Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
When Marquis Grissom caught the final out of the 1995 World Series to give Atlanta its first major pro sports championship, NBC announcer Bob Costas exclaimed, “The team of the ’90s has its world championship!” Looking back, however, even though the Braves reached five World Series during the final decade of the 20th century, setting off a string of 14 straight division titles—an MLB record—they aren’t remembered as the team of the ’90s. That’s because after the Braves finally won it all, the Yankees reached three World Series between ’96 and ’99 and won all of them, beating Atlanta twice in the process, and added another in 2000 for good measure.
It’s still unclear which franchise will leave its mark on the 2020s. The decade’s first two champions in Los Angeles and Atlanta are the leading candidates, though. And the stark differences between how the two teams are setting out to prove themselves as the class of the league over the long haul were laid bare after the lockout ended.
