They Have Great MLB Talent, And Their Fans Are ‘Ruthless’

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Atlanta Braves don’t have the best home record in the history of the universe. They’ve also failed to hold such a distinction in Major League Baseball.

Well, since 2017.

That’s when the Braves began playing inside their $1.1 billion complex of business and entertainment called The Battery, where they now own a 249-188 record at Truist Park. They surged from behind Thursday night against the San Diego Padres before a delirious crowd of 42,803 to take their 2023 home opener 7-6 with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Victories, drama and noise.

Welcome to your average Braves home game in recent years, and it all has contributed to their five consecutive National League East titles, two trips to the National League Championship Series in three years and a World Series title two seasons ago.

So, is this really true? The Braves don’t have a superior home record over the past five seasons than the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Yankees, the Houston Astros, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cleveland Guardians or the St. Louis Cardinals?

Yes, that’s the case.

So says Elias.

But you could have fooled just about everybody, starting with Braves players who believe their fans give them extra power while turning visiting teams into a mess along the way to agonizing losses.

“Braves Country. It is truly one of the best fan bases in the world,” relief pitcher A.J. Minter told me, referring to his team’s fourth-place ranking last season in home attendance among their peers at 3.1 million fans, and get this: For cities with Major League teams, Atlanta’s metropolitan area is just the ninth largest in population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

Minter added, “Given the fact that we can come out here and sell out pretty much every weekend and even during the week, we know we’re always going to have fans come to the game, and they get pretty ruthless.”

Ruthless covers a lot of territory.

While Pete Rose spent his outfielder days with the Cincinnati Reds during the 1970s getting coins tossed his way in anger from the Bleacher Bums at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Dave Parker had to dodge hurled items during his career such as a transistor battery, a steel valve, a baseball bat and a five-pound bag of nuts and bolts.

What’s “Braves fans” ruthless?

“Yeah, yeah. As far as a visiting team coming in here, it’s just an intimidating place to play,” said Minter, emphasizing the fact the Braves have nearly capacity crowds for most home games.

Due to that demand, the Braves did something in March for the first time in their history, which spans back to Boston in 1871, through a dozen seasons in Milwaukee and then to Atlanta since the 1966 season.

The Braves halted season-ticket sales before opening day. Even through walk-up sales, they knew their fans still would do the types of things during the rest of this season at home games that they did Thursday night.

They stood and yelled early and often whenever Braves’ strikeout ace Spencer Strider got two strikes on a San Diego hitter.

They shifted into a higher gear of cheering when stadium officials turned out the lights during pitching changes for the Padres as a signal for Braves fans to wave their bright cellphones to cut through the darkness and their screams.

They used their throats to rally the Braves (and to rattle the Padres) in the bottom of the eighth to pull their team from a 2-run deficit to a 6-6 tie before they returned for more of the same in the bottom of the ninth.

About that ninth: With two outs and with the crowd roaring, Eddie Rosario doubled, and then Orlando Arcia dropped the game-winning single into center field.

As a result, the highly talented and extremely deep Braves are rolling at 6-1. Since this was their first home game, that means they’ve also continued their habit during the past five years of prospering on the road.

“We have tons of fans on the road as well,” said Braves outfielder Michael Harris who didn’t elaborate.

He didn’t have to.