Special Event: 2021 MLB baseball: World Series, Houston Astros v Atlanta Braves

October 26, 2021 10:01 AM

Baseball baseball! This best of seven series begins Tuesday at 8 eastern.
posted by LobsterMitten (21 comments total)

I know enough about baseball to know that the Astros are unlikeable cheaters (with the exception of Dusty Baker?) and the Braves fans are unlikeable chanters (with the exception of Freddy Freeman?).

In-the-know baseball people: who is more worthy of our cheers in this series?
posted by AgentRocket at 10:03 AM on October 26, 2021

Dusty is not a cheater, no. He is a cool and likeable person (who co-invented the high five!) buuuuuuut... he's also an old school dinosaur who basically fed kid pitchers' arms into a wood chipper for years, particularly in his time with the Cubs. Many Cub fans still blame his aggressive use patterns for what happened with Mark Prior.

As I noted in the previous thread, the Atlanta fan chants are racist and ruin it, but otherwise it might be great to root for Joc Pederson. Because Joc in a bleach blonde pompadour and pearls carrying a glass of red wine around the victory celebration is some energy I could get behind. (See also this interview exchange... Reporter: "Joc, why do you wear pearls?" Joc: "Because I'm a bad bitch.")
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:10 AM on October 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

I'll root for Atlanta in this series only because: a) they're the NL team; b) they beat LA who beat the Giants.

So it's transitive fandom, but I won't really care about it, because the real World Series was the SF/LA playoff set which while it didn't end the way it was supposed to was nevertheless a showcase of just really grand baseball.

Go Giants!
posted by chavenet at 10:39 AM on October 26, 2021

This is a tough one for me, because right now the Astros are the AL team I almost always root against (I will cheer them against the Yankees) and the Braves are the NL team I always root against. I think I'm going to be rooting for good plays, dramatic comebacks and, in the end, for Houston to score a grand slam every time Atlanta starts a racist fan chant. Because really all that matters is yay, baseball!
posted by thecaddy at 3:17 PM on October 26, 2021

I don't want Atlanta to win, but I want Houston to lose.

You'd think the Blue Jays making a mockery of the "chop" back in '92 on the way to burying Atlanta yet again would have ended that nonsense. Otherwise I'm good with the Braves - some fun players, a good GM, a great story of overcoming adversity this season. Houston's got Dusty, and... that's about it for positives.

Washington's NFL team did it, and the Cleveland Guardians shows MLB can move forward too. Just need Hank Aaron's team to show a little progress.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 4:07 PM on October 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

Ugh. I would be watching this had at least the Dodgers managed to bury the [atlanta baseball team], but I have utterly no interest in this particular series. Two tainted teams, and all on Fox. That’s a nopenopenope.

Giants in ‘22!
posted by Thorzdad at 4:29 PM on October 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

I look at this way. The Houston players and management (Dusty excluded) are cheaters, and for the most part have not apologized or even shown any remorse at all. The Braves' ownership are racist assholes that prioritize profit above all else, but then so do the other 29 teams. The Braves players, as far as we know, don't have a serious racism problem and guys like Joc and Freddie seem like good eggs I can root for. Also, the Braves' manager is probably the last person that will ever start in the minor leagues and work his was up to manager 30+ years later. Baseball just doesn't work that way anymore.

So Go Braves, fuck the Chop.
posted by COD at 4:51 PM on October 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

I am a Cardinals-man, born and bred. But having grown up during the days when Maddox, Glavine, and Smoltz were on The Braves Station almost every night during Baseball season and into Postseason, I cheer for the Braves.
posted by Stuka at 5:26 PM on October 26, 2021

Atlanta won fewer regular season games this year than Toronto, who didn't even make the wild card game.

Not that I'm still bitter...
posted by GhostintheMachine at 5:36 PM on October 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Braves have the legacy to root for, the Astros are a silly NL team that only recently was added to the AL. I used to be a serious baseball fan, now I don't really care, But I'd go Braves here if I did.

Also Freddy Freeman helped me win my one and only fantasy baseball championship back in the day. So I might be biased.
posted by vrakatar at 8:17 PM on October 26, 2021

Gawd help me, I think I would rather root for the passable group of players playing for the objectionable franchise than the more likeable group of players playing for the confirmed cheating franchise. Nice guys playing for the racists vs okay guys playing for the cheaters... not a great choice.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:53 PM on October 26, 2021

They have been my team for as long as I have been a baseball fan. Although, if I'm honest, they haven't really been my team since Skip died.

They could have turned it around last year. They could have been The Hammers. People could still be chanting "oh oh oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh" to the tune of "Can't Touch This" but the scum at Liberty Media are fascists.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:10 AM on October 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

I am cheering for Atlanta, because I have fond memories of their Triple A team in Richmond, VA in the 1990s, and because the Astros suck.

But there is really no excuse for the chant; here's hoping they cave to the pressure/come to their senses soon. Should have rebranded when they moved to the county, to offset that racism, but now is the next best time to anytime before now.
posted by the primroses were over at 11:24 AM on October 27, 2021

But there is really no excuse for the chant; here's hoping they cave to the pressure/come to their senses soon.

Is there any actual pressure on Atlanta, though? I’ve not heard anything similar to the level of pressure that was leveled at Cleveland. Honestly, I can easily imagine fans still defiantly doing the chant and chop even after a name change.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:52 PM on October 27, 2021

I had a whole long thing typed up, including a section about the team inviting Individual #1 to a game over the weekend, but I'm going to yield my time to Mr. Yates who deserves all credit for the movement to rename the team to The Hammers, and root for my man Freddie Freeman to win a ring.

“Manfred misses the mark with Braves,” Clinton Yates, The Undefeated, 28 October 2021

The chop has to go, the chant is deplorable and all of it is racist, even if not a slur

posted by ob1quixote at 12:01 PM on October 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

The chop has to go, the chant is deplorable and all of it is racist, even if not a slur

If they do go with the Hammers (which is great), replacing the tomahawk in the logo with a hammer is obvious and easy, and you could get Outkast or some other ATL musicians to write up a quick little chant rhythm and change the flat hand to a fist, and "pound the hammers" or something.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:26 AM on October 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

No hitter through seven!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:57 PM on October 29, 2021

Gone. Thanks Eddie Rosario. Still cool the Astros lost.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:47 PM on October 29, 2021

I'm happy for the cool players who happen to be on the Atlanta team. But it does feel like this World Series win will set back the cause of renaming the team for at least a few more years, for merchandising reasons alone.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:41 AM on November 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

“This is Braves Country,” Ed Southern, The Bitter Southerner, 04 November 2021

P.S. Many Metro area schools are closing Friday to allow people to go to the parade. I saw a screenshot of a tweet I could not find a link for exclaiming, "Is work going to be cancelled Friday too? Who's going to watch my kids? The Braves?"
posted by ob1quixote at 8:51 AM on November 4, 2021

If anyone is in baseball withdrawal, I've added a full season post and am working on adding individual episode posts for Stove League, a positively addictive K-drama that can more or less be summed up as Ted Lasso meets Moneyball.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:33 AM on November 15, 2021