Celebrating the World Series with I.J. Rosenberg

The World Series was over, Atlanta had its second world championship title and the parade for the Braves was set for Nov. 5.

Then a call hit my cellphone.

Deborah-Collura station manager for the local CBS affiliate.

On the other line was Deborah Collura, the station manager for the local CBS (Channel 46) affiliate. Collura and I had developed a nice relationship as we struck a high school football TV deal on her sister station PeachtreeTV for the Corky Kell Classic and a Friday night high school game. New to Atlanta in the middle of COVID, Collura was looking for local content and I was looking to extend our high school brand.

But this call wasn’t about our deal. It was a call I never thought I would get.

I.J. Rosenberg co-hosts the CBS46 News coverage.

With the Braves parade a day away, Collura needed someone to bring context to the championship, wanting to know if I could scrape off the mothballs of a newspaper career that had ended more than 22 years ago. I had texted her, and her news director, the week before that during Game 3 of the World Series we were going to dress our Friday night TV talent in game-worn Braves jerseys that I had collected during my time on the Braves’ beat in the 1990’s for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

While our game at Mill Creek High School would be on at the same time as the Braves, I wanted to let the sports fans that were watching us know where our hearts were that evening. We updated the Braves game continuously throughout our telecast and the win came before we went off the air.

YouTube screenshot of I.J. Rosenberg co-host the CBS46 News coverage of the World Series parade and closing ceremony.

Somehow, this all led to spending five hours on the air Friday on CBS46’s wall-to-wall parade coverage, providing nuggets about Braves teams and parades from the 90’s as well as behind the scenes stories on the current club.

For me, it completed a circle that began in 1991 when I was handed the beat at the AJC. While I chronicled the first world title in ’95 for Atlanta during a time when the newspaper was this city’s media giant, I also covered three World Series that they lost; to Minnesota in seven games in ’91, to Toronto in six games in ’92 and to the New York Yankees in ’96 in my final season on the beat.

For me, it never felt whole.

This team, however, reminded me of 1991, a mishmash of players young and old, who turned the baseball world upside down. This team was supposed to be a title contender until it lost its best player, Ronald Acuna at midseason and had a losing record at the All-Star Break.

But with some incredible front office work by its general manager and in a division that was still winnable, the run began and ended in total domination in Game 6 in Houston.

Someday, someone will write a great book about all that led to this remarkable story and what transpired in that clubhouse from July through the fifth day of November is quite remarkable. But that book is for someone else to write.

Rosenberg Family is dressed and ready for the Braves to win the World Series.

For me, I will remember all three of my children and their two spouses getting the chance to see a World Series game and a wife getting another chance to relive the Braves of the 1990’s.

I also enjoyed those parade hours on the air at CBS46, feeling relevant again when it came to the hometown baseball team that was the highlight of my career in journalism.

But what I will remember the most is getting to take my 83-year-old father to Game 5. Back in 1995, I was in the pressbox and he was sitting in the section under me at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium when the Braves clinched the title against the Cleveland Indians.

This time we were in the handicap section and watched the first inning grand slam by Adam Duval together and then a few innings later took a picture with two of his grandchildren that were at the game.

The Braves would eventually lose, and I didn’t get my father home until 1 a.m., but he was as wide-eyed as when I picked him up 10 hours earlier.

The next morning another call came into my cellphone and this time it was my father. He had remembered the night before and thanked me for taking him to the game.

But the real thanks go to the Braves, who created a once-in-a-lifetime memory for so many and reminded this old baseball writer of a game that still means so much to so many.