By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College
Two teams battled for the National League East in 2026. One prevailed in the pennant race, and even their Wild Card matchup, but the social media biosphere is crushing that team. The other team has actual chaos, starting with the manager position, but continuing with their GM and bloated contracts. It’s time the media realizes who really needs a little tinkering and who might need a big overhaul.
Shortly after the Dodgers outlasted the Braves three games to one, with narrow victories for Los Angeles, the circular firing squad began online….and it may have been more astroturf than grassroots.
You saw people reposting, without thought, a lot of Internet garbage, like one accusing a certain star player of not attending English-speaking classes. That rumor quoted a guy who played less than 50 minor league games before the star player even signed with the organization, implying he was a major league starter, and claimed another Braves star who tried to force him to go to those classes was shipped off to another team. Some added their criticism to the claim, while tried to defend the star. Few checked if, indeed, the Braves did have mandatory English classes. Not all looked up the source either. And certainly, this musing ignores the huge salary the player who was supposedly “gotten rid of” was actually offered.
In fact, a cottage industry has sprung up among alleged “Braves fans” which insists the team should shed its relatively young and talented stars for poorly performing players on other squads, including pitcher with high ERAs, deals no sane person would ever make. I looked up one poster and…I am not joking…he was actually from Philadelphia, PA, posting on a Braves site. I doubt he’s the only one. Others give Walt Weiss and the Cobb County Braves an “F” for winning 94 games, the division, and the Wild Card playoffs, playing the Dodgers close. Or they bemoan that the team “traded” Freeman for Olson, claims easily myth-busted.
Why produce online propaganda at all?
Writing in Psychology Today, Richard H. Smith published the article “When Is the Social Media of a Rival Chosen Over One’s Own Team?” earlier this year. Smith writes “No fan would be surprised to learn that research on fan behavior provides considerable empirical evidence for the appeal of schadenfreude generally. Rival podcasts, especially following a rival’s humiliating loss, should be a schadenfreude motherlode. One study showed that fans with a strong identification with their team can report pleasure even over the severe injury of a player for a rival team.” Smith adds that hosts welcome the online rivalry, and it’s good for clicks. Plus, focusing on the speck in the Braves’ eye can distract from the plank in Phillies’ eye.
Philadelphia’s got a lot of problems. The team told Manager Don Mattingly that he would not be back, despite a 79-55 record since taking over the helm, according to Lou Landers from Big League. The General Manager tried to woo Alex Cora, Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez. All turned down Philadelphia, so they went crawling back to Mattingly, offering him a two-year deal according to ESPN, firing some of his coaches, and brining in Carlos Mendoza of the New York Mets, maybe as an heir apparent or quick fix for a future Mattingly firing. Mendoza got N.Y. into the playoffs in 2024, but was fired after winning only 42% of his games this year, according to Baseball Reference. Plus, the team owes a ton of money to players like Aaron Nola, Trea Turner, and Bryce Harper up through 2030.
There’s now an easy opportunity for the Braves to mock the Phils fans and what that team is going through. But Cobb County fans would be better off touting their players, pushing back on disinformation, and making more productive suggestions about who might actually help the team rather than some high ERA pitcher….unless it’s Atlanta GM A.A. finding a gem in Tyler Mahle.
John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu or on “X” at @johntures2. His first book “Branded” a thriller novel where corporate greed, media manipulation and academic intrigue collide in a deadly game of product placement, has been published by the Huntsville Independent Press (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/branded). His second novel, “Independent Thought,” about a third-party candidacy that brings America to its knees, is published by HIP (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/independent-thought).