When the 26 years of waiting were finally over and the Atlanta Braves had won the World Series for the fourth time in their history, only Braves fans could be heard in Houston.
At 10:33 p.m. local time Tuesday night (Nov. 02, 2021), the fourth win in the best-of-seven series against the Houston Astros was perfect – and at the awards ceremony less than 20 minutes later, almost only the visiting Atlanta fans were in the stadium at Minute Maid Park. “There’s no place that deserves this more than Atlanta,” Dansby Swanson said. He had ended the game with his throw to first base. “There are no words for how much this means to this city.”
Debacle for favorite
Jorge Soler, who was named Most Valuable Player of the final series, had given the Braves, who started the World Series as underdogs, a 3-0 lead with a home run in the third inning. Three more points in the fifth inning were the preliminary decision in the encounter, which turned into an unexpected debacle for the hosts.
“I have no words. This is it. This is everything you worked for. We are world champions. It sounds great,” said Freddie Freeman, who has played for the Braves for 12 years and is the face of the team. “We had injuries this year, took every hit that we could, and now we’re world champions. That’s outstanding.”
As recently as Sunday, the Braves had suffered badly when they could have made everything perfect and celebrated in front of their own fans in their final home game. Things got off to a good start, too, with a grand slam and a 4-0 lead in the first inning. But the lead slipped out of the home team’s hands and they ended up with a bitter 5-9 loss, forcing the vast majority of Braves fans to watch the game from afar. Tens of thousands had gathered in and outside the stadium in Atlanta while the game was being played in Houston.
But the advantage of a home game did not help the Astros any more than it did at the start of the World Series, when the Braves pulled off a surprise 6-2 win in Houston, seemingly with the most important cards already on their side.
Astros extremely unpopular with fans of other teams
The team from Texas must now continue to wait for its second title despite its third World Series appearance in five years. The first came in 2017 – and it is highly controversial. Despite evidence of cheating – the Astros spied on opponents’ signals to gain an advantage in the final series against the Los Angeles Dodgers – they were allowed to keep the championship. But since then, the Astros have been extremely unpopular with opposing fans, and trash cans are an often-used sign of disapproval.
Trash cans because the Astros transmitted the information of spying by tapping on a trash can. Most fans of the other teams were for the Braves in the World Series because of this.
