RIP Biff Pocoroba

Loved the teepee they used to have in centerfield. The cackling Brave logo was great.

 

I believe it was in 1983 when they were leading the division late in the summer and took down the teepee to make room for more seats. They immediately went on a horrific losing streak, fell out of first, and "I'll take down your teepee" became our go-to basketball trash talk challenge for a couple of years.

 

Top 3 name ever in MLB.

 

Tepee was in left.

 

He was no Van Lingle Mungo.

 

It was 1982 when they first took down the tepee (yes, it was in left) and the Braves lost, I think, 19 of 21, and the Dodgers surged to make it a tight race. The Braves won the division, though, after the Giants' Joe Morgan hit a late home run to beat the Dodgers on the last day of the season. I think they did the same thing in 1983 and the Braves again lost a sizable lead to the Dodgers and that time L.A. won the division.

 

I had a couple of times when I was the one-man SE at the small PM paper where I had to put out a sports section in the morning, drive three hours in the afternoon to cover Local HS Hoops team in the state playoffs, cover the game and drive three hours back (pre- universal Internet days). By the time I got back, it would be around 1 a.m, and rather than get up at 5:30 to be in the office at 6 a.m., I just banged out my story, then put together most of the section, leaving a couple of spaces for photos, and putting notes where the stories should jump. Wrote a note to the EE about what they needed to finish the section, then got home around 5 a.m. Zonked out for the morning and part of the afternoon, and came back in the office, where the publisher was full of praise for how I managed to get all that done.

 

They had something in one of their game programs in 1972 that depicted the Brave logo displaying many moods. Happy. Sad. Angry. Shifty. Etc. Got a kick out of that. Wish I could find it somewhere.

That same program had photos of Braves players, coaches and their children. Called Chief Noc-a-Homa's kid "Hit-a-Single."

 

Aha! I do remember some tie-in with the previous game. But I also remember all the moods displayed in one graphic somewhere. I THINK that was in the game program, but now I'm not sure.

 

I remember covering a game there, drinking until 4 a.m., going back to the hotel, watching the game again.