Team: Atlanta Braves
Sport: Baseball
Venue: Turner Field
Manager: Bobby Cox
Championships: 3 - 1914, 1957, 1995
Background: The Atlanta Braves are
a Major League Baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia.
They are in the Eastern Division of the National League.
Founded: 1871 in Boston, Massachusetts
as a National Association club. The club became a charter
member of the National League in 1876 and has remained
in the league without a break since then.
Formerly known as: Boston Braves (1912-1952), Milwaukee
Braves (1953-1965). Prior to 1912, the Boston team had
several unofficial nicknames: "Red Stockings"
in the 1870s and 1880s; "Beaneaters" in the
1890s and early 1900s; "Doves" (when the Dovey
family owned the franchise, 1907-1910) and "Rustlers"
(when William Russell owned the franchise, 1911). Following
the 1935 season, after enduring bankruptcy and a series
of poor seasons, new owner Bob Quinn asked a team of
sportswriters to choose a new nickname, to change the
team's luck. The sportswriters chose "Bees",
a name which never really caught on; even Quinn refused
to use it. The team switched back to "Braves"
in 1941.
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Atlanta Braves Tickets |
Home ballpark: Turner Field, Atlanta (aka "The
Ted", after Ted Turner)
Uniform colors: Navy blue, Garnet red,
and White
Logo Design: The script word "Braves"
above a tomahawk
Wild Card titles won (0): none
Division titles won (14): 1969, 1982,
1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
2001, 2002, 2003
National Association pennants won (4):
1872, 1873, 1874, 1875
National League pennants won (17):
1877, 1878, 1883, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1897, 1898, 1914,
1948, 1957, 1958, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999
World Series championships won (3):
1914, 1957, 1995
In 1948 the team again won the pennant, behind the pitching
of Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain who won 39 games between
them. The remainder of the rotation was so thin that
in September the Boston Post journalist Gerald Hern
characterized them by the poem
First we'll use Spahn
then we'll use Sain
Then an off day
followed by rain
Back will come Spahn
followed by Sain
And followed
we hope
by two days of rain.
The poem received such a wide audience that the sentiment,
usually now paraphrased as "Spahn and Sain and
pray for rain", entered the baseball vocabulary.
Ironically, in the 1948 season, the Braves actually
had a better record in games that Spahn and Sain did
not start than in games they did.
The Milwaukee years
Their two pennants not withstanding, the Braves
term in Boston were not a successful time. Attendances
steadily dwindled until, on March 13, 1953, then-owner
Lou Perini announced he was moving the team to Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. As the 1950s the reinvigorated Braves were
increasingly competitive. Sluggers Eddie Mathews and
Hank Aaron drove the offense (they would hit a combined
863 home runs as Braves), whilst Spahn and Lew Burdette
anchored the rotation. In 1957, it culminated in their
first World Series win for over 40 years, defeating
the New York Yankees of Berra, Mantle and Ford. Burdette,
the Series MVP, threw three complete game victories,
giving up only two earned runs.
The Atlanta Years
By the early 1960s attendance in Milwaukee had dwindled
as well, and a new group of owners once again sort relocation.
Keen to attract them, the City of Atlanta constructed
a new ballpark, Fulton County Stadium, officially opened
in 1965. The next year, the Braves were its new residents.
A .500 baseball team in the first few years (85-77,
77-85 and 81-81) respectively, they won the 1969 NL
West pennant, before being swept by the "Miracle
Mets" in the NLCS. They would not win it again
until 1982, under Joe Torre.
