There’s this old observation about sports.

OK, it’s not an old one, so to speak, but I’ve been saying it for a long time (as is often the case, shouting logic into the darkness).

You don’t get a ring for April/May, August/September, November/December, or whatever the first part of a season is.

But, well, folks love to panic and whine and commiserate and have something to be triggered about no matter is silly it all is.

And many love to do it – along with overanalyze and underthink and blather redundancies - daily for months.

Amid the spring panic of Atlanta fans, one of us constantly offered reminders, hopes of some patience and lucidity, that an 0-7 start was surprising, but just seven games.

At the beginning of a 162-game season. About four percent of the season.

Sure, it wasn’t enjoyable to watch, well, an entire lineup hit a slump at the exact same time, kind of a stunner indeed. But slumps end.

OK, Atlanta’s offense slump is kind of lingering, and returning. The Braves are much more inconsistent than expected, no doubt.

But it happens. It’s sports. It – as the Forrest Gump motto reminds us – happens. Obsessing about it is a waste of time, brain energy, “brain” energy, and blood pressure meds.

The stats about starting 0-7 and making the playoffs were thrown out back in April, because folks like to panic.

A few weeks ago, the point of this tirade – just once, not rehashing the situation evry single friggin’ day, as if whining every friggin’ day is going to fix a thing – was to advise that the season wasn’t really over. Officially.

Then there was a little stretch where that changed to “Yeah, OK, time to move on and experiment.”

And now, well, I’m in between.

As has been pointed out here on social media, there’s plenty of time, and there still is.

The division is one of survival, of not collapsing. Rarely does an East leader stay on top for long periods of time. Like now.

And often, teams in this division come back to the field, like the Mets are.

It appeared at time that Atlanta had gotten over its stubborn and ridiculous allergy of some small ball. See, broadening your attack puts more pressure on the opposition, and when you eliminate ways to do that, you lessen your chance at success.

But that was only an appearance, so the Braves remain kind of stodgy and not aggressive, which doesn’t help a thing when you’re not generating much offense. You need to help yourself as much as possible, and they don’t.

I thought months ago that Atlanta would stay above .500 once it got there. Nope. And the Braves are just middlin’, just treading water, teasing.

That thought within the last month was that all Atlanta had to do – and sure, it’s that easy, right? – is play decent ball the rest of the way with some nice 8-2 surges while avoiding any 2-8 slumps. And there was no reason to think Atlanta couldn’t do that.

Just imagine if half of the lineup merely improved to have an average season. Nothing exceptional, but average.

Alas, pitchers got hurt. Austin Riley got hurt. Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris remain MIA. So many little observations were rendered outdated.

Why, I even wrote:

“Remember, no 16 had beaten a 1 in the NCAA Tournament, and that seal was broken. “Never happened before” changes all the time.

Plus, that stat about an 0-7 start not making the playoffs is misleading, because remember that for so long, fewer teams made the playoffs.

And all the teams who started 0-4 to 0-6 made the playoffs, even with the smaller field.

Ohhhh, silly wabbit.

Hyperbolic homerism aside the past few years – suddenly the can’t-miss future Hall of Famers of two years ago now suck and the oh-so-sharp GM should now be a GM at Applebees? – this wasn’t necessarily a World Series team this year.

There was a thought here a few weeks ago that the Braves mightcould muster up the run it’s – we thought - capable of and come close to or pass last year’s 89-73 record, and that’d be an accomplishment that would lead to legitimate optimism – as opposed to the yearly mindless “it’s our team so it’ll be great” chatter, like back in March of 2025 - in 2026.

Just as the great Acuna-less rally of 2021 didn’t necessarily provide much big-picture momentum, this year doesn’t mean Atlanta will drop to Nationals’ level.

Babbling about how many people should be obliterated and how idiotic the GM is remains always absurd. With two-plus months left, let’s see who does what, who finally gets into the groove we know they’re capable of, and then start thinking about changes.

The Braves have some nice contracts and some bad contracts, a lot of knee-jerking, like the fan/media base knee-jerked but now can’t remember that love.

Again, if these guys just had an average year …

That’s why a pump-n-dump is absurd. There will be some “wow, I wouldn’t have thought that a few years ago” moves, there will be some signs of patience, an eye toward stability and an eye against panicking.

Remember who will be back and healthy. Remember how many times up until four months ago you and others called Alex Anthopolous brilliant or genius and now bail. Think about a few getting back to normal the final two months of the season.

Yeah, I’ll go ahead and officially render this season as a playoff season over. But in every sport, each year is a contract year in some form or fashion, so players gotta play as well as they can.

And Atlanta is, contrary to the outlook of those who are triggered about stuff every day and aren’t happy if there’s no whining and blind second-guessing, in better shape than people think.

There’s work to do, but more tweaking than rebuilding. And the Braves will show some of those signs down the stretch.

Brian Snitker deserves one more year, and the piling on of him is another topic for another day. In baseball especially, there’s only so much the boss – or a hitting coach – can do.

Loughdmouthings

The latest - shoutout to the old Sports Illustrated feature- sign of the apocalypse (never mind):
The state of freakin Texas has a team in a conference on the Atlantic coast and now one on the Pacific coast, California has two on the Atlantic coast and two in the midwest.

What a time *Sigh, head shake, profanity muttered* to be alive. (What in the absolute bleep?) …

Catching up: For the love of God people, i.e. Arkansas shortstop throwing to third to get the lead runner in the College World Series finale:

1. That's fairly fundamental, getting the lead runner.

2. "Run/runner doesn't matter" is among sports' dumbest dumbest things.

3. A little pressure there on the kids, biggest game of their lives.

4. E3 on throw forced an intentional walk, putting 2 on instead of 1.

5. Clearly was the call from the dugout, because he never looked to second.

6. Yes, it appears it would've been a routine double play.

7. Next batter, with a runner on third, coulda gone yard.

8. Right fielder could've caught the fly or not had the severe mishap he had.

9. Final liner goes 2 inches down, it's out. 2 inches higher, solid to CF, play at the plate (out with a decent throw).

10. Nothing, absolutely nothing in sports, is guaranteed.

Except the almost vindictive joy of pissy second-guessing. …

As per a “heckling” incident in the majors recently: “We need better baseball fans. Baseball deserves better.”

We need better people. Non-bad people deserve better.

People in the stands - or at keyboards - aren't required to show how big an a-----e they can be, they're reeeeeally not. …

From Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “I guess we shouldn’t be surprised it's come to this: Wisconsin is suing Miami for tampering with one of its football players who had signed a two-year NIL contract with the Badgers before the Canes came calling with an even bigger briefcase (allegedly). NIL - Now I'm Litigating!”