The 2023 Atlanta Braves are in the midst of compiling a historic season and are the widely projected favorites to win the World Series. Led by superstars Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Sean Murphy, the lineup from top to bottom has virtually no holes and is supplemented by a stellar young pitching staff. Over the weekend, the team was featured on America’s Game of the Week on FOX Sports and defeated the rival New York Mets 6-0 in the back half of a split-admission doubleheader. Although the Mets beat the Braves the next day on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, the game came down to the wire and was an enthralling battle for viewers to watch.
The Braves returned home from their four-game tilt at Citi Field in Queens, N.Y. – only to be greeted by the other New York baseball team, the 27-time World Champion Yankees. These “Bronx Bombers,” however, are in last place in the American League East, and the likelihood they qualify for the postseason dwindles with each passing defeat.
On Monday night, the Braves clobbered the Yankees 11-3, and they will look to secure the series with a win on Tuesday as part of TBS’ MLB doubleheader. New York has been at the center of discussion in the sports ecosystem for much of the summer, largely due to the Jets acquiring superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers ahead of the 2023 NFL season. The trend caused 92.9 The Game morning host Stephen “Steak” Shapiro to pose a question about New York sports and how they are disseminated worldwide.
“Are you of the notion that sports is better if the New York teams aren’t awful?,” Shapiro asked his co-host, Sandra Golden. “The big city; the bright lights of New York, [is] it good to have one of those teams in the mix either to love them or to hate them?”
Golden is an avid college football fan and grew up rooting for the Florida State Seminoles college football team. She outlined that the sport is better when the school’s rivals, the Florida Gators and the Miami Hurricanes, are contending and relevant. The same premise applies in Georgia in looking at the Georgia Bulldogs and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. As it pertains to the No. 1 media market in the world, however, Golden feels much differently.
“I cannot stand it when the media – all they think about is New York,” Golden explained. “Last night, Max Scherzer was the lead story; he pitches for the [Texas] Rangers [and] they beat the [Los Angeles] Angels. I just thought, ‘They’re so in love with the big names like that,’ and oh by the way, the best team in baseball was story No. 20.”
Golden went on to say that she loves when the New York sports teams are “terrible,” especially since she is from the South. Braves players and fans have been outspoken throughout the season on how it feels to defeat the Mets, with infielder Ozzie Albies mentioning how it brings the team “a lot of pleasure.” Across professional sports, the rivalry between Atlanta and New York seems to be gaining traction once again, sparked not only by Braves-Mets, but also Knicks-Hawks during the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
“I believe when the Yankees stink, that’s not good for baseball,” Shapiro said. “You want them to have big names; you want to see [them] in the pinstripes. Álex Rodríguez [is] the most hateable guy ever, but Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera were hard to hate. Sports is better when the Yankees don’t stink or when you don’t look at a Yankee roster and go like, ‘Who are these guys?’”
The Yankees defeated the Braves during the 1996 and 1999 World Series, the latter of which resulted in a sweep. Atlanta had won its first World Series crown in 38 years in 1995 when the team defeated Cleveland in six games. After a 26-year drought, the Braves captured another championship in 2021, and the team is now looking to capitalize on its championship aspirations for years to come. Shapiro hopes it happens as the Yankees remain relevant and contain marketable, eminent superstars.
“I don’t like seeing a bunch of no-names on the Yankees,” Shapiro said, “and I don’t like seeing them in last place because it’s sexier when the Yankees are better.”
