Game of My Life: Atlanta Braves – by Jack Wilkinson
BUY ON AMAZON: Game of My Life: Atlanta Braves
Theirs was a prolonged run of excellence like none other in sports history. From 1991 through 2005, the Atlanta Braves won 14 consecutive division championships, a streak no team in professional sports has ever come close to approaching. Not the New York Yankees or the old Boston Celtics. Not Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers or Montreal’s flying French Canadiens. Beginning with the unexpected worst-to-first miracle of 1991, the Braves commenced an era of sustained dominance that Major League Baseball never saw coming.
Which was more out of the blue? The wondrous run to the ’91 pennant, set to the beat of the Tomahawk Chop that become an electrified city’s mantra? Or Francisco Cabrera’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning in the ’92 NLCS that broke Pittsburgh’s heart and returned the Braves to the World Series? It’s all here, as well as the memorable pennant chase of ’93 and Atlanta’s first world championship in 1995.
Captured within these pages are those memories, retold by the players who delivered the Braves to the pinnacle of pro sports, including David Justice, Terry Pendleton, Ron Gant, Lonnie Smith, Jeff Blauser, Greg Olson, and Tom Glavine. But also chronicled in Game of My Life: Atlanta Braves are the franchise’s many dark years of mediocrity that set up such a magical run. Dating back to the Braves’ move from Milwaukee, this book will catch up with Braves legends like Hank Aaron, Phil Niekro, Bob Horner, and Dale Murphy.
Each player within remembers his Braves career, and, more importantly, that single game that defined greatness for himself and his team. Wrapping things up, we’ll also hear from “the Pope of pitching,” Leo Mazzone, and two broadcasters with enough baseball under their belts to boast of entrance into the Braves Hall of Fame–Pete Van Wieren and Skip Caray. It all makes for a walk down memory lane that no fan of the Braves will want to miss.
Jack Wilkinson has written about sports for more than 30 years, in Miami, Chicago, his native New York, and Atlanta. Named the Georgia Sportswriter of the Year in 2001 and 2004, he’s covered many World Series and Final Fours, and three Olympics and Super Bowls. He currently writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His previous books include Dodd’s Luck, the autobiography of the late Georgia Tech football coach Bobby Dodd; Focused on the Top, an account of Tech’s 1990 national championship season; and Kim King’s Tales from the Georgia Tech Sideline, with the late Tech quarterback and radio analyst.
Wilkinson and his wife, Janet Ward, live in Atlanta and have two daughters, Katharine and Alison.
