Sports Daily: Why are we like this?

UConn won the women’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday, obliterating South Carolina.

Florida and Houston fight for the men’s title tonight (8:50 p.m. on CBS).

But first? First we’ve got to try and crown a champion in our Atlanta sports memory bracket — and explore our collective psyche a bit while we’re at it.

Quick links: Masters week! | Drake Baldwin’s future | Hawks win | D. Led’s mock draft

SHOCKING RESULTS

Credit: Curtis Compton/AJC

Credit: Curtis Compton/AJC

Honestly? I assumed y’all would choose the misery of 28-3 in a landslide decision over the bliss of the Braves’ 1995 World Series title.

A historically bad Super Bowl loss seemed like a lock in a town prone to wallow.

But what actually happened is so much better.

😯 THE RESULTS: It was a tie! A literal tie.

At our predetermined cutoff time at 9 a.m. today, both memories had accrued exactly the same number of votes.

To reiterate: The same number of people chose gladness (the World Series win that gave Atlanta its first major professional title) and sadness (building up a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI and blowing it) as our city’s defining sports moment.

Anticlimactic? Kinda! But I see progress.

🗣️ WHAT YOU SAID: Lots of ~readers like you~ emailed to share explanations for their votes.

Vic, for example: “Of course I loved the 1995 Braves championship, but due to so many flops, failures and disappointments in Atlanta and Georgia sports, a misery reminder is more appropriate and historic since nothing close to the 28-3 collapse had ever happened before.”

This is more or less what I expected everyone to say. It was too big an L, too epic a fail and too … Atlanta not to win this contest.

But many of you chose optimism! Hope and joy.

Like reader Ed: “Learned a long time ago not to dwell on the bad stuff. Let it go! Relish the good times and remember them well!”

Credit: Jonathan Newton/AJC file photo

🤓 LET’S GET NERDY: So why are we like this? Why are sports fans so … emotional? And why would anyone choose to focus on the bad stuff?

Mike Lewis, a professor of marketing at Emory University, studies fandom and a whole lot of other things (check out his latest book!). He said there are a lot of factors at play here, and specifics make a difference.

But foundationally speaking:

Fandom seems trivial. But it’s a subculture, something we use to connect with other humans. And a big part of how many people define themselves.
Memory is a funny, powerful thing too.

Episodic memories, as they’re called in this academic paper, “bring the past … into the current content of our consciousness. By doing so, we use the past to guide our current decisions and to shape our predictions about future occurrence.”

And research suggests we naturally evolved to focus more on negative information than positive. For good reason.

“You eat the poison berry and you die,” Lewis said. “You eat the berry that’s not poisonous, you’ve got 30 calories.”

🔄 THE WORLD WE LIVE IN: It’s a bit of a self-perpetuating cycle too.

In the current media environment (decimated local coverage and constant ESPN debates about GOATs, legacy and the like), it’s no longer enough to have a good season, win a conference championship or beat your rival.

So maybe you really are, deep down, an optimistic sports fan. The “this is our year” type. But when everything’s title-or-bust and the bar’s always set so high, it’s almost never “our year.”

Ultimately, we’re trained that hope breeds disappointment. Which, I’ll admit, is pretty bleak.

But the real takeaway is this: Relishing good times is hard. Especially when there’s so much bad to brood over.

It can be done though. It just has to be intentional — something some of us have already mastered!

We could all learn from guys like Ed.

A TRADITION UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Credit: AP

It’s time for the Masters Tournament. To celebrate, I’m wearing a green sweatshirt, hiding my cellphone and typing in hushed tones.

The AJC, meanwhile, has a whole squad over in (currently rainy) Augusta. That includes reporters Stan Awtrey, Jack Leo, Fletcher Page and our old pal Ken Sugiura. You’ll find all of their work right here.

Ken, in particular, will endeavor to “post a daily diary each morning to offer you a behind-the-scenes look at the tournament.” So keep an eye out for that.

🤔 And if you’re headed to Augusta yourself … do not under any circumstances scream about mashed potatoes.

BALDWIN STICKS AROUND

The Braves finally won Friday (yay), failed to score a run Saturday (ugh) and got rained out Sunday (boo). They’re off today before the Phillies come to town Tuesday night.

Also of note: Columnist Michael Cunningham likes the Braves’ move to keep young catcher Drake Baldwin in the bigs, even as Sean Murphy returns from injury.

QUICK HITS

👀 The Falcons will not select a pass rusher in the first round — at least according the latest mock draft from the AJC’s D. Orlando Ledbetter.

🏀 The Hawks beat the Jazz behind 27 points and 12 rebounds from Onyeka Okongwu (or 00-17, as reader Bill suggests). With four games left, Atlanta’s within one game of the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

🥴 Atlanta United’s draw against Dallas once again came down to “an offense that does everything but score and a defense that can’t hold its form for 90 minutes,” beat writer Doug Roberson reports.

👋 Georgia Tech hired Karen Blair, an associate head coach at Maryland for five seasons, as its new women’s basketball coach. Nell Fortner retired last week.

🏈 Deion Sanders and Colorado offered a scholarship to Champ Bailey’s son, who’s currently a freshman in high school.

WEEKEND WONDERPERSON

Credit: John Spink/AJC

Here we are, already cheating a little on our second-ever edition of Sports Daily’s weekend superlative. Because Julio Jones very much did not play a game recently.

But he — the Falcons career leader in pretty much every receiving category — did officially announce his retirement since we last spoke. We had to acknowledge it somehow.

And honoring the fourth-quarter catch that should’ve sealed the aforementioned Super Bowl seemed particularly appropriate. Here’s to you, Julio!