of constructing and maintaining the perfect team. Even as the Braves continue to feature the best starting pitching the game has seen in perhaps 25 years, their roster also continues to be flawed by short-comings in a handful of critical areas: depth, shortstop and middle relief.

Still, perfection apparently was demanded from Atlanta's fourth appearance in the last five World Series.

"We won two games and people thought we were better than the '27 Yankees," Smoltz says. "Come on. Save that for when it's all said and done. People see that and think its over, that we've got nothing to worry about. But to even be thinking about that at that point in the Series is ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous. I'm speaking for myself here, but it was frustrating to see that."

New York was far from perfection in 1996, too, by any reasonable standard. But by the time the Yankees had finished tinkering with their roster down the stretch of the regular season, they had put together baseball's deepest bench and deepest pitching staff. Both elements allowed manager Joe Torre the flexibility to fashion a lineup that exposed the flaws in every postseason team he faced. A paper-thin crop of relief pitchers for Texas. An inability to manufacture runs for Baltimore. Holes on the bench and in the bullpen for Atlanta.

Those holes undermined the considerable advantages with which the Braves both went into and came out of the World Series and lent a fluky element to the eventual outcome. When it ended, the Series losers had a staff earned-run average of 2.33, more than a run-and-a-half stingier than the 3.93 ERA the winners put together, Through the six games, Atlanta hit .254 to New York's .216. The Braves hit more home runs (four to two), struck out fewer times (36 to 43) and outscored the Yankees, 26-18.

But in key relief appearances, Greg McMichael (27.00 ERA in two games) and Steve Avery (13.50 in one) crashed and burned. The usually reliable closer, Mark Wohlers, gave up a three-run home run to Jim Leyritz in Game 4, as the Yankees came back from a 6-0 deficit to win in extra innings and turn the Series back to a New York advantage. And Atlanta's bench finished the postseason without a single pinch hit--0-for-22 through its three playoff series.