There are a lot of reasons to like the Atlanta Braves this morning, beginning with their 52-36 record, the best in the National League at the All-Star break.
Despite Sunday’s 3-0 road loss to the New York Mets, the Braves have returned, however momentarily, to acting like the formidable franchise that dominated the NL throughout the 1990s — a regular-season dynasty built around dominant pitching, timely hitting and an uncanny knack for last-at-bat heroics.
For proof, merely consider that the Braves currently lead major league baseball with 16 final-at-bat victories, a stat usually reserved for obscenely talented teams such as the New York Yankees.
Yet the Braves aren’t winning with guys named Jeter and A-Rod, but rather such trivia stumpers as Martin Prado, Omar Infante and Brooks Conrad.
That all of this is happening in manager Bobby Cox’s final season only makes it better, as if it’s 1991 all over again and the Braves are new and different rather than something old that’s new again.