For the last two years, the Beacon has mandated that I suffer through weekly dinners with Tim Altork so that we can produce the Dining Duo. Every week I request hazard pay – eating with Altork is a dangerous proposition – every week I get denied.

Well, last week, for the first time in seven months, Tim and I actually engaged in an interesting conversation that had both of us drooling: what if his Atlanta Braves play my Cincinnati Reds in the playoffs?

It’s a mind-boggling thought; I mean we’re talking about two teams that finished a combined 20 games out of first place last year. Usually with the Reds, I can stop watching games in mid-June. They can’t compete and honestly, I think the Beacon has a higher pay roll than them.

Remember when the Braves won every division title between 1991 and 2005. Guess how many winning seasons the Reds had in that period? Five. Guess how many times they made the playoffs? Once. Guess who they lost too that one time? The Atlanta Braves.

Now for you Braves fans, guess who you beat in the National League Championship Series on the way to your 1995 World Series title: Yup, the Reds.

The Reds and Braves are inextricably linked. You’ve probably seen the sign on the outfield wall at Turner Field, if you haven’t, it says this of the Braves: the longest continuously operating franchise in Major League baseball.

If you’re a baseball history buff, then your next thought after reading that was probably, “Wait, the Reds were the first team in the Major League history, what did they do, quit playing after a year?”

 If you thought that, you’d be right. After the Reds first season in 1869, they disbanded faster than N’Sync did after Justin Timberlake got famous. The Reds manager went to Boston with two Cincinnati players and those three guys would end up playing an intricate part in the Boston Red Stockings inaugural season (Seriously, just look at the names of the teams: The Boston Red Stockings didn’t use any creativity, they just completely hijacked the Cincinnati Red Stockings name). A few years after Boston’s first season in 1870, the Red Stockings would become the Boston Red Caps, the Boston Beaneaters, and then eventually the Boston Braves. In 1953 the Braves moved to Milwaukee before finally moving to Atlanta in 1965. Which brings us to where we are today, I think my grandpa would call this ‘coming full circle.’

So basically, this is what it boils down too: Altork says the Braves are going to win the World Series, carry Bobby Cox off the field and then retract themselves because they will never beat the miracle that is going to be the 2010 season.

On the other hand, I say the Reds are going to send Bobby Cox off into retirement, sweep the Yankees in the World Series and then in the offseason, they will trade anyone that makes over $1.4 million.

Finally, I should note that Tim and I did both agree that Turner Field should be renamed Bobby Cox field, mainly because Bobby Cox’s right elbow has more baseball knowledge than Ted Turner. I can think of about 72 nicknames this new stadium could have, but thanks to Bobby’s last name, only about 40 of them would be appropriate to put in a family paper. Lets keep our fingers crossed for Reds-Braves.