Freddie Freeman is just as much a part of this family as I am...

    I don’t have any clue how this is going to shake out, but I felt like I needed to post about it because it has consumed so much of my life over the past 8 years. We are not casual baseball watchers. If you follow me on any sort of social media, you’ve probably noticed, the Swinehamers, well, we’re die-hard Atlanta Braves fans. I can remember exactly how it started for me…

    I played softball and I grew up going to Indianapolis Indians games. I even went to a few Cincinnati Reds games when I was in college. But while I enjoyed playing in my youth and watching when we’d go to games, I wasn’t really that into sports. When we moved, I would tune in to watch the Yankees and the Red Sox play each other if I knew it was one, solely because I knew they had a good rivalry and it was usually entertaining baseball, but that was it. Until 2013, when it consumed my life.

    We decide to take a trip to Atlanta for Austin’s first birthday weekend. We got tickets to see the Braves play the Nationals when Stephen Strasburg was supposed to return (spoiler alert: he didn’t). But I enjoyed that game so much and we had such a great time (David caught a foul ball one-handed while holding Austin while I was getting a beer), that we never looked back. That year we went back to Atlanta two more times and watched every. single. game. on TV. And we have ever since.

    Maybe we haven’t been around as long as some of the other fans, but Atlanta Braves baseball is a part of this family. Freddie Freeman is just as much a part of this family as I am. We call players by their name, scold them when we think they could have done better, cheer for them and scream and holler when they do big stuff. I can’t even really put into words what this World Series run means to our family. It’s more than just baseball. If they lose, it’ll hurt, but we’ll be proud that a team that overcame so much adversity this year made it so far. It teaches Austin valuable lessons. That just because there are bumps in the road doesn’t mean you give up. If we win, oh, I don’t even think I can go there, yet. But I believe we can. I believe in this team because they’ve never given me a reason not to.

    Either way, we’ll have memories. Granted, we can’t afford to go in person (one ticket for the highest section up was $495……..), but we are going to be at home, cheering with each other, making memories. I already have such an amazing one from last Saturday, when the Braves won game 6 of the NLCS eliminating the Dodgers. We were jumping up and down, running in circles and embracing. Whatever happens, those boys out there are OUR boys and we’ll tune in against next year, with or without World Series rings.
    However this ends up, thank you for an amazing season, boys. #BattleATL