All it took was one swing of the bat. One changeup that just didn’t break and Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Juan Uribe took advantage, smashing it into the left-field bullpen. The Braves had been winning 3-2, in the bottom of the eighth inning, only two outs away from handing the ball to ace closer Craig Kimbrel. But then David Carpenter threw the 84-mile-per-hour changeup on a two strike, two ball count. The fatal pitch ended the game, the series and the Braves’ World Series hopes.
The night of Oct. 7, 2013, dubbed the worst night in Atlanta sports history, was the climax of a long history of Atlanta sports teams losing in the playoffs. As a result of a long history of disappointment, Forbes named Atlanta the second most miserable sports city in the United States in 2013, behind only Seattle.
The epitome of Atlanta playoff failures extends even to the least known professional team in the city: the Dream, Atlanta’s WNBA team. Over the last four years, the Dream have made the playoffs each season. In 2012 they lost in the conference semifinals. In the other three instances, 2010, 2011 and 2013, the Atlanta Dream not only lost in the Finals but were swept all three times. The last four years for the Dream have been more of a ‘nightmare’ in the playoffs as they have embodied the Atlanta spirit of making it to the playoffs but ultimately falling short.
The Braves’ playoff elimination was only an added sorrow for Atlanta sports fans that night. A few hours prior the Atlanta Falcons had finished their game against the New York Jets, up until then maintaining a one and three record. A win would keep the Falcons in playoff contention, but a loss would drop them to 1-4, making it almost impossible to salvage the season.
With less than two minutes to go and the Falcons up by one, rookie quarterback Geno Smith led the Jets down the field. As time expired kicker Nick Folk made a game-winning 44-yard field goal. The Falcons dropped to 1-4 after an embarrassing loss to a mediocre New York Jets team on national television. The severity of the loss was proved when the following week the Jets lost at home to the then 0-5 Steelers.
In the Matt Ryan-Mike Smith era, beginning in 2008, the Falcons have made it to the playoffs four times and only missed the postseason once. In their time in the postseason they have a dismal 20 percent winning percentage, only winning once in that time period. Despite such failures there is no one person to blame for the Falcons’ playoffs woes. Matt Ryan has never shied away from the big moment. He has led 16 fourth quarter comebacks in his four years in the NFL. Head coach Mike Smith turned the Falcons around after several very public scandals, Michael Vick’s dogfighting suspension and Bobby Petrino’s abrupt and messy mid-season departure. Despite incredible success in the regular season, the Falcons routinely fall flat when it counts.
Similarly, the Atlanta Hawks have made it to the playoffs the past five seasons, yet in that time period the Hawks’ winning percentage has been 40 percent and they have not once advanced past the second round of the NBA playoffs.
From 1991 to 2005 the Atlanta Braves won the National League East title 14 consecutive times, a feat no major American professional sports team has accomplished. In 1995, the Braves finally won a World Series title. Despite popular Atlanta sports thinking, only one World Series is pathetic. In any other major sports city in America (New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.) winning only one championship in a 14-year run of winning the division would be seen as a complete failure. In other cities in America, managers would be fired and players would be traded; in Atlanta, the thinking is different because the expectation is to lose.
There is an expectation to lose because the fans (especially anyone in high school or younger) have never known anything but failing in the playoffs. Every year we are tricked into having hope. We might see Matt Ryan make a daring last-minute drive to steal a win against the opponent; we might see center fielder Jason Heyward dive to save and end the game all in one play against the hated New York Mets. Every year it seems to be the same: an incredible, breathtaking, dominant regular season tricks us into having hope for an upcoming playoff run.
But then we fall short time and time again.
