3 Takeaways from a wholly anti-climactic Atlanta Braves season-ender

This wasn’t a typical game, and wasn’t typical of Atlanta Braves baseball.  But there’s some takeaways that won’t be typical either.

Police found the body alongside the 285 perimeter highway near Sandy Springs at roughly 5:40PM local time on Wednesday, October 9th.  Subject was identified as the 2019 Atlanta Braves season.

Cause of death wasn’t immediately available, but foul play was definitely suspected.

It was surprising, given that the subject was still young and appeared to be in good spirits earlier that day.  Those questioned who were close to the deceased had noticed some lack of energy in recent weeks, and the Coroner will be looking at that.

It will take some time for the police to interview the 42,000-or-so witnesses, though they have already narrowed down the suspect list to around 30 out-of-town ‘guests’.  Rumor has it that there was strong motive, though it’s unclear exactly why.

There’s going to be a lot to learn from this investigation, and it appears that a lot of officials from the nearby stadium will be looking at this case very closely over the next few months.

Next of kin has been notified:  Walter Banks, the Freeze, Phil the Bucket, and the entire A-List among them.

Let’s check those takeaways, then:

3.  Little Things are Still Important

We said this the other day… and it was magnified in Game 5:  so many times, players have clenched up when trying to field or throw a baseball in an intense post-season environment that they would routinely and successfully deal with during the regular season.

The Cardinals has a couple of these gaffes.  The Braves had more… and in the end it was those plays and the lack of hitting when runners were in scoring position that really lost the series… not just one bad inning.

It was squeezing the glove too early, looking toward that next throw before the 1st one was completed, failing to run things out or not getting a good read on a ball.

It thus wasn’t any single player – it was a team doing these things… a tight team that perhaps clinched their playoff spot too early and then didn’t quite find that groove again.

It truly wasn’t the Cardinals… they did hit in their runners and made more of their plays, true, but the Braves had more opportunities in Games 1-4 and needed to cash them in.

But when you come down to a single game… truly anything can happen.