Title/Author:
“When The Braves Ruled the Diamond: Fourteen Flags Over Atlanta” by
Dan Schlossberg, narrated by Kyle Tait
Tags:
Baseball, professional, Braves, championship,
history, audiobook
Publish date:
March 22, 2016
Length:
304 pages
Rating:
2 ½ of 5 stars (just okay)
Review:
The Atlanta Braves ended the 20th century and began the 21st
century by accomplishing an astounding feat – winning 14 consecutive division
titles, not counting the 1994 season in which no team awards were given as a player
strike ended the season on August 12 that year. This book by Dan Schlossberg covers
each season in which the Braves won a division title and also has stories about
the most important people who contributed to the streak.
While the team won all these division titles, the team was a disappointment
in the postseason, winning the World Series just once during the streak (1995)
and not making it back to the World Series after 1999. That is a good analogy to describe this book
about the Braves as well – despite all the great material and a good narrator,
the audio book fell short of expectations.
The book started with very good stories on the general manager who put these
teams team together, John Schuerholz, as well as manager Bobby Cox, pitching
coach Leo Mazzone, infielders Terry Pendleton and Larry “Chipper” Jones (the
two players who were named National League MVP during the run) and pitchers
Gregg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. While avid Braves fans or readers who read a
lot about baseball may be familiar with most of the material, these chapters
contain good information for readers who wish to learn about these men. The summaries of each season of the streak also
are good for readers who want to learn the basics about the Braves in each of
those seasons.
As an audiobook, however, there were several issues. One of the most
glaring came at points during some of the season summaries. There were random facts stated in the middle
of the chapter that interrupted the particular story that was being told. For example, during one of the seasons in
which Deion Sanders played for the Braves, it was noted that Sanders was the
first man to appear in both the World Series and the Super Bowl in his athletic
career. However, at the time this fact
was said, it interrupted the recap of the 1995 postseason accomplishments of
the Braves and Sanders was not at all mentioned in that part. This was not the only time the narrative was
interrupted by an unrelated fact. It probably
would not be as glaring in a print version, especially if it was meant to be a
photo caption or footnote, but it was not clarified as such in the audio
version.
The other shortcoming of the book, in this reviewer’s opinion, was the needless
repetition of certain facts over and over throughout the chapters about the GM,
manager, coach and players. By the time
that part of the book is over, the reader will certainly know that the Braves
won 14 straight division titles, that John Smoltz was the only player to be on
all 14 of those teams and that the Braves were 9 ½ games back of the San
Francisco Giants in 1993 to come back and win the division that year. All were interesting, and the first is why
the book was written – but it didn’t need to be repeated so often.
Despite these negatives, I did finish the book, I did learn some new things about this team and do believe that it is a book that casual baseball fans will enjoy. If one is a hard core Braves fan, or baseball fan for that matter, there isn’t a lot of new information.
Despite these negatives, I did finish the book, I did learn some new things about this team and do believe that it is a book that casual baseball fans will enjoy. If one is a hard core Braves fan, or baseball fan for that matter, there isn’t a lot of new information.
Book Format Read:
Audiobook
Buying
Links:
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