Josh Barnhill

RIP Dickey Betts Gregg Allman & Dickey Betts: Southern Rock legends mwbulldogs.wordpress.com/202…

It's pretty awesome to see Mississippi State and the Atlanta Braves stand as baseball champions in the same year! I've watched so many baseball games this year - so many stressful playoff games, it was a lot of fun to be a baseball fan in 2021.

Baseball is such a great game. All summer long it's there every night when you come home from work. It's a lot of fun to watch a winning team which the Braves have more times than not. October is almost never the Braves' friend, but it finally was this year.

There was a point in June where the Braves were just too frustrating to watch and I decided to focus on MSU during their postseason run. So I didn't watch a Braves game for 3 weeks. When I came back in July it was more of the same. But I just can't not watch them in the summer.

Tyler Matzek, of course, was incredible in the postseason. The entire bullpen was just kind of mediocre and it looked like a reason why the Braves couldn't succeed in the playoffs, but was instead maybe the biggest reason they did succeed in the playoffs.

All year fans complained about Will Smith, who makes $13 million a year to be a closer, was terrible. He was always in trouble and blew a lot of saves. But he got into another gear the last 6 weeks and was unhittable.

The only constants the Braves had were the infield (which Riley stepped up to be a bona fide cleanup hitter), Fried and Morton. They Morton breaks his leg in the World Series, after Ynoa went down in the NLCS. They just kept going like they were Michael Myers.

Last offseason the main Braves talking points were resigning Ozuna and getting Soroka back. Ozuna played horribly for 2 months and was gone, Soroka never pitched. d'Arnaud missed half the season, Pache had to go to AAA, Inciarte was so bad he got released.

There's no way the Braves could have won the World Series without those 4 new outfielders playing so well in the playoffs. They were a great addition to the best infield in baseball: Freeman, Albies, Swanson, Riley. Every one of them had at least 27 HR (30.25 avg HR among them).

As much as losing Acuna hurt, the production of the 4 outfielders the Braves got (Duvall, Soler, Pederson, Rosario) was greater than even a superstar like Acuna could have produced.....certainly in the postseason. What looked like the end actually turned out better.

At the All-Star break, I figured the Braves might as well sell off and see if they could get some decent prospects to build for 2022. I was surprised when they got Joc Pederson immediately. Then after an MLB record of 18 alternating wins and losses, they went on a 16-2 run.

The game to reach 44-44 was the game vs. the Marlins when they lost Ronald Acuna, Jr. The next day was the Sunday before the All-Star break, and I just figured if they could win that game and go over .500 just once this season... would be the high point of the season.

It's been said a thousand times the Braves were never over .500 until August 6. What was so frustrating was they reached .500 six times only to lose the following game: 4-4, 12-12, 17-17, 24-24, 29-29, 44-44.

I remember back in April, the Braves started 0-4. They just could not figure out a way to win a ballgame. Then finally they barely squeaked out a 7-inning Game 1 in a double header. It was a frustrating way to begin the year.

MSU to the College World Series and Braves to the MLB World Series in the same year has never happened. In the 90s they both made it a lot but never in the same year: 1990: MSU 1991: Braves 1992: Braves 1995: Braves 1996: Braves 1997: MSU 1998: MSU 1999: Braves

2021 has been such an awesome year for baseball between Mississippi State and the Braves!

It didn’t fully hit me until this morning but I feel it now! National champs baby! #HailState

5 baseball games in 5 days, lots of wins, lots of fun. #HailState