JGANovDec10.pdf - The Jewish Georgian

Page 22 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN November-December 2010
The Braves’ lucky charm: Magical cookies
help team escape slump, find first place
Everyone knows about Bobby Cox and
Chipper Jones. Most know about Tim
Hudson and Martin Prado.
But very few know the real reason
behind the Braves’ playoff run this past season,
which very well might be Ali’s
Cookies.
Alison and Jeff Rosengarten began
providing cookies to the team the night after
they lost their ninth game in a row during a
rough month of April. But after trying cookies
from the East Cobb establishment on
April 30, the Braves ended the losing streak
and began their ascent to the playoffs.
“We delivered cookies to the players
that night. They loved the cookies, and they
won that night,” explained Jeff. “And in
fact, they swept that [series].”
After the losing skid, Cox’s team was
8-14 on the season. Then they started eating
Ali’s cookies and went 83-57 for the rest of
the year. And, since baseball people tend to
be some of the most superstitious anywhere,
the Braves continued eating them
for good luck.
“At one point, we were thinking, ‘Let’s
see what happens if we don’t send [the
cookies],’” said Jeff. “But we didn’t want to
take that chance.”
BY
Stephen
Black
Not getting the cookies before a home
game may make the team nervous or simply
jinx them. And that would go against every
rule of baseball superstition.
“I don’t want to stop [sending cookies]
just to prove that point,” said Jeff.
On the other hand, Ali and Jeff don’t
think the Braves will admit how much the
cookies mean to their success. Such an
admission could mean revealing a weakness.
“I don’t think they want to admit to the
superstition of the cookies,” said Jeff with a
laugh. “Right now, we give [the cookies] to
them as a gift. If the team turned around and
said, ‘Hey, we need those lucky cookies,’
those cookies could become very expensive.”
Getting into the Braves’ clubhouse was
not easy for the husband and wife team.
After starting the business almost three
years ago, the pair began working with
Aramark, the company
in charge of
concessions at
Turner Field. Once
inside the Braves’
home stadium,
there was only one
thing keeping
Ali’s cookies out
of the Braves’
mouths.
“The only
thing between us
and the clubhouse
was security,” said
Jeff. “One time,
we asked the security
guard how we
could get cookies
into the clubhouse.
One of the guards
was nice enough to
make a contact,
and I got a call
from the locker
room manager. They said they’d be delighted
to have our cookies in the clubhouse.”
Once in the clubhouse, the cookies
became very popular. Though the
Special delivery to the Braves -
Aliʼs Cookies
Rosengartens bring an
assortment of the company’s
20 varieties,
Braves players have
their own personal
favorites.
“They tell me Jason
Heyward likes the ones
with the M&M’s,” said
Jeff.
Since the cookies disappear
so fast, some of
the players hide them for
later dates.
“Tim Hudson told me
that he likes the cookies
so much that when we
deliver, he stashes some
for himself,” said Jeff.
Cox, Jones, Heyward,
Prado, Hudson, and others
have gotten much of
the credit for making the
postseason. But very
few will know the story
behind how Ali’s Cookies broke a losing
streak and helped propel the Braves into the
postseason.