FINALLY! The ’95 Braves | Part 1: The Pressure

FINALLY! The ’95 Braves | Part 1: The Pressure

with this team in this period in Atlanta where we have become America’s team. Everyone knows us. We’re on TV every night. We have to win this World Series. [Music] In 1966, Atlanta gets professional sports. Uh the Braves moved to town uh from Milwaukee in 1966, followed closely by the Falcons and the Hawks later that same that same year. 1969 was the first year of division play and the Braves won the NL West. So it was our first uh Atlanta’s first taste of uh postseason um championship caliber baseball. Now uh we got swept in the NLCS by the Miracle Mets that year, but the appetite was wetted for a postseason success. Uh we assumed there’d be more to follow. Uh and there wasn’t. 1974, Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s record. One of the most important moments in sports history, certainly baseball history, absolutely braves history. Uh but after he hit that home run, the air really went out of the franchise. Uh we traded Hank at the end of that year to Milwaukee where he go back where his career started and finished as a DH. And the late 70s were bleak. Uh Ted Turner bought the team, put us on TVs, gained a national following, but it was not because the team was good. Uh those late 70s teams struggled and uh that lasted into the early 80s. Uh early 80s, we had a new wave of young players like Dale Murphy and Bob her that brought some optimism and we won the division in 1982. So after a long wait, we were back in the postseason. Uh but that that postseason didn’t go any better. We were again swept uh in that NLCS by the Cardinals. Then in ‘ 83 we finished second place. 84 finished second. And then it got dark again. From 1985 to 1990 it was last place or second to last every single year. And it was not just last but 90 losses, 100 losses. Uh and that was the atmosphere of Atlanta sports. We we got no help from the Hawks or Falcons. They were in the same boat. Uh, and so Atlanta was desperate for a winner by the time 1991 rolled around and no one expected 91 to be any different. Uh, we were we were hoping again another wave of young players. Uh, Atlanta sports fans were hoping for a 500 season. That would have been a real treat for us. Uh, and so 91 worst to first was um the time when the Braves took Atlanta by storm. Uh the city went baseball crazy that year because um the the passion was there waiting to explode and the surprise of coming out of nowhere really built up the enthusiasm. Minnesota bench hoping to get this winning run across here in the 10th. It’s carried by Dan Gladen the third base and loaded one out. Infielders are sort of halfway at second and short. Pñena and a jam. The Twins are going to win the World Series. The Twins have won it. It’s a base hit. It’s a one- nothing 10 inning victory. I mean, coming off a 91, losing to Minnesota, a World Series, I thought we should have won. We were a better team. I just we just didn’t play our best baseball at certain points in that series and we lost as a result. You got to give credit to the Minnesota Twins. So, 1991, one of the great World Series of all time. We lose to the Twins. Uh, and we have a parade anyway. I don’t know if we’re the only sports team ever to lose uh a championship and still throw a parade. Um but we might be. And we threw that parade and threequarters of a million people came out to celebrate that team because that’s what that team meant to this city. We were so in love with that team that we threw a parade for uh our World Series runner up. Timlin Nixon butts. Timlin on it. Throws to first. For the first time in history, the World Championship banner will fly north of the border. The Toronto Blue Jays are baseball’s best in 1992. Come back in ’92 and we play Toronto, who I thought Toronto was a heck of a team. Blue Jays, they were loaded and it was a tough series, but we just were not um we weren’t there quite yet, I would say. Uh 1992, we go back to the World Series. Uh you know, the this the Frankie Cabar and Sid Breen drama in the NLCS gets us there. Uh but we lost to the Blue Jays. Uh 1992 losers of the World Series. No parade this time. uh our standards had been raised and we were we were now in the uh mode of we’re going to win the World Series or we’re not. In 93 Fred comes over in the trade. It’s one of the best um regular season performances that you will ever see a Major League Baseball team. As a player, every player’s goal is to get to the World Series and win World Series. And prior to me joining the Braves, the Braves had come up a little short in uh ’91 and ’92. And then I joined the team in 93. And I always tell people that 93 was probably the best team that I ever played on. I joined the team uh at the All-Star break and we’re 10 games back uh from the Giants and probably the one of the better best penet races of all time down the stretch. that second half of 1993 and that battle to catch the San Francisco Giants and the way we caught them, you know, winning the division on the last day of the season. Us and the Giants were battling and it came down to the last game of the season. We won our game and then we watched on the uh big screen inside uh Fton County Stadium and uh the Dodgers beat the uh uh the Giants that day and we won the uh the division and I think we just kind of like ran out of gas and we got beat by the Phillies. The payoff pitch. He struck him out and the Philadelphia Phillies have won the National League pennant. what was about to happen for us is the pressure of everything that happened up until this point, not winning a World Series, losing two of them, um, and losing, you know, in the third to to the Phillies, the pressure was mounting on us to get something done fairly quickly. I could I could sense the pressure around me. Um, I wasn’t there, you know. I mean, I obviously got called up a little bit. 92, 93, didn’t make the playoff roster. Uh, I could feel it even, you know, even seeing Ted Turner walking around in the clubhouse and and uh, you know, some of the guys that had been there a couple times and they lost. You could feel it a little bit, hey guys, is our time. I mean, you know, you know, just a lot of positive stuff, a lot of good vibes in the clubhouse, but you could sense it. You can sense it a little bit of like, hey, you know, we’ve been twice, we’ve lost. That was my main feeling really. One of them coming into 95 was, you know, we got to get it done. Uh we got a great team, but at some point if we don’t get this done, they’re going to be talking about us like we’re the Buffalo Bills of baseball. And they were already kind of comparing us to the Buffalo Bills, which didn’t sit well with me because as great a team as the Buffalo Bills were, they lost four Super Bowls in a row. you know, the Buffalo Bills were going through their thing at the time and uh there were some comparisons and uh you know, that’s something we didn’t want to have. We didn’t want that hanging over our heads. Losing in ’91, then losing again in ’92, missing out in 93 to the Phillies, you know, we were we were the Buffalo Bills of football of baseball, right? So there was more pressure and uh I don’t know that we necessarily felt it on a daily basis, but we just wanted to win for us, but we wanted to win for our fans, too. So getting the opportunity, you don’t know how many times you’re going to get to that level where you get to a World Series. Um you know, I mean, I think it’s it’s the pressure of having had opportunities and not done it. Um not gotten over the hump to win and just kind of wondering how many more you’re going to get, you know? Well, I mean, that window doesn’t stay open forever. So, um I think that was our concern was, you know, how long is that window going to stay open? Um how long can we keep this group together? Um and and then how many more shots are we going to get at it? So, I think that that became the external pressure. Um you know, it’s always there’s always some pressure in having gotten there and and gotten so close and not done it. Um, and having that happen a couple of times, uh, you start to put pressure on yourselves as a group. Um, but I think the biggest thing was, yeah, we just, you just don’t know how many more chances, if any, you’re going to get, so better hurry up and get one. When we had the when they announced the strike, I thought we were going to go home for two weeks. I really did. And when they cancelled the World Series, that’s when I said, “Man, I don’t know when we coming back to play D.” Because I know the World Series is not it’s a big money maker. Um, it had never been cancelled, at least to my knowledge, before cancing a World Series. So, I knew it was a big deal. Um, I knew at some point we were going to come back and play the next year, but when we had no idea, but it was a it was a serious uh blow to the game uh in ’94 when when we had the strike cuz I don’t think any Major League Baseball player thought that we were going to be out for long. I really thought we were going to be out. a couple of weeks we’ll be back to playing. So, being a young player, this was my second full season in the big leagues. None of the guys that I knew had been through a strike before. So, I think the one before that was back in uh early 80s, so it was all brand new territory. So, we were just kind of learning as we would go along. We were hanging on ESPN Sports Center every night uh talking to our player reps which was Glav and uh it it was challenging because we didn’t know I mean they just canled the World Series so we we knew we were in for a long battle. We were in Colorado and I believe I pitched the last day and we had a one o’clock game in Colorado and I remember walking into my house here in Vegas at like 6:30 at night. I had taken a flight from Denver right to Vegas and it was a short flight and uh you know just went into offseason mode. It was tough. I remember calling my agent probably once a week. My agent was out of New York City and it’s right where the the heart of negotiation negotiations and everything were going on between the players and the owners and we just didn’t know honestly we didn’t know once uh they canceled the World Series. Then I just went home and I figured honestly I kind of figured we would be all right. We we’ll be back in spring training. But then when they pushed it further then you just had to get ready and wait and that that’s I was just like everybody else. That’s all we did. just got ready and waited. So, we had a family friend who had an auto body shop in Swany, Georgia. And at the time, I lived in Alpharetta. And more than anything, I just needed something to do. You know, we were well prepared to try to save our money because we thought strike might be looming. And uh so I contacted my family friend and you know, he gave me a job. I think I was making nine or 10 bucks an hour. And uh but I wasn’t doing body work. I would take out the trash and you know, uh do inventory with cars coming in, clean the shop, make coffee, stuff like that. So basically your very very entry level job at an auto body shop. So I taught it’s first time I started teaching uh pitching. Uh so there’s a place called Denny’s Baseball Fever up in Georgia. And that’s where I trained in the offseason. And so he said, “Hey, do you want to do you want to teach some while you’re instead of just sitting around?” I think I started taking golf lessons for the first time and I started teaching pitching. Uh, and it was it was a lot of fun because I I taught for a very long time and but uh it it was a good time to kind of keep your mind off of things and stay busy. So I would train a little bit and then I would teach some in the evenings. I went back to Puerto Rico. Uh I start hitting the gym, try to stay in shape just in case the uh the strike end up sooner. Um, since this strike took longer than what I was expected, I decide to start playing volleyball for my hometown at least try out and start working with the team, try to make, you know, the team. I remember, this is funny, I’m I’m literally the the strike happens, you know, young rookie, you know, doing what I’m told to do, whatever, however it works out. And I’m going back. I’m go somewhere in town. I’m driving back um home and I get pulled over and police officer, you know, pulls me over and I give him my license and he writes and and I I’m telling you, he writes me a ticket for more than I was going and I’m like, “Wait a minute. I thought but you know, and so anyways, and he was I didn’t want to argue with him and everything.” So I he gives me his license my license back and and something about and he goes and you know what his comment was to me? Shouldn’t you be working right now? So he wrote me like I had literally five m over what I was doing and he said shouldn’t you be working right now or my speedometer was off but I remember that guy right and like two years or I think it was the next year later the same guy because it’s he runs the same highway and I’m running late sometimes you know he gets me and gets me pulled over and I said hey we’re back playing no ticket. anything uh routine about a normal offseason was kind of thrown out the window because we were typically we were used to playing in the postseason and then having a shortened off season where we would train and be ready for spring training February 12th or 13th or 14th. So now with all those question marks you it was hard to know how to train. It was hard to know when to peak and do things like that. So it it wasn’t it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t comfortable um because we just didn’t know and and sometimes that’s the hardest part for an athlete is to know where you start, where you begin. Uh we was uh working in Dominican, you know, uh it was uh like maybe 10 major league baseball player. We was working every day and try to, you know, stay ready for just in case the the call coming. For me personally, I had another I had a surgery so it had gave me time to be ready. Uh, I had bone chips removed because in 94 I was going to pitch that last game in Colorado and I and was couldn’t move my elbow. And so I tried to get ready in case the strike got, you know, the deal was orchestrated, but my elbow was was telling me otherwise. So I got the surgery and then leading into 95, of course, I felt felt pretty good. The strike was actually good because it gave me a full 12 months to rehab from a full tear of my ACL. You know, I was chomping at the bit by literally I think I blew out in March of 94. And by the time the strike hit in in August, I can honestly say that I was, you know, doing baseball activities. like they were have they were having trouble keeping me on the sideline, keeping me from taking ground balls, keeping me from hitting and whatnot. So, when the strike happened, I I think, you know, at least our trainers took a a a deep breath and said, “Okay, we don’t have to worry about him till next spring.” You know, uh 1994, the season shuts down in August with the strike and uh Tom Glavin was not only the Braves player rep, but he was the spokesperson for the players union. And so anytime there was an interview about the the labor negotiations, it was Tom Glavin’s face on there, which means he became the poster boy for the strike. Fairly or unfairly, he was the one who was associated with it. And that was a heavyweight on him. The guy that was the most unfairly criticized was Glavin. He was a player rep, and he was outspoken, but speaking the truth on behalf of the players. And I’m sure if he had to go back in time, he’d use some different words maybe. But, you know, believe in what you believe and speaking what you speak is it definitely hurt him the most I would say because he was one of the leaders in the ma major league baseball players. Tom like everything else he did went out of 100%. his job was to represent, you know, the Atlanta Braves players as is, you know, you know, to be our front person and to be our voice. And, you know, Tom was, you know, heavily invested, knew the knew the issues and, you know, a lot of people, you know, didn’t see him didn’t he didn’t come out very favorably. Glad was was our player rep and uh, you know, he took one for the team. you know, he he he did what was best for uh you know, the other 24 guys on the team. And uh you know, that’s something we appreciated. Uh something none of us wanted to do. Uh Glab didn’t want to do it either, but he was the one that did it. And uh uh I think he had Mark Wers to lean on a little bit during that time. And uh you know we appreciate what the two of them did for us and that they were kind of the spokesman and uh it was their face on TV talking about the owners and strike and the lockout and all that stuff and uh you know we just hung out in our cities and you know we’re kind of just waiting for it to end. He’s very stoic. He’s more of a stoic type of person till you get to know him. So, I think his persona, he he was an easy target because he didn’t show much emotion. And if you watched how he pitched, that’s exactly how he handled being a player rep and he he took a lot of the brunt. Even when we came back and started playing, he was the one that got booed the most. Uh so, but you know, he also got paid the big bucks for it. So, uh so I don’t feel so bad, but he was great for us because especially a lot of the younger players, it’s easy to get you’re dealing with a lot of emotions on a day-to-day basis. I was newly married, new newly, you know, had new kids and, you know, you didn’t know what what was going to happen. So, he was pretty, you know, a pretty good stabilizing figure for us as a, you know, as a team member, a guy that I could call and felt comfortable talking with and, you know, and he was always pretty honest and he was there, you know, inside of all the negotiations and and really knew what was going on. So, it was great for us. Yeah. Glav is um I couldn’t I could not have thought of a better person in in that role and and and I that’s me. Uh and I wasn’t even like an established player. I just had a cup of coffee up there. Uh and I’m I’m fairly compliment. A lot of other people felt the same way. Um the only thing that I really remember was like as a from a young players perspective um you know we’re just getting started. We we don’t, you know, whatever terms you want to use, we’re not sitting on a on a pile of cash at home where we can just take a lot of time off and we still got to pay bills and all those types of things. Um trying to figure that out like how how how are we going to work this out if this thing keeps dragging on? I mean, I’m going to go down to Home Depot or Lowe’s and I’m going to get a job and just start working and try to work out, you know, on my own at the high school and whatever we can do to uh to make ends meet till we can get this thing going again. But I do remember Glam being a calming influence, hey man, this thing’s going to get done. Just don’t go off the deep end. Don’t do anything crazy. Just hang in there. Yeah, I felt bad for Tom. You know, Tom was doing a valuable service for us as players and and the public eye guy, he was taking a lot of heat and uh you know, Tom handled it the way he handled everything. You know, he you know, he knew he had a job to do and he did it well. You know, the other misconception I think is that everybody thinks this is the players want more money and it’s greed and and how much more do they want? And uh that’s not really what this is about. What we’re trying to do is protect the things that we’ve gotten through years of negotiating. um you know, protect the free market that the players enjoy right now and and the free market that everybody in working-class America uh enjoys and uh you know, we’re just trying to protect, like I said, the things that the guys in the past have gotten for us and it’s not necessarily about getting more money. Um you know, it wasn’t easy. Um you know, because I think for me, look, I I was always somebody that I mean, probably no different than anybody else, like you know, we all want to be liked, we all want to be appreciated. Um, you know, I felt like I was elected, so to speak, to do a job to represent my team. And just like anything else, I did, I was going to try and do it to the best of my ability. And um, I think I got obviously a little too visible probably for some fans and uh, they just associated me with the problem. And and that was unfortunate and probably a little bit unfair, but it was what it was. And um so I knew going back to spring training that there was going to be a lot of animosity and there was going to be some things I was going to have to put up with. And I did. I mean virtually every time I stepped on the field of spring training, somebody was saying something to me or uh commenting something about the strike. I remember early on we would see people would like have made made sign what your salary was and stuff like that and that lasted for a little bit. You know, the fans were showing their frustration and uh you know, we got it. It was awkward. We knew what to expect. I mean, we knew that we were going to get We had taken the brunt. We knew we were going to be the villains and it all. It was We were easy targets cuz we were the ones that were with the fans. I mean, we were there signing autographs. We were there playing the games. The the owners weren’t there. So it we were always going to be seen as the greedy ball players who um cancelled the World Series and were the were the cause of it. So we understood that and um so I wasn’t shocked that when the season started, you know, I don’t think anybody booed me just because I came out of there because I mean I I my face wasn’t anywhere. I was a young player, but I specifically remember Tom his first his first start and it was it was pretty bad. Number 47, Tom Glavin. Number 48, Brad Woodall. Then my first game uh in Atlanta, you know, I mean, I’ll never forget it. And, you know, at the time it was kind of like, hm. But it was actually pretty funny. Um, you know, I was warming up at Fulton County Stadium and you know that old ballpark had the bullpen outside on the on the right field line and as I’m warming up this one dude is just wearing me out while I’m warming up. And then, you know, he said something about being greedy and then he started passing the hat to all the folks in the stands like collecting dollars. And I’m kind of watching it. I was like, you know, on the one hand I was a little bit pissed. Uh, but then the other part of it was like that’s pretty good. It’s actually pretty funny. So, you know, that was kind of all of it and at the start of the season and then as the season went on, obviously it it dissipated and and kind of went away and um but it was certainly something I had to deal with. Obviously, it was a very tenuous time in baseball. uh strike is always going to um cast a shadow over the players, the owners, no matter which side you take. Um but I just tried to stay focused on being ready whenever it was over. Um I think we got the call in mid to late April maybe to that, hey, we had like a week or 10 days of spring training and then boom, we were right into the season. I remember being pretty excited about, okay, here we go, let’s get on. We we’d all had enough. You know, we had the bad taste in our mouth from 94 not playing well and I think we were ready to get on with it. It has been 258 days since the Braves walked off the field at Mile High Stadium in Denver. 13 to nothing winners over the Colorado Rockies. 8 and 1/2 months without baseball. And during that time, we have missed the sights, the sounds, even the smells of the ballpark. Well, today it is back. It is opening day 1995. Hi everybody. Pete Vanwan welcoming you to Atlanta Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta where this afternoon the Atlanta Braves begin their 30th season of National League Baseball in Atlanta. Opening day finally here. The season finally here. Bobby, here we go again. Another year, another opening day, another good ball club. I know you’re enthusiastic about everything. We’re excited just to be here this year, Skip. And you know, it’s been a long winter, long spring, and we’ve been anxious for a long time uh to get this thing rolling again. And the players are anxious. They’re not quite up to 100% baseball shape yet, but um you know, the first couple weeks, uh they will get into great shape and they’re anxious to play and the game means something uh now and uh it’s time to get her going. As we mentioned, there are a couple of new faces in the Atlanta Braves starting lineup on opening day this year. One of them has been described by Bobby Cox the last couple of years as being one of the best five players in the National League. Maris Gryom for the last 5 years with the Montreal Expose has proven to be someone who could hit for average, hit for power, steal bases, and also turn in some of the finest defensive play of any major league outfielder. Now, he is a member of the Atlanta Braves after the trade that brought him here. 1995, we acquire Maris Gryom. Uh he was it’s a great story because he’s an Atlanta guy, but uh this wasn’t about bringing home an Atlanta kid. This was a we needed a leadoff man and we needed a center fielder. Uh Gryom was the best in the National League. uh this guy uh in Montreal, he’d stolen 70 plus bases multiple seasons. He was an perennial gold glover and he was going to be the table setter for this offense that would set us up for success. When I found out I was coming to Atlanta um over excited uh because such a great team and um you know the pitching staff that they had and I’m saying why in the world uh would they need me? and I and I knew right off the bat if I did my job as a lead off here that got on base, played good defense, that we have a real good chance of winning the World Series. The other new face in the Atlanta Braves starting lineup this year is one we thought we’d be talking about on opening day last year. Chipper Jones was on his way to winning the left field job for the Atlanta Braves in spring training last year. But in a game against the New York Yankees on March 18th, on that run down the first baseline, the worst possible injury that an athlete can suffer to a knee, a torn anterior crucet ligament. It kept Chipper Jones out of action for the entire season. He is back this year though at a new position. We already have enough left fielders with Jeff Blowser back at shortstop. Chipper’s minor league position. There was no room for him there. He becomes the Atlanta Braves third baseman. He’s also down on the field right now with Don Sutton. All right, Pete, thank you very much. I saw you watching that replay and I think you flinched a little, didn’t you? I get chill bumps every time I see it to this day. But, uh, uh, those, you know, that injury is far behind me now. It’s it’s it’s out of my mind. And I I I try to go out there and play with the same reckless abandon that I have for for the previous 10 years that I’ve been playing into the left center field that’s going to get in the gap between Blonds and Lewis and roll to the wall and Maris Gryom debuts as a Brave with a double leading off the bottom of the first. Torres, Trevor Wilson, they can pluck in there but really a very thin starting pitching staff. One- nothing Atlanta on the base hit to right field by Chipper Jones. That didn’t take long. Sharply hit into right field. Base hit. That’ll get another run in. Chipper Jones crosses home. Down to second goes Fred McGriff. It’s three nothing as the first five Atlanta hitters have connected for base hits. He is swinging and there’s a drive of it’s fair. It is hooking. It is fair. They say home run. 11 to five. Change that score. It’s 12 to five. David, it only happens once in your life and it’s about to happen to Brad Claus as he stands in the middle of the diamond. He’s going to throw his first pitch and then for the rest of his life he’ll be able to say, “I was a big leager.” How many of us have dreamed of that opportunity and what small percentage gets the opportunity? Um, honestly, that’s like the dream, childhood dream come true, right? So, it’s it’s like you think and know in your mind you’re going to do it one day, but when it uh that that time arrives and that day comes, um I can remember, you know, Ned Jok answered the bullpin phone and they didn’t tell us who was going to close that day. You know, Bedroan, Stanton, Mcichael, Wallers, myself. Um and so Ned says, “Clunch, you got the night.” So I was as actually uh a little bit startled as much as everybody else because I had never pitched in a major league game that day. And uh so obviously the nerves everything just wanted to get in there and throw my first pitch. Fortunately I threw a strike and I can actually remember the first three pitches I ever threw and maybe the only time I ever did in my career. I threw three strikes with all three pitches and got a strike out. So So that that was huge for me because it I had arrived at that that moment came and I didn’t fall on my face. So, I proved to myself that I belong. Clown’s much bigger man. Three pitches, one out. That’s a good start. Fred McGriff has room. McGra had one. 125 the final score and Brad Punt gets him one, two, three. So, the 95 season uh got off to a late start uh left over from the strike. The spring training was delayed, abbreviated. Uh we start the 95 season and opening day went great. We put up 12 runs and it was a here we go again. Uh but it didn’t go as smoothly as expected. We kind of, you know, a little bit of win streak, a little bit of losing streak, hovered around 500 for really the first couple of months of the season. And it wasn’t a major flaw with the team. There wasn’t really a panic. It was really the attitude was uh when we get going we’re going to blow everybody away because we’re we’re the best team in the National League. We had this we had a new mindset in the 90s based on our success in 91 2 and three that it’s a when not if we take off and that didn’t happen until really June mid June we clicked and once we clicked it was goodbye to the rest of the ined everybody got into the rhythm of the season after the probably the first month we were notorious for starting slow anyway so it’s not like we came out gang busters and start blowing everybody away. I think we probably started better that year than we normally did, but still I think there was just so much a shroud over the start of the season that uh it kind of nobody was really worried about that. We just kind of wanted to get into it. Well, it it it never even entered our mind that we were having a slow start, you know. And Bobby Cox said something real smart one time. He says, “You know, when you if you if you if if you’re not hitting or you’re you start a little slow,” he said, “The pitcher on the other side has something to do with that.” So therefore, we were not concerned about anything at all. And we knew as long as we stayed healthy, you know, we were going to be there. Well, you got to remember you playing 162 games. Okay? So, let’s say you win a 100 games. That means you lost 62. So at some point during the season, you’re going to lose 62 games. Whether it’s in the part of the beginning, the middle, somewhere in the end, 62 L’s will come up on your record. So if you start early early and and you’re not playing well early in the season, I’m looking at it as we got a long way to go. And I always say you start the when you start the season, you just want to be above water. You don’t want to get too far behind in April. But by the end of April, if if we’re all kind of right there together, I feel very good about our team because I know at some point we’re going to click, we’re going to get into the routine, and then we’re going to catch fire and we’re going to do what we always do. June 12th, there was an incident on the team charter where the uh you guys were heading off on the road and it started filling up with smoke. Do you [Laughter] I’m sitting in my seat and I sit at the very back of the plane. Um the either the last seat or second to last seat. Okay. On the right side is my seat on the plane. This particular day, I had Jose Oliva with me who was a might Jose might have been a rookie or he was a very young player and I used to always say, you know, I I have the young guys in my office because it was it was important for me. I always felt like I and and this is this is my this is me, you know, thinking that, you know, the Braves are my family. This is my team. I love my team. So when young guys come to our team, I always try to have conversations with them, tell them what it takes to be in the big leagues, what I if I can help them, all that kind of stuff. So I had Joseé Oliva sitting back there with me. And all of a sudden, I saw a little bit of smoke on the left side, maybe two, three rows in front of me. I remember this vividly cuz it’s right here in front of me. So I I I’m we’re on the plane there and everything’s normal and we’re taxiing down to make the turn. You know, when you make that turn, they start revving the engines up. And as they rev those engines up, myself, Eddie Giovanola, and there’s a couple of us sitting here, and all of a sudden, I can smell these like their fumes are coming up right here. I mean, it’s just like right in my face. And uh I look at Eddie and I said, “Man, this ain’t normal.” and he says, “No, that’s not normal on us.” And I So, I turn around and I’m trying to find a flight attendant. Well, by this time, you know, they’re they’re they’re starting to sit down and buckle up. And I started waving. I hit I’m we’re hitting the the buttons up here, the call buttons, and waving them like, “Hey, we got smoke coming.” Then it started getting worse. I can just remember uh we’re sitting there playing cards and uh the next thing I know, you know, we go to to accelerate and I can’t see the guy in front of me. I mean, it filled up that fast. So, I turned to our flight attendants and I said, “Hey, there’s smoke over there. You know, don’t hold on a second.” Because literally, we had just turned and we’re about to take off. And she thought I was joking. And then I said, “No, don’t let this damn plane take off. It’s smoke right here.” She calls up to the captain and I guess she tells him that there’s smoke here and with it felt like within 10 seconds you couldn’t see the front of the plane from where we’re sitting at. Believe it or not, we decided that we were going to play a high value monopoly. We were gonna do a tournament and we were playing Monopoly on the B on the plane where the seat would lay flat and then we had our guys and and it was going to be a it was going to be a fun Monopoly game and then out of the blue on we’re taxiing to go to the runway, you know, people started yelling smoke. I was in the airplane looking out the window. Um, I saw how the we were taxing uh heading to the runway and I saw how the uh airplane just skipped the runway, went over the runway and I was like, “Wait a second. I’m supposed to turn right here and take off.” All of the sudden, I saw one of my teammate, Jose Oliva, screaming that the plate is catching on fire. And I’m like, “What?” When I look back, I saw a ball of smoke in the back side of the plane and I’m like, “Oh my god, what’s going on?” I think we all were sitting there on the plane and we’re starting to barrel down the runway and it was starting to smell a little smoky. It was maybe starting to kind of fill up a little bit and I think we all were kind of looking at each other like, “Is this happening?” Like, is this this is this happening right now? like, are we all seeing the same thing? And I think eventually, and it seems like it took forever, but I’m sure it was a split second. I think we all pretty quickly came to the same conclusion, and we all, everybody in the back of the plane started yelling, you know, stop, do whatever, you know, like this thing’s filling up with smoke. Yeah, we were just sitting there. We We had already started playing cards. Um, and just smoke started billowing out of the, you know, air system. You know, you hear the guys in the back going, “Hey, man, it’s smoking back here. something’s on fire. And uh I remember one of the flight attendants came on and uh her voice changed. We’re not screwing around. You guys put your seat belts on now. And now now this time it’s starting to fill up. You know, it’s it’s it’s getting in the cabin. And uh couple other people start yelling and then here they come down and you know they’re calling the the pilot. All of the sudden the uh the mask just dropped down. I right away I tried to put it on. Uh I figure I mean I noticed that it wasn’t working but that’s because I wasn’t covering my nose. I just put it on my mouth and I’m like wait a second this is not working. Anyway, I figure it out. HB’s got it over his mouth but it’s not over his nose. So he’s got it kind of like this. He’s like it’s not working. And so so it’s so much like you got to put it over your nose and mouth and so you know he’s moving it around but that was I mean comedy in the face of all that stuff like I I started worrying a little bit about a fire like like is this is could this ignite something you know all the smoke yeah the smoke I mean it was rather obvious we had to get the hell out of there. I do remember there were a few guys in the back of the plane that they the the announcer says, “Please everybody stay calm and do not rush to the front.” And a couple guys just bolted and were knocking people out of the way to get up to the front because it started in the back. I guess there was something with the hydraulics that started burning and it filled up the cabin pretty quickly. The first person down that aisle was David Justice. David Justice came down that aisle like he was sprint. He was like a 60-yard dash. He was getting off that plane and the people in the back got it the worst. I mean, at first you’re like, guys were jumping over people to get out and you’re like, whoa, whoa. And and and then not knowing the full story like David was in the back. He always was in the back and he got out of there pretty quick and hightailed it. I remember Justice, he was in the back of the plane with us and he made a beline to the front. He he beat everyone else off the plane and uh we gave him some smack about that. Um well, I I’m not going to comment on David. Let’s just say he was really quick in off the plane. I’ll give him that. Um yeah, David was running past people. He’s running people over. David Justice like climbing over people, running over people to get to the front of the plate. He He’s like, “I love y’all, but I ain’t dying for none of y’all.” You know, the second they opened that door and, you know, the the the slide came out, man, DJ was off that thing in a hurry. I immediately grabbed Joseé Oliva and I said, “Hey, come on. Let’s go.” I get real low and I’m going to the front of the plane. I’m getting I’m getting to the front. And but by the time you got midway, then it was like clear, but you but from the middle back, you couldn’t see anything. So anyway, I’ve gone through the clearance and I still got Jose with me. I think I was the third person off the plane. Jose was fourth. I I don’t remember one. We could have I could have been number two. I wasn’t number one off the plane, but I know I was about the third or fourth person off the plane. So look, it it’s it’s like you being in a long line. uh you know I mean at at Nike store or something they done released a new shoe and we we 28 people back and we just said ah forget it we’ll just go to the front. That’s literally what we did cuz everybody was taking their time and we were not taking our time because we just felt like we just came through a storm. I’m the third person off. Joy is is the fourth person off. Now we get to slide down the the little uh the slide. So we’re we’re out. So now we got this thing called kangaroo court. Man, I’m in kangaroo court and they bring me up for a violation talking about, okay, we bringing up DJ and I don’t know if they included Joseé Oliva. They probably did include him, too. And but I fought for both of us. And anyway, they bring us up saying that we were the third and fourth person off the plane, which according to them, that was not okay, seeing as we came from the back 40 from the very last. And I told him, “Listen, let me tell all y’all something. As much as I love y’all, I ain’t dying for none of you motherfuckers.” I said, I said, “I’m getting off the plane.” Yeah. And I lost, of course. I lost that day in in kangaroo court as usual cuz I’m always trying to argue in kangaroo court and if you lose in kangaroo court it’s double. So quite often uh I was paying double. Uh I was always trying to be a lawyer in kangaroo court and they would be laughing and my cases were always solid and I’d always lose. But that day, I saved all of our lives because had we taken off, smoke would have it would have it would have consumed the whole interior of the plane. We would have never got up and got back down without Bro, that was a I’m telling you, I am not downplaying this. There would have been a tragedy for the Atlanta Braves team if I didn’t take it upon myself to really be adamant about seeing that smoke cuz nobody else said anything and I’m on the other side of the plane looking at it over there. Yeah. So fellas, y’all welcome. I love y’all and uh we still alive today and uh it was not a tragedy in Atlanta that day. Thank the Lord. His perspective is he saved everybody’s lives. Oh yeah. Yeah. I think he injured a few people on the on the way out. Yeah. I don’t I don’t think we were in any like real danger. I think it was I don’t know brake fluid or something, you know, that that that happened and something wasn’t right. But DJ was not going to be on that plane very long. So, uh very very funny moments. But then when they opened up the side doors, those big um inflatable things go out and they are they’re not slick at all. And they ruined my suit. I mean, we all wore suits back then. And I jumped on the thing and I got back down. I looked on my back of my pants and they were gone. They were just uh they were torn up. But uh that was interesting. Uh I can say that’s the one and only time I’ve jumped out of a plane on the tarmac. We saw all the fire trucks and and you know, all the first responders racing down the runway to get to us and uh you know, we got to go down the slide and we just kind of taxi over here and they pull the the chute out and everything. That was a little bit scary. Man, you’re kind of up on that plane and there’s no handrails on that shoot. You’re going to land in the middle of it so you can go down. The airplane got into a stop. I saw all these uh fire trucks surrounding the airplane. the flight attendants were try to calm every bit everybody down because some of the people were a little you know nervous. Um, so they opened the door, the sliding inflatable just dropped down and one by one we were all sliding down the uh the airplane and uh after that we just sit down in the um at the airport waiting for another airplane to be available and um few hours later we we just took off again. I was a little concerned flying again but uh we we we made it back. That’s the only time I’ve ever exited a plane with an emergency raft. Uh me and Leur Limkkey were in the back with a couple other I mean we were towards the back and and actually was coming up underneath Leur seat. So we were right there where all that whatever hydraulic fluid was and I actually um burnt my throat real bad and I was on I actually gave me an oxygen because I had asthma when I was a kid so it burnt me up pretty good. I know the flight attendants took notice and and you know somebody said something to whoever they said it to and you know we jammed on the brakes and the next thing I know we’re all running off the plane and down the slide and here we go and it was you know one of those moments that you’re like oh my god like that just happened and and you know it it you look back at it you never forget it. One of the only it’s the only time I’ve ever slid down you know that slide coming off a plane. So, it was a little traumat traumatic, I think. Uh, when we finally did get back on that plane or another plane, I can’t remember uh, you know, what we did, but uh, everybody was paying attention when we were taking off the second time because, uh, that put a that put a pretty good scare into us. And literally, I think the headlines were Braves catch fire. And you know, it kind of bonded us together in a way that and uniquely um you’re all sitting out there on a tarmac and then we’re all inside the airport waiting for a plane and couldn’t get any of our stuff and certainly the Monopoly game wasn’t going to be played and it seemed like after that incident that team just kind of took off literally just we started playing some really good baseball and uh that kind of got things going and you know things like that happened and you’re you can go one or two ways, you know, as a ball club. And we uh we took off after that. Here’s the 3-2 on the way. High and deep to right center field. Back goes Hunter. Another home run by Fred McGriff. Fast ball driven to deep left field. Back goes Tim. He’s at the wall. It’s a grand slam. Two home runs on the night for Klasco. and six RBI. We’re tied. Here comes Mark Limy. Line drive right field. Here comes Kelly. Here comes the throw. Safe. Braves with it. Fast ball driven deep to left field. It might be back to back. It is. And a high drive. It deep to right. Mandisy all the way back. And this game is over. Jeffrey Jones on the first pitch from CNZ tips it out. A threerun home run. And the Braves beat the Dodgers four to one. And occupy first place all alone in the East. Strike three called heading over. Bonds called out on strikes. Tom Glavin get a three hit shutout going. Slider got him looking. Strike three. It was but got him. What a great job of pitching by Steve Avery. Now an 02 pitch on the way to Jos Hernandez. Strike three called outside corner. Murker struck out three in a row. Got it. What a jab. He’s the best, folks. He is the best. So, we think about the the composition of this team, the way that John Sherholtz and Bobby Cox built the 95 Braves. Uh the balance is really beautiful. Uh you have David Justice, Mark Limy, Jeff Blowser had been there for the whole run. They were the they were the experienced guys in this in this run from 91 through 95. Then you have your next wave, your young young stars that are going to supplement it with Jav Lopez, Ryan Klesco, Chipper Jones. That’s your next wave. And then to finish it off, you have your your free agent or your trade acquisitions of veteran presence with Fred McGriff and Maris Gri to round it out. Such a good balance. Our formula was pitching and defense and then we would have timely hitting. So we talk about the 95 rotation, you have to start with Maddox. uh he is already a three-time defending Sai Young award winner and 95 he had his best season. Uh it’s hard to top yourself when you’re a three-time defending Sai Young award winner, but 1995 uh Maddox went 19-2. 19-2 all by itself is a losing streak stopper, right? You can’t have a losing streak if you have a guy who never loses. Uh but Maddox didn’t just win. Uh he was so much better than everybody else. Uh he put up a 163 erra in 1995, which is good in any year in baseball history. But in 1995, the league erra was about 4 and a half, which means Maddox was something like 160% better than anybody else. Um, and so, you know, when you put those together, if you start with even if you ignore his 92 Cubs season and you just count 93, 94, 95, that might be the best three-year stretch in baseball history. In ’95, it was like uh darn near a perfect year. Was he 19 and2? The strike season might have been the greatest season I’ve ever seen ever. Like 19-2 or whatever his record was. You know, they weren’t going to give out the awards and then they did. and rightfully so. He won his third in a row then in 95. He just he was on one of these roles that you know you dream of and he was perfectionist and very good at what he did. He set the tone for our staff. Well, my first big league game as a big league player was in 1993 and he started against the Cubs in Wrigley. It was an hour and 47 minutes. It was a two hit shut out and I was just in awe and but then after a while you just understand that that’s just the way it’s going to be. I can probably think of the six years, five or six years that I was actually able to watch him in person on the field. I can remember one time where he actually got taken out because he just was bad. One time. Other than that, it was just a It was just, you know, let’s go to he’s going to school, right? He’s taking somebody to school and just with the way he carved people up. Uh, it was just incredible. So, when I got to Atlanta the first day playing against the club, the Cubs, Maddox was pitching and he threw one of those hour and 55minute games and I was like, not what I do. His record says that he’s just about the best that ever pitched. I mean, back-to back uh erraas of under 1.6. six and that’s unheard of. Well, fortunate to stay healthy. I think that’s obviously a big one. Uh just the fact that I wanted to try to be good, you know, I I I think I tried to improve at something, you know, every day I went to the ballpark, whether if it was pitch selection or, you know, maybe better position on field in a bunt or anticipating what the other team’s going to do. uh you know, hitting runs, bunts, get a guy over. I mean, all the little things that happen in a baseball game, I think, uh just making an effort to pay attention to the detail, I think, uh is probably what allowed that to happen, you know. I think uh you know, just stupid little things. If the guy’s trying to move a guy over from second to third, I mean, let him take the out, you know, instead trying to do everything in the world to keep him on second base. Just little things like that and uh yeah, just being fortunate and healthy and uh being able to locate and change speeds really. So that was Maddox. Maddox is our ace that year. Uh it was such a dominant year. He led the league in innings pitched. He led the league in wins. He led the league in erra. He led the league in lowest walk percentage. He led the league in strikeout to walk ratio. Uh war, any stat you want to name. He didn’t just lead. He blew everybody out. So that’s the most dominant pitcher in the league. That’s our ace. Now every team in the league has an ace, but nobody has a Maddox. Then on top of that, we’re going to back him up with Glavin and Smoltz, which means every team that went into a series with the Braves was demoralized before the series started because they know we’re going to get at least one Hall of Famer here, maybe three. We don’t have much of a shot. And so that’s the key not only to 1995, but to winning 14 division titles in a row. When you have a Hall of Famer go every night, you got a pretty good shot. Oh gosh. It’s I mean that you got the big three which are I mean they’re all these guys are they’re they’re just professionals. They don’t they don’t go on very big slumps. If they lose it’s you know one- nothing or two to one. I was very lucky not only to make it to the major league but to catch a pitching staff that not only won Sions all three of them but they were all Hall of Famers. I think as a catcher is uh is a dream. Pretty sure every catcher will have a would love to have a pitching staff like that because uh not only you learn a lot from them, but um it makes your job so much easier. I I could not have been um more fortunate, more blessed, whatever term you want to use to to spend a bulk of my career with John and Greg. but also Abe. Um, you know, it was so much fun coming to the ballpark and hanging around with those guys. We had so much fun off the field playing golf and all the stuff that we did. Um, but it was just, you know, it gets a little boring being a starting pitcher, you know. I mean, that was probably my hardest adjustment coming out of high school when I was playing every day and and now you’re pitching once every five days. It’s like this kind of not fun, you know? But to come to the ballpark when you’re not pitching and get to watch one of those guys on a nightly basis, you know, it kind of made it fun because you came to the ballpark every night expecting to see something pretty special. And most of the time we did. We enjoyed one another’s company. You know, we we all were in the same boat. We all were married. We all had kids. We all like golf. We all loved baseball. We we liked trying to be good at baseball, you know. Uh uh we got along well. We pushed each other both on and off the field and we had a good time doing it. You know, we uh uh we were allowed to have fun. You know, Bobby Bobby made it clear that you’re allowed to have fun and I think we took full advantage of it. We uh a lot of screwing around, a lot of name calling, a lot of, you know, teasing one another. And uh uh it was definitely a special time. And you and we were winning. You know, winning definitely helps. uh you know, you don’t have to win to have fun, but it certainly helps. We had no egos. We didn’t worry about, you know, being embarrassed. Uh we could we saw this as a collective effort being around those guys. Obviously, you know, Greg and John and I are are linked forever. Um so to focus on those guys for a minute, look, I mean, it was a joy to be their teammates for so long. Um, I learned a lot from both of them. They made me better. Um, you know, it’s people talk all the or ask all the time, you know, what was what was the competitions you guys had and what was all that like? And, you know, we never we never had any competitions as it related to what we were doing on the field. You know, we all knew what we had to do. We all knew that the expectations that we had every year coming coming into spring training largely depended on the three of us doing our job. It was a little bit more easier to play behind those guys because you had I’m talking about Maddox, Glavin, Smoltz, and Avery. And people have to notice that Avery was during his prime and all those guys prime. Avery was right up there with all those guys. I’m talking about neck and neck. And you I would pick any four of those to go for me on game seven back in the prime. So it’s like that guy right there was a he was a bulldog. And not that the rest of those guys wasn’t, but man, he um he left it all out there every single time. I mean those guys obviously went on unbelievable careers and a hall of fame and um you know to be part of that and be able to say that I was you know a contributing member for some of it at least uh is always something that I I take a lot of pride in. So, um, you know, I wish I could have stayed healthier, but, um, the years that I had in Atlanta were still my favorite times in baseball and and, uh, you know, always be appreciative of it. You know, when when one of those four takes the mound, we have just as much confidence in all of them that they’re going to put us in a position to win. Now, let me give a shout out to our our fifth guy, Kim Murker. M is the only one of all of them that has a no hitter is MC, right? MC with that one pitch and a half decent breaking ball and a half decent change, but a freaking great fast ball. We always had confidence in MC as well. You know, Murk was on the back end of Hall of Fame pitchers, you know, but to have Kent Murker on the back end of a rotation was absolutely a a very uh uh positive thing. I mean, come on. And uh and uh you know Murk was always trying to keep up with the Joneses. You know, sometimes he tried a little too hard. Uh but um he did a great job and he and you know he pitched he got 17 years in the big leagues. I was an average at best pitcher in my career. I had some good moments. I had some ones I don’t want to remember. But dude, to be able to be around now what we know as three Hall of Famers, Steve Avery probably if he stayed healthy probably would have been in that same class. Uh it was an honor to be honest with you. And again, I I like I said, I was I was the fifth guy. That’s kind of who I am. And I’m fine with that when you got those four in front of you. Wow. And and you know what? But we fed off each other. Like I as a young guy, I didn’t want to be so far behind these guys. So it motivated me to do better, pitch better because I, you know, you don’t want to be the like the laughing stock of the pitching staff. So, but it was great pressure. Um, for the most part, yeah, it was, hey, you’re going to have to go out there, you’re going to have to pitch 200 plus innings, and you’re going to have to win some games. And we all knew that. They made all their starts. And I, you never told a pitcher once in my lifetime, you got to pitch this. And I never I said, “We only have one goal here, guys. Go to the post when it’s your turn and the rest will take care of itself.” And they all went to the post when it was their turn. Our rotation that year, we have our five guys. It’s Maddox, Glavin, Smoltz, and then you got Steve Avery, Kent Murker. Those five guys made all but three starts the entire season. Uh those five accounted for something like 70% of the innings pitched for an entire year. um they only missed one start in the rotation the entire year. We had a couple of throwaway starts at the end of the year when we’re setting up the rotation for the playoffs, but all but three starts. And then you add on top of that our bullpen. Our main three guys in the bullpen, Wallers, Mcichael, Clants. Take those three, add them to your five starters, and now you’re talking about 90% of your innings are covered for an entire season with eight pitchers. You know, starting in spring training, Bobby gave the speech of just, you know, we got to go out and we got to play, take it to the next level. And I think, you know, you think about that pitching staff, you think about the guys that been to the playoffs multiple years in a row. And uh nothing else, we wouldn’t accept nothing else but getting to the World Series. We didn’t say win it, but to get to the World Series and and take our best shot. And um we kind of kept prowling along and tried to stay a little bit above 500. Then we started talking about, hey, let’s play 500 on the road and 750 at home and that would give us 90 wins. And I think we can I know I set that kind of goal. We kind of set that goal as a team and then we kind of took off after the second half and uh there was no turning back after that. This was Bobby Cox’s team and Bobby was the reason why we were so consistent. Bobby was the same day in day out. Uh never down on anybody, always pumping up his guys. Every guy on the team knows Bobb’s got my back. Uh your starting pitcher can go out there and get blown out one day. Didn’t happen much, but if it happened, uh Bobby would go to the media and say, “Well, he thought he really threw well today.” just some bloopers fell in, which wasn’t true at all, but it was Bobby sticking up for his guys. And so, because he was the same every day, we didn’t have slumps. We didn’t have a roller coaster of a season. We came to the ballpark every day expecting to win because Bobby expected us to win. I remember the confidence that he brought out of all of his players and the confidence that the players had in him. you know, I knew it was a good organization uh coming into it and I I knew that was probably one of the reasons why. But when I got there uh playing against the Cubs in Chicago and as soon as I walk in the clubhouse, I could just see an R around the club without just straight confidence and uh that was very impressive to me. Well, it was like you you you couldn’t wait to go to the ballpark every day knowing that Bobby Cox was your boss and your manager and uh uh he had more influence on my career than anybody. I mean, and and more and more influence on my life than any any male figure except my father and uh and uh just a he had that he has those intangibles that you can’t teach, you know. So, September 13th, uh the Braves clenched the division again. Uh but this time they did it while on an airplane uh flying from Cincinnati to Colorado. Uh the Phillies had lost which mathematically eliminated them. And so there was a celebration on the on the plane, but nothing like a a big locker room celebration. And that was okay. It was a basically a foregone conclusion at that point in the season that we were going to win the division anyway. But it was tamed because we had bigger celebrations in

On October 28, 1995, the Atlanta Braves brought home the first major professional sports championship to the City of Atlanta. 
 
“FINALLY! The ’95 Braves” presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casinos tells the story of that historic season through the memories of 20 players and personnel from the 1995 Atlanta Braves, including Baseball Hall of Famers Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Fred McGriff, as well as Braves Hall of Famers David Justice, Javy Lopez and Leo Mazzone.
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