The point of today’s entire column space is this &045; there too many reminders out there that I’m just getting old.

When you basically teach yourself how to read by looking at box scores in the paper and figure out division faster than anyone else in your class because you’ve got to figure out a batting average, you get accustomed to certain things in sports.

Yankees good, Saints bad. Forty Niners good, Texas Rangers bad. And for years those Atlanta Braves stunk.

Yep, the Braves were terrible. They were about as bad as the Saints were in their down years (really, that bad).

I remember clipping out a column once where this schmo had a new slogan for TBS &045; Those Braves Stink &045; and went on to wail on a team that was headed nowhere faster than Paris Hilton and The Simple Life.

Everyone I knew liked the Braves, which was only natural for me as the agitator in the group to go against the grain. And the Braves of the 1980s left plenty fodder for that.

There was Dale Murphy always swinging and missing poorly at that curveball down and away. How about when they sat Gerald Perry on the last day of the season so he could finish no worse than .300? Or how TBS in search of a player to promote chose Tommy Gregg?

Tommy stinking Gregg!

Skip Caray would declare games late in the season a &uot;partial sellout&uot; with less than 1,000 in the stands, including once when the crowd chanted &uot;Lets go Cubs!&uot; loud enough to be audible on the broadcast at Fulton-County Stadium.

But all that, obviously, has changed. Which, in turn, still leaves me feeling kind of old.

Their fortunes turned in 1991, and they have been without a doubt the class of the National League and all of baseball would it not be for the Yankees.

There were times I was happy to see them playing better. You hate to see anyone be perpetual losers, and it even makes me feel good when the Devil Rays do actually go on a winning streak.

The Braves kept it going through the 1990s and collected division titles like paperweights. A truly remarkable run, but one you figure had to end at some time. Even the Yankees were terrible once, and what goes up must eventually come down.

The Braves, apparently, simply refuse.

This summer’s team, I must admit, is playing its best ball with talent that Chuck Tanner would walk away from. They’re young, Chipper Jones is slumping, the pitching staff is patchwork at best and some guy named Johnny Estrada made the All-Star team.

But the Braves are somehow winning.

You’ve got to tip your hat to that, even if it requires enough I-told-you-sos to fill up my voice mail. The scary part is if all these guys are young, it may just be the start of another run. Somebody like Charles Thomas may become the next big household name.

Man, do I feel old.

Adam Daigle

is sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at (601) 445-3632 or at

adam.daigle@natchezdemocrat.com

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