Long-time Braves fan’s dream comes true

JACKSON, Tenn. — One baseball fan has been cheering for one team for 70 years. Through thick and thin.

“I don’t think they have ever been favored ever to win a Pennant Race, let alone a World Series. I like to cheer for the underdogs,” said Vicky Foote, a Boston Braves baseball fan.

Foote has been a fan of the Braves since she was seven-years-old. She says it all started in her father’s grocery story, and with one single player.

“Every time I would make an ‘A,’ he would give me a pack of cards. I opened up a pack of those cards and this good looking third baseman for the [former] Boston Braves, Eddie Mathews, just caught my eye,” Foote said.

Freddie Freeman now takes the spot as her favorite player. She says Freeman lost his mother at a young age, and that is why she has a soft spot for the player.

“He was MVP last year, and of course he is going to go into the Hall of Fame. I may not be around to see it, but he is on his way there. It hurt me that she wasn’t here to see that, so I just adopted him in my heart,” Foote said.

She says the team has been her main motivator for as long as she can remember.

But when the pandemic kept her isolated, she didn’t realize just how much they meant to her.

“My children, my grandchildren, nobody came that year. I had nothing to look forward to except for those nightly Braves ball games,” Foote said.

After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Foote says she decided to make a bucket list.

She had a dream that she thought would be impossible, but now she is about to live it.

“I wanted to see the Braves in a World Series game, and I had no control over that. All I could do was cheer. They had not been in 22 years, so I did ask God to please let them win,” Foote said.

Foote will be heading to the game this weekend to cheer on her team.

Foote will be attending the Braves’ fourth game in the World Series against Houston.

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