Go, Braves!! — By Tommy Purser

The good wife, quite frankly, obsesses over the Atlanta Braves.
I, too, like the Braves but I have nowhere near the absolute obsession the good wife has for them.
The Bravos are in the thick of the race for their division crown, but to hear the good wife moan and grown and gripe and growl and slap the arm of her recliner in disgust and yell for the discarding of any player who would dare to not excel virtually everytime ….. I mean EVERYTIME ….. one of them steps to the plate and, God forgive, fails.
She mumbles, carps, groans, complains, sighs disgustedly and then, out of the blue, screams in approval should one of her darling Braves suddenly, unexpectedly rise to meet the challenge presented …. i.e, hits a shot over the fence.
According to her bloviations about the shortcomings of her dastardly but beloved Braves, the Bravos are this year falling far short of her elevated expectations for wins and performances.
My grandmother used to tell stories of my grandather’s obsession with professional wrestling. She’d remark with glee about how he would sit down in front of his old black-and-white television set and twist and turn and strain and growl and contort himself into unnatural bodily malformations and do everything he could to will his favored grappler to success.
The good wife’s mother — the best mother-in-law any man could ever wish upon himself, may she rest in peace – was similarly affected by the ups and downs of the Braves until her passing well into her 90s. She would fuss, and growl, and complain, and sigh, and use the inner workings of her deepest being to virtually will the Braves to success.
Oh, the apple hath not fallen far from the proverbial tree of Braves idolatry.
The good wife continues to this day to moan the exodus of 1
Braves first baseman par excellence Freddy Freeman and considers his replacement, Matt “Good-For-Nothing” Olson as an intruder into the hallowed space once occupied by Frederick the Great.
MattieBoy is a great disappointment to the good wife as he has fallen far short of her expectations of what a man trying to fill the shoes of her beloved Freddy the Great should have reached.
The beloved Braves are doing spectacularly well this season but one would find that hard to believe should he sit in our den and listen to the tortured groanings of the good wife who cannot bring herself to accept the fact that her beloved Braves are meeting her demanding expectations.
Stay tuned. This may just end well.