Atlanta Braves Win 14th Division Title!

Let's see... who else can really say that in professional sports? That's right, nobody. Many Atlanta Braves players have said as they were getting drenched by the 14 kinds of wine while winning their 14th Division Title, "This never gets old!". I totally agree and I know for a fact that winning doesn't get old. Which brings up my point. What does get old is the fact that out of those 14 years of division dominance they have only ONE World Series victory to show for it. And that's in FIVE seperate tries meaning they are 1-4 during this run. That to me gets VERY OLD.

I think that this year they CAN win the World Series, but probably won't for the same reason they haven't in the past decade, pitching that isn't on fire. Sure, during the season the pitching is tremendous and the Braves are known for their top pitching staffs. But when it comes down to when it REALLY counts they seem to be one step short. The one lone exception is John Smoltz who has appeared in all 14 of the division titles. His role has always been solid and will continue to be so in these playoffs. Unfortunately, the place I would REALLY like to see John pitch is back in the bullpen.. Simply because the bullpen sucks. Even the closer Reitsma who has had a solid September had an 8+ ERA in August and is prone to losing leads. I'm quite terrified that the Braves will have the lead in the 9th and have to rely on these bullpenners who will mess it up for all of us.

So, how far will these guys really go? They will only have home field advantage for the Division Series, so I would say that this slightly favors them, although they have lost 5 or 6 to the Padres and lost to the Astros last year in the same Division Series matchup. If they get by though, they better hope not to play the Cardinals. This team is just too good and when the Braves did play them you could have just said that the Cardinals were resting their starters (Many of them were actually injured). So my prediction: Braves beat the Astros in 4 then go on and lose to the Cardinals in 6.

So, now that we are on baseball, who's going to win the World Series this year? I can tell you who won't. The Padres, the White Sox, and of course the Braves (Since I just stated their prediction). That leaves the Cardinals, Angels, and either the Indians, Red Sox, or Yankees. Forget which 2 teams get to the playoffs for the AL, Im taking the Cardinals in 6 games despite the fact they will not have home field advantage. Its feels way overdue to have a NL team win the World Series (even though it did happen in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks)

So what lessons can we gather from all this....

LESSON 6: Consistency is a good thing in life if it revolves around acheiving a goal set higher than the last time you set a goal.

Why do I say this attached to the "acheiving a goal set higher" part? Well simply put, you could be like the L.A. Clippers, Kansas City Royals, or Prairie View A&M college football team and be consistently BAD. Or you could be like the New England Patriots and be consistently GOOD at a very high level (I will talk about the impact of this team in another post). So with those thoughts in mind...

LESSON 7: Consistency doesn't mean that you will be able to reach your higher goals that you set... it just makes sure to prevent mediocrity.

Theres a caveat to this.. I firmly believe in that trying your very best no matter what the statistical result becomes is preventing mediocrity even if it statistically shows that you were mediocre.

Back to the law books for me then bed. What a "consistent" routine I have for the week...