Best Atlanta Braves Comeback Stories
By Bryce Waller
These men have provided Atlanta Braves’ fans with the best comeback stories that all fans can love and enjoy.
Fans love a good comeback story – especially when it is a baseball player. Fact or fiction, it does not matter. And right now, Atlanta Braves fans — and all baseball fans — need some good stories.
Who doesn’t root for Roy Hobbs in his return to baseball with the New York Knights (screw you, Judge)? Or for Jim Morris as he goes from high school teacher to Major League Baseball pitcher?
But real life is always more interesting.
As these former Braves’ players we are about to discuss will show, there is no substitute for the awesomeness of the human spirit to overcome any obstacle that gets in the way of our dreams.
Evan Gattis
The Atlanta Braves drafted James Evan Gattis in the 23rd round of the 2010 MLB Draft. Gattis bounced around rookie and minor-league ball for the first three years of his career with the Atlanta Braves.
After the 2012 season, in which Gattis was promoted to the AA-Mississippi Braves, Evan played ball in the Venezuelan Winter League. Venezuelan ballplayers, impressed by Gattis’ raw strength, gave him the nickname “El Oso Blanco,” — Spanish for “White Bear.”
Gattis impressed the Braves’ front office during spring training in 2013, and began the 2013 season sharing the starting catching duties with Gerald Laird – Brian McCann started the season on the disabled list.
El Oso Blanco immediately turned heads with his power and would win the NL Rookie of the Month honors in April and May of 2013.
More than his slugging percentage, it was Gattis’ story leading up to his time in the Majors that would impress his teammates.
Gattis was always an extremely gifted baseball player, and his path towards the MLB draft was always fairly certain. But after his parent’s divorce, and the constant pressure to always be the best at baseball, Gattis began to abuse alcohol and marijuana during his senior year of high school.
The next several years for Gattis were hectic as he was eventually admitted to a rehabilitation clinic, homeless, bounced from job to job in various states, and so on.
Thanks to the love and dedication of family members, Gattis found his way back to baseball in 2010. Gattis was offered a spot on The University of Texas of the Permian Basin’s baseball team. He would not waste this opportunity again.
Gattis would share this same story with his teammates in Atlanta in 2013. Alan Butts, the Braves bullpen coach and catcher, recalls Gattis telling his story:
"I remember him telling his life story to three of us in the weight room in spring training, and by the time he was done, 20 guys stopped what they were doing to listen. We didn’t know what to say. Finally, I said, ‘Dude, that’s unbelievable.’"
Evan Gattis would finish his 2013 rookie season with a .243/.291/.480 slash line. He finished seventh in the Rookie of the Year voting and solidified his right to a roster spot on any MLB team.
Gattis’ resolve and the discipline necessary to make it to the major leagues is an incredible display of the human spirit.
Braves’ fans were lucky enough to hear his story, and to experience a little bit of the “gattitude” that is Evan Gattis.