Dues Paid in Full, the Braves Are World Champions

Baseball is a cruel, fiendishly inequitable dues collector. The payment it requires before doling out rewards follows whim more than logic.

There is no other way to explain why Braves pinch runner Terrance Gore has three World Series championship rings and one career RBI. Or why Jorge Soler, hitting .192 on a last-place Royals team July 29, finds himself three months later with a World Series MVP trophy and a second championship ring to complement his 2016 Cubs bauble.

This same game, however, makes Freddie Freeman, one of the league’s purest hitters and most upstanding people, log 15 seasons in the Braves’ organization, including three straight 90-loss seasons, before getting to a World Series.