The Atlanta Braves are the 2021 World Champions, having defeated the Houston Astros seven to nothing in Game Six of this year’s World Series. Four games to one, the Braves won this series. Atlanta has won this second championship since 1996, when it moved to Atlanta. Its previous victory was in 1995.
Going into the Series, the Astros were heavily favored to win based on the team’s statistically superior offense. During the regular season, Houston outscored Atlanta by 79 runs, which is not unsubstantial even when figuring in the difference having a designated hitter in the American League makes. Also, the Astros had a lower team ERA (3.76 to 3.88) than Atlanta.
The numbers didn’t show Atlanta coming into the Series on a roll, having just defeated the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. Whereas Houston had methodically taken apart its playoff opponents, Atlanta wasn’t supposed to be still standing. It would have been no surprise to many baseball insiders if the team wouldn’t have so much as made the playoffs, given how going into the season, the New York Mets were favored to win the NL East. Meanwhile, Braves were expected to be unable to play in the wildcard against the NL West’s second-placed team between the Dodgers or the San Diego Padres. It didn’t quite work out that way, even after the Braves lost their best player Ronald Acuña Jr. to a season-ending injury halfway through the season.
The Braves out-pitched the Astros and also out-hitted them. However, they showed far more passion for the game, with the dugout screaming after each timely hit, every clutch fielding play and any opposition-quieting pitching attempt. Atlanta is the poster child for why baseball is enjoying a popularity resurgence among America’s youth of all races who couldn’t care less about a player’s skin color. It is important for children to watch people playing games act just like that. Fun is what games are meant to be. All members of the team are expected to participate in team efforts. The Braves’ exuberance is a welcome breath of fresh air in the stifling chase of political correctness that threatens to squeeze the air out of professional sports’ lungs.
Those among us who uphold conservative principles and policies while refusing to abandon our love of sports took great satisfaction in watching MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, after his knee-jerk action in taking this year’s All-Star Game from Atlanta following Georgia passing a voting reformation law, having to present the championship trophy to the Braves. It would have been better if Atlanta won the Series. Still, given how the South sticks together in the face of Northern haughtiness, it was sweet music to hear the Astros fans who stuck around after Tuesday’s game, despite having every reason to get out of Minute Maid Park in a dejected hurry, greet Manfred with an anvil chorus of more boos than heard in a month of Halloweens.
Back in the day when Ted Turner owned both the Braves and superstation WTBS, the Braves were proclaimed to be “America’s team.” The 2021 World Series will be marked as the moment when the team became just that.
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