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ATLANTA – The Atlanta Braves make their first World Series appearance since 1999 because star players NS several positions, belittled shooting staff and crafty midsummer it moves by the front desk.
But inside the clubhouse, players also point to a secret weapon. He doesn’t pitch, throw, or hit, but he has surrendered over and over again. Atlanta’s game changer in 2021? Soft serve ice cream machine.
“When they brought this to the clubhouse, it was like magic,” said infielder Johan Camargo. Additional star savior Tyler Matzek“It’s just something we’ve gathered around a genre.”
The story of how a frozen treat revives a flooded team earlier in the season begins in late May in Boston. While visiting Fenway Park, Atlanta, during a 9-5 loss to the Red Sox, the team endured a rain delay of nearly three hours.
“We didn’t restart the game until midnight,” Matzek said. “There was no one in the stands. It was definitely raining. We said, ‘Oh, well, there’s nothing to do, let’s have ice cream.’
The cellar in the visitor’s clubhouse on Fenway has a soft serve ice cream machine. For comforting Josh Tomlin, it brought back memories of his trips to the Dairy Queen with his father while growing up in Texas.
“It was perfect,” he said. “It had a bit of a chocolate side, a vanilla side, and a swirl in the middle.”
The baseball season is quite long, with 162 games excluding the playoffs. Players often look for small pleasures to break the monotony: drinks on the team plane, a silly song to rally around, mistake a rare home cooked meal. And who doesn’t love ice cream?
Shortly after returning to Atlanta, Matzek said he and his teammates began taunting Calvin Minasian, who oversaw the clubhouse in Truist Park, saying his Boston colleague was getting better at his job. Why didn’t Minasian supply them with a soft ice cream maker?
Minasian knew that he could not order such a device without permission. Tomlin, 37, said the players have talked about it all and commissioned the star’s first goalkeeper. Freddie FreemanAt 32, the team’s longtime leader and the 2020 National League’s Most Valuable Player is taking her case to General Manager Alex Anthopoulos.
Anthopoulos said his initial reaction was a joking reluctance to continue. “We’re going to get all these guys smashing ice cream and oh man, it’ll all be 400 pounds,” he said to himself. But when Anthopoulos saw that the players weren’t kidding, he approved the first ice cream maker purchase in his 10-year career as GM.
“I see this relationship as a partnership,” Anthopoulos said. “We’re nobody’s parents. So I can joke about things like that, but these guys are grown men. They’re responsible. Freddie in particular takes a lot of care of himself. But that’s something they really want. And it’s a two-way street, right? One of these guys as a club.” we always ask for something: ‘Can you help us with this?’ or ‘Can you help us with this?’”
Requests can range from participating in charities and marketing events to helping add veterinary potential staff. A week before Atlanta traded for Cleveland outfielder Eddie Rosario, for example, he called infielder Ehire Adrianza, Rosario’s former Minnesota teammate, for his perspective. Rosario has since Bloomed to the October star.
“If they feel strongly about something, it makes sense, then of course,” said Anthopoulos, “Hey, we want five ice cream machines, we want a cotton candy machine, and we want this and that ‘of course not.”
The players said they understood the limits.
“Everybody thinks we’re eating chicken breast and vegetables every second of the day,” Matzek said. “I mean, we do. We have to take good care of our bodies. But everybody likes ice cream.”
The machine arrived in the second week of June, when the team was under 500 of the season’s lowest five games. When Anthopoulos finally saw him, he took a picture and texted Freeman, who said “2-0!!!” gave the answer. According to Freeman, the team has won consecutive matches since the machine was turned on.
The joke between the GM and the star soon turned into an ongoing joke. “We will soon be a softball team,” Anthopoulos texted at one point. “Everything to win the East!!!” Freeman replied, referring to the team split.
A few days later, Freeman texted Anthopoulos to tell him they were now 3-1 with ice cream. He also posted a photo of himself drinking a glass. Anthopoulos then joked with Freeman that if the team won the division, he would install a machine in Freeman’s house.
“If you told me I had to spend my own money to buy an ice cream maker to win the NL East, I would,” Anthopoulos said.
On September 30, Atlanta won their fourth consecutive league title, with outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. He overcame the injuries of star players such as his team and closed a 56-37 lead, fueled, at least in part, by hard hits and soft serve shots. Freeman also started the season slow, but finished with an average of .300 and 31 home runs after a summer tear that again coincided with the arrival of a certain dessert.
(Freeman has so far turned down Anthopoulos’ offer of a personal machine for two reasons: “I watch how much the chefs at the club clean him up and say ‘I’m fine man'” and “My son just doesn’t need to come down for ice cream.”)
Now a beloved clubhouse fixture, the machine was at the heart of a season full of good memories. Freeman’s 5-year-old eldest son Charlie and Tomlin have a tradition that started soon after they arrived: After every victory in the house, Tomlin gives Charlie a small cup of ice cream, and Charlie takes just one bite of it. The children of several other players also come to the clubhouse to enjoy the same treatment after the home wins.
Camargo, 27, said he served himself a little “taste” before each home game. Another post-season highlight, Matzek loves making root beer floats. Everyone enjoyed the ice cream, even Anthopoulos and his son and of course Freeman.
“You see Freddie sitting cross-legged in his locker before the game and eating a cone of ice cream, and it’s hilarious,” said Tomlin. “This guy is one of the best baseball players in the world and he’s eating an ice cream cone over there.”
Although the Braves’ machine only had one flavor (vanilla), Tomlin commended Minasian for making an ice cream stick: chocolate and caramel toppings, sprinkles, and small plastic bowls in the shape of helmets.
“A cool little thing to take your mind off of something else,” he said. “Just go over there and get your ice cream cone and you’re a kid again.”
The legend of the machine grew as the team changed seasons. The Braves didn’t look like a playoff contender when it came to soft serve, and now they’re in the World Series. “I know we just had an ice cream machine and we started playing better,” Matzek said.
“Of course you need good players,” Anthopoulos said, “but I think you need to have an environment where people are happy to work every day, whether you’re a baseball player or an office manager.”
Atlanta would celebrate their first championship since 1995 with three more wins. If that happens, Champagne, beer, and yes, soft serve will flow.
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