You Gotta Believe

Believe

Cause all I wanna’ do is go the distance…

They made it. They got the Old Man back to October. In the beginning it felt a lot like more of the same, didn’t it? And then at some point you just started to get this feeling like maybe there was something special about this team. There was fight in this team. This team had a heart that maybe some of the others over the last few years hadn’t had. This team loved playing together and winning together. That’s never been much of a problem but those feelings always grow in intensity when you win. A different guy came through each night. It sounds cliché, but with this team, this season, it really was true. There was something special about this team. You started to allow yourself to think that maybe this was a magical year in the making.

Eventually, however, the Baseball Gods brought a change in the weather. They brought bad luck and bad health on us. That’s when things went sour. It started slipping away along with summer. Then September came and ripped it right out of our hands. The leaders had fallen, one by one, left only to sit by and offer counsel to those trying to fill in for them. Suddenly it was a struggle for survival. A nightmarish ending seemed on the horizon.

No doubt some of the magic did fade away. But in the end it was still a special team. It was still a special season. The team banded together and fought through it all. In the last few days, the crowds turned out in appreciation. The fans were not idle. They came and gave support and in the end they were rewarded. It was quite a final regular season game for this team and for Mr. Cox. There was no nightmare. A dream? Perhaps not. But something close to it for sure.

The troubles wrought by the Gods did bring some good fortune. For the first time in many years it became all about just making it to October. This team and these fans had a lot to be proud of and for once everyone knew it. For so many years the pressure only came when the “second season” began. For once the pressure was turned off after game 162 even though there were more games to come. Now that second season is here. Disaster has been avoided. They went the distance. They will not have failed no matter what happens. For this one time there is no fear.

There’s just one thing I want you to do for me.

What’s that?

(Come here) Win…

Win!

Can you believe it? We’re back. We’ve made it back to that magical place. In the Old Man’s final year we’ve made it back. Back to the place where so many triumphs and so many tragedies took place. The chance exists. We’ve got one more shot to get it right. For the Old Man. For the guy upstairs (no, I mean Schuerholz). For Chipper and TP. For Andy. For Smoltzy. For Lemer. For the General Perez. For BJ. For Gant. For Avery. For Mrs. Greenwood and Mr. Caray. For both Professors. For all the Braves fans who were gone before 1991 and all the Braves fans who haven’t gotten here yet. There’s a chance for a story book ending to this whole damn epic. There’s still a chance to change the tone. A chance to write a final chapter that changes everything.

It’ll take a lot. Magic for sure. Luck of course. All that our guys can do is try. All that we can do is hope. And wish. And believe. It’s really all the same in the end, you know, trying, hoping, wishing, and believing. You might say that none of it matters, when we know it’s all up to Fate. But then, without those things, Fate wouldn’t matter either. You couldn’t win or lose without trying. And if nobody hoped or wished or believed, what difference would it make whether you won or lost?

I don’t have much else to add. The words aren’t coming to me tonight. But I do have something else to share. This was something I wrote in late September of last year when the Braves were making a final desperate push. So the exact nature of the situation which inspired it is different than the situation we are in at this moment. But the general feeling behind it is still very appropriate as we head into this next stage in the journey.

From September of 2009

There’s a lot of room out in right center…

I know you all remember what it was like in those early days. Just having a decent team got the city interested. Pretty soon it was Braves Mania in the city. It was all new for us. The comebacks, the miracles, the sold out series. We stayed up late for the games on the west coast and if we ever fell asleep the first thing in the morning was trying to find out what happened. That was the first time things like 2 and a half game leads, magic numbers, and postseason ticket sales meant anything around here. When we finally got to October there was so much magic.

I know you all remember what it was like then because it probably meant the most to people our age. Things have changed a lot since then. It’ll never be like that again. The city has grown up and so have we. Everybody’s gotten older and found other more important things to care about or worry about. It will never be like it was back in those early days.

But in my heart and mind it never changed. I grew up along with everyone else in every other way. I stopped believing in Santa Claus, in the Easter Bunny, in Jesus. But never the Braves. I’m still stuck in that time as a young boy when there was nothing more important and nothing more real than a team and a crowd and a dream.

And while everyone else has been mostly oblivious and dreamt of more important things, my dream has been about my team. The dream of another chance. The dream of another dance. Another shot at a happy ending.

I’ve never quite ceased to believe that it could happen. It’s been hard at times because it often made no sense. There was no logical reason to believe. And hasn’t that always kept me from believing in those things that everyone else goes on believing in?

But I think I’ve figured out why I stopped believing in God and Miracles and Heaven. I mean besides the fact that it doesn’t make any sense. After all, what’s going on here with this team makes only a bit more sense. But I’ve never really WANTED to believe. Isn’t that what keeps the faith? You want to believe. But not me. The idea of Heaven doesn’t make any sense, but more than that, it doesn’t seem like all that happening of a place.

But there is one place that I’ve always wanted to believe in. A place I’ve wanted to go. To go back. You see, I’ve been there before. It was years ago and many times I’ve feared that we’d never go back. But I’ve wanted to believe and I’ve kept believing. I’ve dreamt of another chance at glory. And now the dream is so close.

It’s a magical place my friends.

October.

The Coliseum…Oh you should see it Spaniard!

It’s different from Heaven. You can believe in this place because it’s not so different from the rest of existence. It’s all a contest. The feelings are all the same. Tension. Fear. Win or lose. Elation and Ecstasy. Sorrow and Despair. The unexplained. The unbelievable. The unforgettable (like it or not). There are legends. Miracles? I’d have to say yes. Tragedy? You’d better believe it. And make no mistake; there are certainly ghosts. There are no Gods…except that old witch Fate. And at times the only thing left is that old man Hope.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to dream this late into the year. I’m still dreaming. Of redemption. We could do something special. We could settle all family business this time.

It wouldn’t be like it was back in those early days. But it would be even more for me. So I need your help friends. If you can care and make believe that it’s real and that it matters for just a few days. Don’t worry that it doesn’t make sense; it makes sense to me.

If you can remember what it was like back then. When things like magic and Santa were possible and baseball was real. If you can remember then you gotta believe.

We’re gonna need help. But I’m really starting to believe. I’m almost believing in Heaven.

What the Hell..no scratch that, I could start to believe in Heaven, but never in that place.

What I meant to say was, what the Fuck. Mrs. Greenwood, Mr. Caray, if you can hear us, we miss you, and we need some help. It’ll be something special if we can make it happen. It’ll be magic.

…And if he hits it there we can dance in the streets. The 2-1 pitch…