There ain't no curses, Atlanta. But...
Doesn't mean you have to keep accepting a disingenuous silver lining
I don’t believe in sports curses.
I also don’t want to keep hearing that my sports team’s future is bright after another loss that makes me wonder if I should actually start to believe in sports curses.
Fans that follow the Braves are passionate.
They are hyperbolic on twitter.
But I’ll be a home run ball that actually flies over Mookie Betts’ glove in right field if they aren’t informed.
They are informed about what the club is up to during the season and outside of it.
They are informed by years of winning a lot of divisions and only one of winning it all.
They are informed about other teams in this market not even being able to do that.
So when the Braves lost the NLCS’ decisive game 7 after sporting a 3-1 series lead a few nights ago, those old familiar feelings crept back in.
Atlanta’s sports teams are cursed!
The old battle cry from everyone with access to sports scores.
Foiled again.
Your town’s teams and fans just got turned into a meme.
Again.
Let the record plainly show: I don’t believe in sports curses.
I do believe Atlanta’s sports teams lose in fashions that have a distinct, tangible feeling.
So maybe the Braves didn’t blow this series the same way the Falcons blew a 28-3 Super Bowl lead.
But you can’t tell me that when Marcell Ozuna made a base-running mistake in Game 5, or when Austin Riley did something similar to set up a baffling double play in Game 7, that it didn’t feel similar.
Or when the Dodgers scored 11 runs in a first inning.
Or when Will Smith homered off of Will Smith.
That Atlanta sports disappointment muscle that’s gotten plenty of exercise? It started to twitch again.
I know the feeling.
Even people that don’t pull for the teams in this market know it.
What light through yonder window of opportunity breaks?
Ah, yes. The tweets of silver linings that Atlanta sports fans should draw from yet another defeat.
They showed up on the scene not long after the #AtlantaSports tweets did like an ambulance that only brings teddy bears to a car crash.
The future is bright!
This team is ahead of schedule!
The better team won, but look at the fight from your team!
You know those empty musings, too.
This messaging is the equivalent to quote tweeting “thoughts and prayers” on someone’s awful news without actually calling to see if they’re OK.
It’s time for Atlanta’s sports fans to stop accepting these patronizing instructions from people that want to put a band-aid on your years of pain that other people turn into Spider-Man memes.
They tell you the same thing every time, and it’s yet to come true.
It doesn’t mean they’re wrong.
It does mean they aren’t putting much thought into their bold sports opinion.
And after another one of these losses, it does read as insulting to a fanbase and a town that is plugged in, and knows that the future should be bright.
The thing is, we’re all still pretty bummed with the present right now.
And until a team actually does delight Atlanta’s sports fans with a championship again, the past is the only thing informing how we should all feel.
But thanks for reminding me that Mike Soroka was injured. I’d almost forgotten.
Ain’t no curses.