I became a Braves fan in the late 1980's / early 1990's -- not sure exactly. All I know is that every day when I got home from school in Southern California, the Braves were on TBS.

Those were the days of a young Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, Paul Assenmacher (sp?), Ron Gant, Jeff Blauser, Pete & Zane Smith, Dale Murphy, Ken Griffey and the like... We won maybe 50 games that year, but I was hooked.

I went through the hard years, and our historic run of 14 straight division titles...

I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

Chipper was drafted when I was 10 years old, and although I was also an Oakland A's fan -- and Todd Van Poppel was my idol (I was a pitcher / catcher as a kid), Chipper's nickname made me an instant fan (what else would hook a 10 year old kid)... Now, 20 years later, Chipper is still my favorite player, although I think I (and all other Braves fans) have found his replacement for the next 20 years!