The Braves Waffle House Streak: Am I The Jinx?

We finally made it to a Braves game Saturday night.

Granted, it may...or may not have been the best time to go. The Braves had been on a roll, 14 straight wins, good hitting, good pitching and a little bit of good luck.

The Braves fan base: They've been coming out of their closets, jumping back on the band wagon and just generally ecstatic the hometown team is 14-plus games ahead in their division. They were looking for any change that might mean the streak would end.

((Disclaimer--Yes, for those of you who live in the South, the Braves are not just "Atlanta's" team. You can go to Birmingham, Jacksonville, Raleigh and most any small southern city, most everyone is a Braves fans))

Back to our story...

I'd been nervous all week. No, I'm not superstitious per se--but I was quite concerned. Concerned the Braves were going to be on a roll come Saturday night and secretly hoped they lost before them. I was worried the night that the Lovely Bride and I showed up, the streak would end.

Baseball fans as a whole are a superstitious lot. If their team wins after they turn their ballcaps backwards, they'll continue doing it. If they are watching at home and sitting on the couch, they won't move if their team is winning.

Oh, wait, that's me.

The latest superstition/craze/lucky change for the Braves--The new Waffle House stand at Turner Field. The Braves fortunes seem to have miraculously changed when the southern Interstate highway exit icon made it's first appearance near section 128 at the Ted on July 26th.

The Braves hadn't lost since.

If you aren't familiar with Waffle House, think of it this way. They are a smaller, faster, less clean version of the stereotypical northern diner.

And no, I am not kidding about finding a Waffle House. Drive on any Interstate in the Southern U.S, you'll find the sign seen in the picture to the left on at least 75% of the exits. And most any southerner will know exactly what you are talking about if you order hash browns and say "make mine-Scattered, smothered, covered and chunked (my favorite)".

The first indication that Saturday was not going to be the Braves night, if you bought into the Waffle House theory at least, was the crowd. There were a good 35-40,000 at the game, it was a typical hot and humid August night.

But the Waffle House was nearly empty. The above photo shows the amount of people there less than an hour before 1st pitch.

The second sign was a little more obvious.

The rain.

Sure, it's rained a lot in Atlanta this year. Heck, we've about hit the yearly average rain total, with 4 months left in the year.

The delay was about an hour and after a first inning that featured one hit by each team and an amazing, diving catch by the Braves Jason Heyward, whatever hadn't gone out of whack for the day--did.

The game was an old-fashioned nail-biter. Braves rookie Alex Wood was good. Six innings of shutout baseball, he only gave up 3 hits.

But Marlins pitcher Nate Eovaldi was better.

If you don't know who Eovaldi is, you aren't alone. But he was peppering the plate with 95-98 mph fastballs and nobody could touch them.

Nobody.

All the while I sat there in the right field corner with the Lovely Bride and was nervous. Sure, I enjoyed the game. And yeah, I really enjoyed the Holeman and Finch burger that we had before the game.

((Sidebar--If you've never had an H&F Burger, I can't recommend them enough. The pub that makes these only sells 20 of them a night at the pub--after 10p.m only, the ones they make at the stadium though are damn good))

Anyway, as the game went on, all I could think about was the Braves losing. And yeah, sure, it was a largely meaningless August game featuring the best and worst teams in the NL East.

But it wasn't that.

I didn't want to be called the Jinx. I didn't want to be the new variable that caused the Braves to lose.

Sure, I know if you applied that rule, than roughly 30,000 people could no longer attend games. But that wasn't going to affect the grief I was destined to catch.

And so it went to the 9th inning. The game was a 0-0 tie.

That's when it happened.

Marlins shortstop Adeiny Hechevarria hit the first pitch he saw from Braves reliever Jordan Walden all the way to the centerfield wall. Suddenly, he's standing on 3rd with nobody out.

A couple pitches later, Walden uncorked a pitch that landed against the wall behind the catcher. Hechevarria scored and it was 1-0 Miami.

By then I knew.

The first two Braves hitters in the bottom of the 9th were soft outs. And then catcher Evan Gattis (el iso blanco) poked a single to left field.

There still was a chance.

Until the next batter walked up to the plate. That batter, Paul Janish, a great fielder who can't hit, struck out looking.

And just like that it was over.

The streak ended. The Braves lost and my phone lit up like a Christmas tree.

--sigh--

But I am not deterred. I will not be The Jinx. I will not be a guaranteed Braves loss.

In fact, we'll find out if the theory holds just next week. That's because we have tickets to next Saturday's game against Washington.