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Dead calm Braves slip listlessly into another postseason failure
The two clubhouses could not have been more different. On one side of Atlanta's Turner Field late Saturday afternoon, the Braves dressed quietly, answered questions quietly, smiled a little, offered quiet congratulations to the victors and went, quietly, on their way. On the other, champagne dripped from the ceiling. The stereo blared, players' kids were doused in beer, old ladies danced to rap music and the St. Louis Cardinals whooped and hollered as if they had just won the lottery. On one side, you couldn't have pulled any emotions out of the players if you'd have been wielding a 44-ounce Louisville Slugger. On the other, you couldn't hold them back. The one side -- the Cardinals' -- you can understand. They were big underdogs, these Cards, and they had just beaten a team that had been to five World Series in the past 10 years. The other side, though, remains a mystery. A frustrating, maddening mystery. Is this how it always will be for the Braves? Does their decade-plus run of mostly coming up short continue with a clubhouse full of shrugs, dead eyes and unanswered questions? With no passion? No anger? No hurt? "In the grand scheme of things," third baseman Chipper Jones was saying, "this means very little." The Braves have been able to stay on top during this wondrous run in large part because of their unparalleled professionalism, a killer's calm that made them the most successful team of the '90s. Successful, that is, in terms of sheer victories. Wins, losses, close games, blowouts ... it's hard to tell the difference with the Braves, who have perfected the old athletes' cliche of never getting too high or too low. There have been cracks, of course. Last year, after being swept by the New York Yankees in the World Series, their fourth loss in five Series tries in the '90s, the Braves looked all too human. The big losses, year after year, seemed finally to get to them. But they bounced back to their hair-pulling calmness this season. They won the National League East again. They seemed poised to make another run at the Series. And then came this three-game sweep, almost out of nowhere. It stunned many in baseball. It seemed hardly to affect the Braves. "We did what we could," outfielder Brian Jordan shrugged. "Those guys just outplayed us." For sure, the Braves are hurting more than they're letting on. And, for sure, their first-round collapse will hit them harder in the days to come. But, because of their smugness, the Braves again are hearing calls for someone to shake this team up. For someone who outwardly cares about winning and, maybe even more, about losing. For someone to take on a water cooler with that 44-ouncer once in a while, for Pete's sake. Jones laughed, a strange-enough sound in a clubhouse that had just suffered its most humiliating defeat in years. "I think rolling over a water cooler is overrated," he said. "You just go down the tunnel and break your bat over a rail, like most of the guys do." Yes, the Braves do have passion, Jones says. They care. They just don't show it. The biggest problem the Braves have now is that this thing won't get any easier. They still have two of the best pitchers in baseball in Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, which gives them a core of a rotation for at least a few more years. They still have Jones, too, and Andruw Jones and Jordan and exciting young Rafael Furcal. They have a blank checkbook. But none of it has been enough yet. So there will, certainly, be changes. General manager John Schuerholz wouldn't say so, but everyone knows they are coming. Everyone knows, probably, they are necessary. But will a hell-raiser in the clubhouse do it? Will a care-injection for the whole world to see do the trick? Or would that ruin the Braves' beautifully balanced and mostly successful clubhouse psyche? Over in the wild St. Louis clubhouse, amid all the heart and bass and booze, the answer seemed clear enough. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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