If baseball were the dating world, the New York Yankees would be the smooth operator with the cool car and the billion-dollar trust fund. The Chicago Cubs would be the eternal screw-up who, darn it, just needs a little love and understanding to change his ways.

The Boston Red Sox would be the irresistible rogue who, almost every time, ends up breaking your heart. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays would be the geek staying home to play Everquest.

And the Atlanta Braves would be the designated driver.

That's because, thanks to their consistent goodness, the Braves have become afflicted with the baseball equivalent of Nice Guy Syndrome.

They're always there. They're always dependable. They're always boring.

Lost in the shuffle, of course, in the Yankees-Red Sox showdown for first place in the AL East, and the Chicago White Sox's temporary hurtling toward a historic collapse, the Braves clinched their 14th straight National League East title.

That's an impressive accomplishment, even if you place an asterisk next to it because Atlanta was six games behind first-place Montreal when a players' strike ended the 1994 season, and because the National League split from two to three divisions in 1995. It's the kind of feat done only by a strong, stable organization, one that has a personnel department always finding quality players, and one that has a manager and coaching staff getting the most out of them.

SPECIAL FEATURE Atlanta Braves timeline Bobby Cox has led his team on run of 14 straight division titles AP

The 2005 title might be the most impressive yet, given Atlanta's lack of experienced talent. Seventeen rookies were employed at some point in the season, many of them stepping into key roles. For example, Jeff Francouer, called up from Double-A on July 7, took the starting right fielder's role and has hit .306, with 14 home runs and 45 RBI in only 68 games, enough of an impact to get him mentioned as a possible NL Rookie of the Year. To get an idea of how long this streak has been going, the Atlanta-born Francouer was seven years old when his hometown team began the division-title run in 1991.

Yet, the Braves aren't praised for their consistency. They're dammed.

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So what if the Braves win the division every year? So what if they've had six 100-win seasons during that streak? The bottom line is, the Braves have only one World Series title to show for it.

Consistent division titles are the gray-flannel suit of sports. Just look out how Atlanta, the metropolitan area, has reacted to the streak. True, attendance at Braves' home games is up slightly this year. But from 1997 to 2004, attendance dropped every year, from 3.5 million, second in the National League, to 2.4 million, seventh in the NL. The decline might have tracked over a longer period, if not for the opening of Turner Field in 1997 and the phenomenon of fans going to catch that new-ballpark smell. Braves attendance actually peaked at 3.8 million in 1993. The Braves also are notorious for not being able to sell out non-Series playoff games.

It's unfair, really, to the Braves organization that 14 straight division titles elicit such a yawn. No one else has come close to matching that feat. Cubs fans get giddy over the thought of one straight division title.

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