Most UGA fans, if they are also baseball fans, are probably Braves fans. Most Alabama fans, if they are baseball fans, are also probably Braves fans. I am a huge fan of both the Braves and Georgia.
My first and oldest sports fan memories are of going to Atlanta Fulton County Stadium when I was five to watch the Braves play. Among the memorabilia in my office is a shadow box with my first baseball cap, which I believe was purchased at my first-ever Braves game, which I believe was also my first-ever live sporting event.
Actually, just today, my father asked me if I remember seeing Hank Aaron play? He asked, not remembering himself whether we went to see the Braves play with Hank Aaron still among the players on the field.
I have no memory of seeing Aaron play. I’m pretty sure that my first game was in 1976. Hank still played that year, but for Milwaukee, not the Braves. I feel like if I had seen him play, I would know that…
I do know that I have witnessed, as a Georgia fan, 19 meetings of UGA vs. Alabama in 40 seasons of Georgia Football. Georgia is just 6 and 13 in those match ups. The worst record against any team during those 40 years.
The first 8 were played between 1990 and 2008 and were all regular-season, home-and-away matchups. Georgia was 4–4 in those games. That was just 8 matchups in 18 seasons. My wife, a Bama grad and former recruiter for the Tide, and I were married 7 years before the teams played for the first time.
In the 11 games since 2012, 7 of the contests were neutral-site games for either the SEC Championship or the National Championship. Georgia is 1-4 in SEC Championships against the Tide and 1-1 in National Championship matchups. 0-4 in the other regular-season contests.
This week, Georgia faces Alabama for the first scheduled meeting of the year. The 2 teams could easily end up in the worst-case scenario of playing each other three times this season.
This game will likely settle nothing. Nothing but bragging rights. For the rare moment Georgia has that on the Tide, having beaten them thoroughly for the SEC Championship last year in the second meeting, 28-7.
This game seems more likely to look like the game the last time the two played in Tuscaloosa, with Alabama winning 41-34.
Maybe we can all at least enjoy a group “Chop” if the Braves can find enough hitting to beat the Dodgers and advance to the NCLS for the first time since the last time the Braves beat the Dodgers in a postseason series, in 2021 when they beat the Dodgers to advance to the World Series.
Go Braves!
Go Dawgs!
