It still feels unreal.
Atlanta brought home a championship. Those are words that I felt like I would never get to say.
Growing up as a fan of Georgia sports has never been easy, anyone here could tell you that. It honestly doesn't take someone being from the state to see from the outside how much pain we have endured.
The first time I can remember being relatively close to a title was when the Hawks made the Eastern Conference Finals back in 2015. There was a lot of excitement in the air for me, I was 16-years-old and ecstatic
for a chance to get to the championship.
We all know what happened next
Then there was the time the Falcons blew their 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl. I had already declared it a win in the third quarter, and I remember telling all my friends to come over to my house before we all go to the parade.
We all know what happened next.
Just under a year later Georgia played in the National Championship. We had a strong start and we made Bama look like a shell of themselves. Jalen Hurts was washed up and Bama was turning to their backup quarterback. It felt like that may have been my only chance at glory.
We all know what happened next.
Fast forward to 2020 now, the year has sucked so much. The worst year in the history of my life, as well as so many others. The one good thing though, is the Braves are in the NLCS with a stacked lineup. They go out and take a 3-1 lead, all seems right in the world for right now.
We all know what happened next.
Even in this year of 2021, the Atlanta Hawks went back on an improbable run in the playoffs and even had a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.
We all know what happened next.
Pain is a feeling like no other. People will always tell you to look at the bright side in your dark times, but that doesn't mean you will. Losing is never fun, especially when you know you didn't deserve that loss, to begin with. That's just how it felt every year when these things happened, like why us? Why can't we just get one?
This year started out with a lot of hope for the Atlanta Braves. We had arguably the best lineup in baseball coming into the season, and we had a rotation that was set to stride all year long. Momentum was at an all-time high. Like we all know too well though, rooting for these teams never comes easy.
We started out terrible, couldn't get to a winning record no matter how hard we tried. It seemed like everyone was just terrible this year. Max Fried started the season with a string of bad starts and even spent time on the IL. Huascar Ynoa was the one bright spot we had on this team early on, and then he went and broke his hand punching a wall.
Marcell Ozuna went to jail, and no one even knew how to react to that, We just gave the guy 65 million dollars and it could all be for nothing, at least for this year. Mike Soroka reinjured his Achilles by literally just walking one day onto the field. What more could go wrong?
Oh yeah, our godsent hero Ronald Acuna Jr would tear his ACL. I mean just go ahead and chalk this season up as a wash at this point. There's no point in trying, or at least that's what we thought.
Bring In Joc, Soler, Rosario, and while you're at, bring back Duvall. These guys made it happen. Fried came back to his normal form. Freddie and Riley started playing like MVPs, and all of a sudden the Braves are NL East champs. We've been here before though, nothing new. What was new was how exactly we ran through these playoffs.
We took care of the Brewers effortlessly, the Dodgers effortlessly, and the Astros, effortlessly.
The Braves didn't face a single-elimination game this entire postseason. We went out and handled business every single time. After every loss, we bounced back in dominant fashion. It was unlike any playoff run ever because we never had to worry for long.
Once that final out was recorded on Tuesday night, it truly was a feeling like no other. Every piece of heartache and ounce of wasted time of watching my teams go so far to only go so far was finally over. I have done nothing but smile over the past 20 hours or so.
I can't wait to finally be a part of a championship parade. I can't wait to hold my head high knowing that no matter what another fanbase says, I'll be the one that roots for the defending world champions. I can't wait to frame the AJC that I went to six different Publix's looking for just to have.
Living in this city has brought good things and a lot of great memories to my life. This tops them all, I will never forget this moment in my life because it was the first time that I felt I was the happiest I could ever be. There was nothing out there that could cause pain. NOTHING. The problem now is that I will never want to get rid of this feeling, it feels better than literally everything, and I mean EVERYTHING.
So let's celebrate Atlanta, let's make it known that we are here to stay, that we are the city of champions, and in the words of Joc Pederson, THAT WE ARE THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!
P.s: It's crazy that Georgia is gonna do it too in just a few months.
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