Braves: America's Team No More

I should preface this by saying I'm not a Braves fan and never have been. This is due to many factors, including my dislike of many things Southern (I say this having spent almost 10 years living in Alabama, and several more visiting my parents there), the annoying and insulting idiocy of the Tomahawk Chop and its associated "war cry," the stupid antics of rednecks like John Rocker (and the fans' tolerance of his ignorant ways), as well as their hegemony of the airwaves. Because they were always on TBS, it was hard to avoid the Braves, and in the days before my DirecTV Extra Innings package (AKA "Baseball Heroin") I'd watch the Braves games just to root against them.

This national exposure had the opposite effect on many people, however, and the Braves expanded their fan base immensely through the national distribution of TBS on standard cable and satellite packages, practically since the inception of cable itself. Fans in the forgotten nooks and crannies of the baseball map could always catch a Braves game, and transplanted Southerners could follow what was for many years the only team in the South.

This also coincided with Atlanta's amazing reign as division champs, an 11-year run that ended in 2006--14 years if you ignore the 1994 strike season--and the longest such streak in baseball history. They were in the World Series five times during that run, though they only won it once, and Bobby Cox always seemed to be able to get the most out of his teams, an ever-changing mix of veterans and rookies and free agents. The long winning tradition and national coverage made many call them "America's Team," the team that was always in contention and always on TV, no matter your region or your cable/satellite package.

Over the years, especially recently, the number of channels showing baseball games has increased, including not only the Extra Innings baseball package but also regional networks like NESN, YES, NASN, and the FOX Sports regional networks. Though most of these aren't part of standard packages (the Extra Innings package in particular will set you back about $150), the opportunities to watch baseball teams proliferated. But the Braves could always be reliably found on their flagship network, and Turner reaped the benefits of owning both the team and the network.

Now, there's a tectonic shift going on at Turner, as they move the Braves into regional coverage and expand their coverage of baseball games to national teams--virtually none of them playing the Braves. Coverage of Braves games can be found on SportSouth (formerly Turner South), FOX regional networks, and Comcast/Charter, all networks only available in the Southeast. In many ways, this makes sense on a national basis, as they will move to covering Sunday afternoon games starting next season and postseason games this year. They're making the move to being a national baseball network, but they're leaving the Braves behind.

For the moment, the effect is hard to calculate on more than an individual and anecdotal basis. A good friend of mine who grew up with the Braves but now lives here in Portland, Oregon, is furious beyond words, and has revoked his fan-ship of the Braves. Any sports-related chatroom or blog is sure to be filled with other fans angry about the move, and for each of these, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of less loyal Braves fans that feel as these folks do. In much the same way as the Braves slowly collected fans through the years, they will likely lose them in the same way, and the tsunami that was the Braves fan base will recede, leaving a shattered landscape in its wake.

The financial impact on the television network will no doubt be negligible in the near-term, and nonexistent in the long-term: in expanding to national coverage of all teams, they are rejecting Braves fans in favor of every other one (though, like ESPN and FOX, will no doubt restrict their weekly games to the big-market teams). That's going to win them plenty of dough, and Turner will absorb whatever losses the Braves suffer to their revenues in this onslaught of cash.

The losers will be the Braves fans, and hence the Braves themselves. In losing the "America's Team" tag, they will return to merely being the most successful team in the South (though the resurgent 2008 Rays and Marlins look to challenge this title this season). It's hard to know what impact this will have on their general mojo and team spirit--the Yankees have long enjoyed the Pinstripe Effect, where players just seemed to perform better at Yankee Stadium. Is it possible that the Braves long success is due not just to Bobby Cox's brilliance, but also to the collective swell players felt when donning the Braves uniforms? 

Nobody knows, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Me, I'll be happy to leave the infuriating Tomahawk Chop and the Southern-fried flavor of the Braves in the South, where they rightly belong. If I want to watch a Braves game, I can always tune into the game on DirecTV--but it's not likely I will.