By Deke Loyd
Writer, Contributor

Winter is always hard to get through and Atlanta is no different. We are treated to 70 degree days only to be met with snow and ice a week later. It’s about as unpredictable as a season can be in a city. Spring is the solace. Spring in Atlanta is the mark of eight months of warm weather to come. One indicator that spring has arrived is the start of the baseball season, more specifically for us, the Atlanta Braves. The Braves kicked off another season this week, and that is one of my favorite ways to know summer is here at last.

The Atlanta Braves are back in action this week, and the last few seasons that hasn’t been the most fun for the fans but this season feels different. After the move to Cobb County to rejuvenate the fan base, the team still struggled to another losing season last year. Another losing season was making it easier for the skeptics to voice their doubts. The motto around this team kept being “next year, next year”, but “next year” hasn’t come yet. Next year might be here. This season is, finally, starting to feel like the Braves are getting closer to that end goal of competing for championships again. There is light at the end of the tunnel. 

The Braves have been in rebuild mode for the last 3 years, and it’s been starting to wear on the fans. The Braves have a slew of top prospects, which has been the only hope this fanbase has been able to hold onto. However, the  promise of young prospects is never any guarantee when it comes to baseball. The people who run the Atlanta Braves are still trying to keep fans optimistic by aiming for 2019 as the year the rebuild is done but the strides this team has taken will start to show more this year.

It’s been easy for even the most jaded fans of the Braves to become weary of this rebuild process over the last few years. There is finally hope in and outside of the organization for this team to turn this around to become to perennial powerhouse this team was in the 90s and early 2000s. The city of Atlanta was used to a certain level of success when it came to their baseball team but that has been noticeably lacking over the last few years. Atlanta and their management endured the long hard road of rebuilding but it’s starting to seem like it was all for the best. Warm weather and a good baseball team are synonymous in Atlanta during the summer. Let’s hope we are treated to both this year.