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The Braves-Pirates clash promised more sparks. Atlanta had located a lode of blithe character in its September pursuit and capture of favored Los Angeles. It helped that everybody hated the damn Dodgers. It didn't hurt that Braves partisans urged the team on with toy tomahawks and a war-chant mantra, which the votaries could moan for innings on end (the dumbest mass spasm since the Wave). By playoff time, the Braves were high and loose. All the Pirates' edgy swagger could not mute the magic -- or solve the riddle of a brilliant Atlanta pitcher, as young and ageless as Lefty Grove.
Steve Avery is 21. Others guys his age are working the checkout counter or getting ill on the fraternity porch; he tossed, with wondrous poise and heat, two near perfect 1-0 games. In the second of these, when a single fat fastball would have snuffed the Braves' dream, Avery gelded Pittsburgh on three singles and never allowed an opponent to reach second base. In the ninth inning Atlanta finally scored and the lad spent the game's last few, beautifully tense minutes in the dugout. Only then, as he watched reliever Alejandro Pena flirt with catastrophe, did Avery look his age and less. Shivering under a black coverall in the Halloween weather, he peeked out like an anxious trick- or-treater in a Batman cape.
The following night, after he was declared the series' Most Valuable Player, * Avery got baptized in champagne he was barely old enough to purchase legally. And the Pirates, who carried the curse of being the best National League team for the past two seasons, were left to dwell on the melancholy baseball maxim, "Losing hurts more than winning feels good."
Maybe not this year, though. The Braves did become America's team, just like they said on TV, and the Twins happily recalled the secrets of their 1987 Series-winning form -- as they showed by mauling Atlanta, 5-2, in Game 1. Winning feels great, redemptive, to yesterday's losers. And the giddiness is contagious. What are these guys doing in the Series? Having fun.
For bringing the shock of joy back to baseball, both the Braves and the Twins deserve cheers. Or at least a toast. Bottoms up!