The end of a sports television era occurs today...

End of an era for TBS, Braves, fans

For three decades, Braves games have been beamed around the country on TBS. They became America's Team — but Sunday, America will watch for the last time.


By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 09/30/07

All across America Sunday, thousands of people like Bill DeArmond of Winfield, Kan., will say goodbye to an old friend.

For three decades, they have watched the national telecasts of Braves games on TBS, turning Atlanta's baseball team into — at least for a while — "America's Team."

Today, America will watch for the last time.

The Braves' season finale at Houston marks the end of an era that began in 1977, when Ted Turner had the novel notion of bouncing his bad baseball team's games off a satellite to cable systems nationwide. Although Braves games will continue to be televised in Atlanta and much of the Southeast, the team no longer will be national programming on TBS — a casualty of the evolution of the TV industry.

"A very important part of my life won't be there anymore," said DeArmond, a college professor who credits the distant team with helping him through personal tragedies.

As the number of channels — and baseball teams — available on television has exploded, the national audience for Braves games has eroded. From a peak rating of 4.9 in 1983, the national Nielsen cable rating for Braves games is down 84 percent, to 0.8 this season — an average audience of 716,000 households. (The rating is the percentage of U.S. cable TV households tuned in on average.)

So like countless other TV shows of declining popularity, the Braves are being ... canceled.

"It's going to be hard, going to be a very emotional day," said longtime Braves broadcaster Skip Caray, who will call today's game with his broadcaster son, Chip Caray. "These [viewers], we've been a big part of their family. The connection is going to be severed, and it's going to be hard to say goodbye to them."

Meet three of them, from coast to coast:

• In Cape Cod, Mass., Warren Gortze, 62, schedules his time around TBS' Braves telecasts. A lifelong fan whose father took him to games when the Braves were based in Boston, he still thinks "the wrong team left town." He is trying to get his grandchildren to disavow the Red Sox for the Braves, and that'll be harder, he frets, without the games on TBS.

• In Kansas, DeArmond, 60, has been watching the Braves since his town got cable TV in 1978. He credits the Braves telecasts with helping him get through the horrible summer of 1997, when his mother and his wife died a week apart. "It was just unbelievable, losing the two most important people in your life in seven days, and you have to reach out and cling to something," he said. He'll watch today's game with both sadness and disgust. "TBS has no loyalty to their fans," he said.

• And in northern California, Scott Roberts, 36, has been watching the Braves on TBS since age 8. He began watching for the same reason as many: "It was the only game on TV." Now, he has an 8-year-old son, Dylan, who watches with him. "Dylan's a big [Jeff] Francoeur and [Brian] McCann fan," Roberts said, "just like I was a big Dale Murphy, Glenn Hubbard fan." As he and his son watch today's finale, "I'll feel like I'm losing a major part of my own childhood."

 

I think TBS saw the writing on the wall. The Braves are heading towards a prolonged rough patch.

 

It really has nothing to do with how the team is doing. TBS has been decreasing the amount of games over the course of the last 5 years as part of a plan. They incorporated Turner South into the mix and sold some games to Fox Sports South. Baseball is a regional thing, much more so than football. The fans will watch their team but seldom watch other teams unless it't Boston or the Yucking Fankees. How the Braves are or will be doing is not a factor.

 

Yeah, it's weird, a lot of people I know were die hard Braves fans back in the 80's even, watching those horrible old teams in blue with Dale Murphy as the only attraction.

 

I'm pretty sure that it does. You do know that TBS isn't going to stop broadcasting baseball, don't you? They're just going to stop doing the Braves exclusively. They're going to a national game of the week type format.

 

I was and still am one of them. No matter how bad they were, and they were terrible most times, I still watched and pulled for Murphy, Rafael Ramirez, Bruce Benedict and even old Biff Pocoroba. I'll miss the Braves on TBS and odds are I'll watch very few of the new national games of the week they roll out next season.

 

Yeah, read a blurb I think I saw in the Observer that the new owners, Liberty Media, wanted to cut payroll next year. Not looking good down the road I think. Why couldn't they have sold to Arthur Blank who at least wants to put a winner on the field and tries to do it. I think the new owners will make me wish for the "good old days" of TW....