Atlanta's Run in National League East Coming to an End

Braves' String of 14 Straight Division Titles in Jeopardy

Nothing lasts forever. That is true in life and in sports.

Since the early 1990s, the Atlanta Braves have sustained a run of excellence perhaps unmatched in the history of professional sports. Discounting the strike year in 1994, the Braves have captured a division title every season since 1991. That's 14 in a row, which is a record in the four major sports in North America. But it's all coming to an end now as the Braves have crash landed with a thud.

Through the shrewd leadership of general manager John Schuerholz , the Braves stayed on top all these years with smart draft picks and intelligent trades. Even if it seemed Atlanta always choked in the playoffs, having won only a single World Series title during their era of dominance, nobody was better at making a key move than Schuerholz.

But in the last couple years, it seemed the Braves were living on borrowed time. You looked at their roster and wondered how they continued to win. You thought, 'Man, Bobby Cox must be the best manager in baseball.' Now, it's simply a question of the law of averages catching up to the Braves. It had to at some point. Even the great Yankees dynasty collapsed in the mid-1960s.

Except for the Jones boys, Chipper and Andrew, and John Smoltz, a holdover from the early days in the 1990s, there just isn't much there for the Braves. For one thing, the bullpen has been dreadful. The beginning of the end for Atlanta came when it let Future Hall of Fame pitcher
Tom Glavine sign with the Mets last season.

You never want to count the Braves out because they always seem to be in playoff contention come September. After all, they have been like Jason in all those Friday the 13th horror movies. The only way to make sure they are really dead is to drive a stake through their hearts. The Mets effectively did that last weekend, sweeping the Braves in a three-series at Turner Field, which has been New York's personal torture chamber for the past decade.