A New Level Of Losing

In his column entitled "The 13 levels of losing," Bill Simmons defines a Stomach Punch Game as "any roller-coaster game that ends with A) an opponent making a pivotal (sometimes improbable) play, or B) one of your guys failing in the clutch ... usually ends with fans filing out after the game in stunned disbelief, if they can even move at all ... always haunting, sometimes scarring."  Simmons does a good job here - every sports fan can remember at least a few times when one of his teams collapsed in the clutch and he was left feeling as if he was punched in the stomach.  For me, my most recent Stomach Punch Game was during last year's NLDS, when the Braves lost Game 4 to the Giants thanks to a series of physical and mental miscues highlighted by three errors by backup second baseman Brooks Conrad.

When that NLDS concluded just under a year ago, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that the 2011 Braves season would end in not only another Stomach Punch Game, but what I'd like to call a Stomach Punch Season.  The completion of the Braves' historic collapse on Wednesday evening was so painful for me that I honestly thought about not mentioning it on Caught Looking at all, before my sense of responsibility as a legitimate journalist (read: blogger) took over.  This post won't be long, because I can't put into words the terrible taste that the 2011 MLB season has left in my mouth.

A day later, I'm left trying to find any positives that I can in the Braves' disaster.  I've tried telling myself that if the Braves could come so close to the playoffs this year with an extremely young team and a ton of injuries to their pitching staff (Tommy Hanson and Jair Jurrjens each missed the stretch run), they should be great next season when everyone is healthy.  I've tried to convince myself that the collapse will, in the long run, be a good exerience for the young players to build on, and might even convince Fredi Gonzalez that he needs to do a vastly better job of managing his bullpen through a 162-season.  I've even tried to argue that the collapse cements the legacy of Bobby Cox, who took a weaker team to the postseason last year; under his leadership I firmly believe this never would have happened.

I know, however, that none of the above is likely to be true.  More than anything, I'm just glad that it's over.  For two weeks now I've been predicting that the Braves would miss the playoffs - I saw it coming a mile away, and felt helpless as I continued to watch games and check scores and see the Braves lose.  Now that it's officially happened, if there is a positive it's that there will be no more disappointing results for me to check tonight or read about tomorrow morning.  The 2011 baseball season is over for the Atlanta Braves and their fans.  Finally, I can rest.