by Bob Swanson

Created on: June 19, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Ah, The Atlanta Braves. This is one great franchise. I have been a Braves fan for most of my short life. I could never be happier liking any other team. Sure other teams have had more success and more money. I may live in Pennsylvania while Atlanta is on the other end of the country. I may hardly ever get to even watch them unless they are playing the Phillies or the Pirates, but I am proud to be a Braves fan.

When you are a Braves fan you may not get a World Series every other year. You may not get a $150,000,000 payroll. You may not land that big time,super star free agent in the off season. But when you are a Braves fan, you will get great baseball every year. When you are a Braves fan you will never be upset over a coaching decision because of the cornerstone of the franchise. Most of the time the cornerstone of a franchise is a big time veteran player like say Derek Jeter or Albert Pujols. The Yankees and the Cardinals can keep both of them because the Atlanta Braves have Bobby Cox. Never in my life have I seen a manager that loves the game so much and coaches it with so much passion.

Every game when a call goes the other way you hear Bobby in the Atlanta dugout speaking his mind. You hear c'mon "Frenchie" referring to Jeff Francouer and c'mon "Mac" talking about Brian McCann. No matter what a player does during a game, Bobby has their back to the very end, every night. If a player gets into a argument with a umpire Bobby is out there in what seems like less than a second to get thrown out in order to protect his player from the same fate. This makes the Braves a great franchise. Don't let me forget the players, oh the players. The Braves may not have the best players, or the most popular, but what they do have is great people. The Braves have players like my favorite, Chipper Jones. When they needed money, he took a pay cut. When they needed a left fielder, the veteran third baseman learned to play left and moved out there. That is what I call "heart". No matter how good a player is, he will never, ever win without "heart". If you see a player with that Atlanta or Braves logo across the chest you better believe he has "heart". That is the difference between a good player and a great player.

Being a Braves fan is no walk in the park. They by no means have the money to go out and get that big time free agent to change the look of the franchise. What they do have is home grown talent. A good portion of the players for the Braves including Jeff Francouer and

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