As a fan of a number of sports teams, I have enjoyed some highs and lows this fall, just as I do about every year.
However, this year was somewhat unusual in that two teams I strongly pull for - the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Baylor School Red Raiders football team — both had early postseason exits after having uplifting regular seasons in which they achieved more than initially expected.
Who could not get excited about the Braves and winning a division title a second year in a row after this year’s East Division race was considered a tossup among all the teams in the division except Miami.
Despite some pitching that was at times suspect, I hoped this would finally be the year to replace those forgettable post-season experiences of the last 20 or so years, when they could not get past the first series.
I still thought they might be able win Game 5 against St.
Louis in the National League Divisional Series on Oct. 9 and make a run, but when I got in my car and started listening as I drove home, it was already 4-0 or something like that. And seemingly five minutes after I stopped at Chick-fil-A and downed a couple of Waffle Fries and checked my phone, it was already like 9-0.
And by the time I got back in my car, the lead had gone to double digits before the final score of 13-1. Oh well, as long-suffering Chicago Cubs’ fans used to say until they finally won it all in 2016, “Wait ’til next year!”
Seeing Washington win this year was inspiring in ways, even though the Nationals also finished behind the Braves in the National League East and are also one of Atlanta’s stronger rivals. They, too, had previously seen futility in recent years in the opening series of the post-season. So maybe in the next year or two the Braves can have luck and post-season production on their side and put together a similarly memorable run.
As longtime Chattanoogans know, the city of Washington also has had a long connection with the Lookouts, as it was the parent club of Chattanooga for decades in the early and mid-20th century. When the old Senators made rare appearances in the World Series, they had a number of players who had played in Chattanooga.
Chattanoogans are hoping the Lookouts are able to keep fielding teams and don’t have to be phased out as has been recently discussed, as Major League Baseball looks at reducing the number of affiliated minor league teams.
A big reason is evidently AT&T Field, or maybe just its age, even though it is only the same age as a college freshman or sophomore.
While at an eye-catching location on the old Kirkman High football field site, it was never built with higher end material or with any extra amenities. This was in large part due to the fact that ownership head Frank Burke had built it primarily with his group’s money and with the help of a certain number of season ticket purchasers who had bought enough to pay for the stadium after his creative and enthusiastic push.
But a rule of advice for the future might be to build it nice and unique enough to make people want to hold on to it for a long time and enjoy going to a game there for decades.
A few people would probably love to see Engel Stadium get a good once over and have proper amenities added outside and become a minor league baseball park again.
In the opinion of many, it had its own character and feel and history, and going to a game there was a special experience. Unfortunately, it is not in the hot and trendy area of Chattanooga right now, it is now part of the UTC sports complex, and about everybody — particularly every minor league owner and general manager — wants something new.
But a couple of stadiums named Fenway Park and Wrigley Field show that the “old is new again” concept does work in the major leagues.
Speaking of the historic fabric that is a big part of baseball, this fall marked 50 years since the Atlanta Braves won their first divisional title. I can still remember as a 10-year-old rushing out to get the Chattanooga Times in front of our house, opening the sports page before I went back inside, and seeing with excitement that they had clinched the West division title.
My father, Dr. Wayne Shearer, got tickets for the National League Championship Series against the East division winner, the New York Mets, and I remember we went down to see the second game, which I believe was a Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for me, the Braves lost that game and were swept by the Mets, who went on to become the inspiring “Miracle Mets” by winning the World Series after several bad seasons in the 1960s.
The Braves had actually won the regular season series against the Mets, 8 games to 4. Does that sound kind of like this year with the Braves and Washington?
But I was a Braves fan for life after 1969, despite mostly bad seasons until 1991.
And speaking of being a long-suffering fan of some teams, my high school alma mater, Baylor, exited in the first round of the tough Division II playoffs last Friday after losing a close 12-7 contest to Montgomery Bell Academy of Nashville, a team it had beaten earlier in the season.
As a result, the Red Raiders’ state football championship drought has now extended to 46 years, with the last coming in 1973 when the private and public schools still played together. Of course, many high schools never win a state championship or do go that many years without winning one, so it is not that unusual. And Baylor did come close in 1977, my senior year, and in 2010, with last-second losses in both games.
Baylor fans and alumni were hoping for a possible rematch with McCallie and successful coach Ralph Potter in the state championship game, but it was not to be.
I have still not forgotten being a seventh- and eighth-grader at Baylor in 1972 and 1973 and sitting in the stands cheering for those Red Raider teams under coach “Red” Etter that both reached the state championship game. It might just be my myopic perspective, but I have long thought those two years were the best time to be a Baylor student cheering in the stands for the football team.
Although Baylor had enjoyed a rich football tradition until that time, the program was getting good again those two years after an average stretch in the late 1960s and was enjoying its first runs in the relatively new state playoffs.
Since then, they, like most other teams at all levels, have had up-and-down seasons, although they did reach the state championship game in 2011 in addition to those other two mentioned seasons. This year, after a couple of struggling years, they inspired under coach Phil Massey with new quarterback Neyland Jean, new running back Elijah Howard and returner Noah Martin, who at times looked like the second coming of Dick Butkus or Jack Lambert at linebacker.
They finished 9-1 in the regular season for their best season in years, with their lone loss to that team against which all Baylor seasons are measured — McCallie. The Blue Tornado are hoping to win their first state championship since 2001 and play in the semifinals Friday.
I have continued to follow Baylor over the years since graduating in 1978, although for 12 years while living in Knoxville, I only saw the Baylor-McCallie games while covering high school games involving all sorts of schools — including Baylor against Webb School in Knoxville on a couple of occasions.
Since I returned to Chattanooga in 2017, I have tried to see them just as a fan and alumnus three or four times a year. I have since realized that not only do I not know hardly any of the parents who are now mostly 10 or 20 years younger than I am, but about all the former teachers I knew have retired as well.
But I still remain linked to the team in red and gray, just as many other followers of high school football do to their various alma maters, especially if the program has had any kind of sustained success.
Baylor did not go quite as far as I had hoped this year, but as baseball fans in that certain city that has a lot of wind say,
“Wait ’til next year!”
jcshearer2@comcast.net