First Is Again Home of Braves

How hard is it to win 11 consecutive division titles?

How hard is it to win one?

Consider the Angels, who are trying to win their first since 1986, or the Dodgers, who will be happy to reach the playoffs for the first time since 1996, even if it’s as a wild card.

The American and National leagues can offer up an array of other yardsticks by which to gain a fuller appreciation for what the Atlanta Braves have accomplished, but the Braves are so taken for granted, the difficulty in doing what they have done is so overlooked, that their latest clinching produced one paragraph in the middle of the baseball roundup in this and other publications.

If that is now the annual response to the Braves’ division domination, if his team’s success has become something of an “afterthought,” Atlanta General Manager John Schuerholz said, “it is no less frustrating.”

“If you were to talk to people in the Angel and Dodger organizations about how fierce they’re fighting to win their divisions, about how gut-wrenching it is to win one time ... well, it’s the most difficult achievement in baseball because you have to prevail over a full season of 162 games,” Schuerholz said. “You might have good fortune over a five-game series, you might be at the top of your game and better than your opposition in a seven-game series, but you need to have every element working to win a division title, and to do it 11 times is unprecedented and something we’re very proud to have done because we know how difficult it is.”

The Atlanta streak has spanned an ever-changing landscape--from beating the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants when the Braves were part of the NL West to dominating the New York Mets in the East, from balanced to unbalanced schedules, through free agency, arbitration and soaring payrolls that force a constant turnover in personnel and consistent focus on the minor league pipeline.

Of the 25 players on the opening-day roster, 10 were new to the Braves, and yet the story was the same.

A 60-20 sprint through the middle of the season humbled the division and buried the underachieving Mets, whose off-season shopping spree had landed Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar, among many others.

Now, Steve Phillips and Bobby Valentine could be out as the Mets’ general manager and manager, victims of a Sept. 9 Atlanta clinching that was the earliest by any team since the 1995 Cleveland Indians wrapped up the AL Central on that date.

What were the keys to the 11th in a row? Schuerholz and others cited the following:

* The transition of John Smoltz, who leads the majors with 50 saves only one year after elbow reconstruction, to the closer role.

* The 17-6 comeback of Kevin Millwood and the continued stability of Tom Glavine (17-10) and Greg Maddux (13-6), who both hope to re-sign as free agents but will have to wait until the playoffs conclude for meaningful negotiations.

* The baseball-best performance of an unlikely middle relief corps that includes Chris Hammond, who had been retired for two years; Darren Holmes, coming off back surgery; Kevin Gryboski, a waiver acquisition, and Tim Spooneybarger, a rookie.

* The acquisition of Gary Sheffield for the middle of the lineup and the willingness of Chipper Jones to move to left field, putting Vinny Castilla on third.

“We focused on offense in the off-season because runs have been scarce for us in the playoffs,” Schuerholz said, “but the irony is that pitching has been key again.

“That doesn’t mean we’re disappointed with Sheffield. Just the opposite. He’s been outstanding, on and off the field. His numbers [24 homers and 78 runs batted in] are down because he hurt his wrist early, but he’s given the lineup a stronger feel and presence, although I’m not sure it’s been any more productive.”

Part of the reason is that Castilla and Javy Lopez have had disappointing seasons from a power standpoint, and Manager Bobby Cox, who is long overdue for the manager-of-the-year award, has been forced to do considerable juggling at first and second base.

Still, here are the Braves with the best record in the NL, waiting at this point to play either the wild-card Dodgers or Giants in the opening round of the playoffs, and forced to cope with yawns from the industry and media.

“I’m tired of ‘em,” Philadelphia General Manager Ed Wade said in backhanded respect. “We started 9-19, have played 11 games over .500 since, and we’re still several cab rides away from even being able to look at them.”

What Wade meant is that the Braves are in their own league. While Florida, Montreal, Philadelphia and New York are virtually tied in the East, the Braves are 21 games ahead.

If they haven’t generated much applause in the process, if they don’t get much respect for their 11 consecutive division titles, maybe it’s because people view them as one of baseball’s big spenders (even though their payroll of $93.5 million ranks only seventh) and maybe it’s because they haven’t demonstrated that same domination in the World Series. They’ve reached the Fall Classic five times during the streak but won only once.

“I think that probably has something to do with it,” said Schuerholz, who plans to remain as the Atlanta GM for two more years at least. “Knowledgeable people in our industry know how difficult it is to achieve what we have, but even some of those people are caught up in the societal view of what have you done lately, the view that if you don’t win the last game you’ve done nothing.

“In the old days, when it was strictly a matter of winning your league and advancing to the World Series, there was respect and appreciation for the teams that prevailed over the full season.

“Now, you not only have to win your division, but you have to survive three levels of playoffs. It’s so much harder, and I think it’s inappropriate when people dismiss the 11 titles just because we’ve won only one World Series in that time.”

Perhaps, but the Braves are haunted by the fall failures despite their summer success.

Although the players had a taste of champagne when they returned to work on Tuesday, they, too, took the 11th in a row in stride, resigned to the fact that public perception is unlikely to change until they win another World Series.

Maddux, for instance, said he spent Monday night watching the NFL game while checking his computer for updates on the Mets-Phillies game that would give Atlanta another title.

“I told my wife, ‘Hey, we won again,’ ” Maddux said, “and she said, ‘Shocker.’

“I said, ‘Hey, OK,’ and went back to watching the rest of the football game.’ ”