Braves

ATLANTA -- Jeff Blauser has a videotape of the 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and his Atlanta Braves. He never has inserted it into the tape player, and he says he is not sure if he ever will.As far as the 1992 World Series between the Braves and the Toronto Blue Jays is concerned, Blauser deferred questions about whether he would review it until a later date. Maybe 20 years from now.Watching either Series would be like the first part of a horrifying double feature for the Atlanta shortstop.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Hereby presented (in language honoring the late Dr. Seuss, a baseball fan if ever there was one) is the unofficial Rhetorical Question of the 1991 baseball playoffs: Who is the cursed-est of the worstests-to-firstests?In other words: Were the Minnesota Twins or Atlanta Braves more sputteringly, spinelessly, spectacularly rotten before turning into a division champ this season?Put even more simply, in the famous and splendid patois of the rTC ballpark: Whose stink stunk the stinkiest until now?

ATLANTA -- At times they played like the last-place teams they were as recently as a year ago. But after 12 tantalizing innings here last night, the Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins had produced a classic worthy of the World Series.There was even a degree of justice (not David, though he was key factor) in the outcome -- because this was too good a game to produce an 0-3 deficit for the loser.That was the prospect facing the Braves before they finally solved the Twins' bullpen to push across the deciding run early this morning for a pulsating 5-4 victory in the first World Series game ever played in Atlanta.

Tom Glavine, who won 20 games and led the Braves to the first World Series in Atlanta's history, won the National League's Cy Young Award yesterday.The 25-year-old left-hander became the youngest pitcher to win the award since Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets did it at age 20 in 1985."

Otis Nixon, suspended for cocaine use during the Braves' pennant drive, re-signed with the team yesterday, saying he was spurning a richer offer from the California Angels to stay in Atlanta.Nixon and the National League champion Braves agreed on a two-year contract with a third year at the player's option -- a deal similar in structure to one offered by the Angels. Nixon will be paid $5.6 million during the next two seasons and the option could bring the total to $8.1 million for three years.

The Atlanta Braves may have raised some eyebrows last winter by giving veteran first baseman Andres Galarraga a three-year contract worth more than $8 million a year, but he has quickly proved that his big numbers the past few seasons did not come out of thin air.Galarraga has picked up right where he left off last year at hitter- friendly Coors Field. He was tied for second in the major leagues with 15 home runs heading into yesterday, and has put a charge into a Braves lineup that lacked the offensive punch to get to the World Series in 1997.

Free-agent reliever Gregg Olson got a sweet pitch and took it yesterday, but it was the Orioles who were caught looking.Olson signed a one-year contract to join an already star-studded Atlanta Braves pitching staff and end a five-year Orioles career in which he became the most productive closer in club history.The deal calls for only a $500,000 guarantee, but Olson would receive another $1 million for being on the Braves' Opening Day roster and an incentive package that could bring his total salary to $3.5 million if he pitched in 60 games.

PITTSBURGH -- So which team would you rather be when those National League playoffs begin tonight?The team with the best record in baseball? The team that clinched the Eastern Division title 17 long, restful days ago? The team that became the first National League club since 1978 to win a divisional title two years in a row? The team with all that valuable firsthand playoff know-how?That team is the Pittsburgh Pirates, of course.Or would you rather be the team that roared into the playoffs on one of the most spectacular late-season rolls since, well, the 1980 Phillies?

ATLANTA -- Well, you just knew the Cito factor had to surface. The World Series is back in Atlanta, and Jack Morris is still standing on the SkyDome mound. One more hitter, Jack, just one more.Just as Cito Gaston isn't that superior to Bobby Cox, the Blue Jays aren't that superior to the Braves. This baby deserves to go seven, and while Toronto rates the obvious edge, we'll stay with our original pick of Atlanta.The Braves weren't about to concede Thursday night, for they haven't lost four straight since June 28-July 2, 1991.

The New York Yankees get all the ink, but let's be honest. The true dynasty of the 1990s is -- and always has been -- in Atlanta, where the Braves have won their division so routinely over the past decade that baseball fans have started to take them for granted.Take this year, for instance. The early loss of first baseman Andres Galarraga and the occasional struggles of some of the elite members of the starting rotation created the notion that the Braves are in decline.You might want to ask the New York Mets about that.