This article details the History of the Atlanta Braves, which concerns the evolution of the Major League Baseball team Atlanta Braves over time.
The Braves played in Boston from their inception in 1871 until 1953, when owner Lou Perini relocated the franchise to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During the franchise's 13-year tenure in Milwaukee, aided by Hall of Famers Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, and Hank Aaron, the Braves reached the World Series in and , winning in the former year. They also finished second in the National League five times from 1953 to 1960. In the early-to-mid-1960s, however, the Braves failed to play World Series-caliber baseball, and in 1962, Perini sold the team to William Bartholomay, who relocated the team to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1966.
With the exceptions of National League West division titles in 1969 and 1982, the Braves were a largely mediocre team from the late 1960s through the 1980s. In 1976, media magnate Ted Turner purchased the Braves from Bartholomay and pledged to keep the team in Atlanta. The team's fortunes had an abrupt turnaround in 1991, when they became the first team in National League history to reach the World Series one year after finishing last. 1991 was the start of 14 consecutive division titles for the Braves, who became known as the "Team of the 90s". During that decade they played in five World Series (, , , , and ) and won one (1995), which made them the only team in Major League history to win the World Series three times in three different cities. Their success relied heavily on a legendary starting rotation which included Hall of Famers John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddux.
In 2006, the Braves' streak of division titles ended and they trudged through four years of mediocrity before earning three postseason berths between 2010 and 2013. The team then had four consecutive losing seasons before beginning a new streak of NL East division titles in 2018. In 2021, the Braves won their fourth World Series title.
Milwaukee years
After leaving Boston, the city of Milwaukee went wild over the Braves, who were welcomed as genuine heroes. The success of the team after the move was noted by many owners. Not coincidentally, the Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Browns, Brooklyn Dodgers, and New York Giants all relocated over the next five years.
The team drew over at home during the regular season, then went on to its first World Series win in over 40 years, defeating the New York Yankees.
The move to Atlanta
After the period of success was over, Lou Perini sold the Braves to a Chicago-based group led by William Bartholomay after the 1962 season. The ink had barely dried on the deal when Bartholomay started shopping the Braves to a larger television market. At the same time, the fast-growing city of Atlanta, led by Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., constructed a new $18 million, 52,007–60,606 seat multi-purpose stadium in less than one year, Atlanta Stadium (later on known as Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium from 1976 until 1996 with its demolition in 1997), which was officially opened in 1965 in hopes of luring an existing major league and/or NFL/AFL team.
After the city failed to lure the (who moved to Oakland in 1968), Allen courted the Braves, who announced their intention to move to Atlanta for the 1965 season. However, an injunction filed in Wisconsin forced the Braves to play a lame-duck season in Milwaukee, but the home attendance was less than 560,000. In the interim, Atlanta Stadium played host to the Braves' new Triple-A affiliate, the Atlanta Crackers of the International League. The Braves had bought the Crackers in order to secure the major-league rights to the Atlanta area; in those days, the owner of a minor-league team also owned the major league rights to that city.
The Braves completed the move to Atlanta prior to the 1966 season, and drew over 1.5 million in the new stadium that Before that season, they moved the Crackers to Richmond, Virginia as the Richmond Braves.
Atlanta
1966–1975: Early years in Atlanta The Braves were a .500 team in their first few years in Atlanta – 85–77 in 1966, 77–85 in 1967, and 81–81 in 1968. The 1967 season was the club's first losing campaign since 1952, its last year in Boston. In 1969, with the onset of divisional play, the Braves won the first-ever National League West pennant, but were swept in three games by the "Miracle Mets" in the inaugural National League Championship Series. Atlanta would not be a factor in the division in the next decade, posting only two winning seasons between 1970 and 1981 – in some cases fielding squads as bad as the worst Boston teams.
In the meantime, fans had to be satisfied with the achievements of Hank Aaron, who actually increased his offensive production in the relatively hitter-friendly confines of Atlanta Stadium (nicknamed "The Launching Pad"). By the end of the 1973 season, Aaron had hit 713 home runs, one short of Babe Ruth's career home run record. Throughout the winter he received racially motivated death threats, but stood up well under the pressure. The next season, it was only a matter of time before he set a new record. On April 4, he hit #714 in Cincinnati, and on April 8, in front of his home fans, he finally beat Ruth's mark, smashing #715 off Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Aaron would eventually hit 755 home runs for his career (the major league record until 2007), with all but 22 coming in a Braves uniform. The team also produced batting champions in Rico Carty (in 1970) and Ralph Garr (in 1974) during this time period.
1976–1989: Ted Turner buys the Braves In 1976, media magnate Ted Turner, owner of superstation WTCG (later known as WTBS, now known as WPCH-TV), purchased the Braves as a means of keeping the team (and one of his main programming staples) in Atlanta. The financially strapped Turner used money already paid to the team for their broadcast rights as a down payment. Turner used the Braves as a major programming draw for his fledgling cable channel, a move that made the team one of the first Major League Baseball franchises to have a regular, nationwide audience and fanbase, along with the Chicago Cubs (who were also distributed nationally via another superstation, WGN). WTCG marketed the Braves as "America's Team", a nickname that still sticks in some areas of the country, especially the South, today.
Turner quickly gained a reputation as a quirky, hands-on baseball owner. Among other things, in 1976 he suggested the nickname "Channel" for his new free agent acquisition, pitcher Andy Messersmith, along with jersey number 17, in order to indirectly promote WTCG (which broadcast on Channel 17 in the local Atlanta market). Major League Baseball quickly vetoed the idea. On May 11, 1977, Turner appointed himself manager, but because MLB passed a rule in the 1950s barring managers from holding a financial stake in their team, he was ordered to relinquish that position after one game (the Braves lost 2–1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates to bring their losing streak to 17 games).
After three straight losing seasons, Bobby Cox was hired for his first stint as manager for the 1978 season, and he promoted a 22-year-old slugger named Dale Murphy into the starting lineup. Murphy hit 77 home runs over the next three seasons, but struggled on defense, positioned at either catcher or first base while being unable to adeptly play either. However, in 1980, Murphy was moved to center field and demonstrated excellent range and throwing ability, while the Braves earned their first winning season since 1974.
Cox was fired after the 1981 season and replaced with Joe Torre, under whose leadership the Braves saw the team win its first 13 games of the season (setting a since-equaled MLB record)100 Things Braves Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die: Revised and Updated, Jack Wilkinson, Triumph Books, Chicago, 2019, , p.76 and attained their first divisional title since 1969. However, they were swept by the eventual World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS. Strong performances from Bob Horner, Chris Chambliss, pitcher Phil Niekro, and short relief pitcher Gene Garber helped the club, but no Brave was more acclaimed than Murphy, who won both a Most Valuable Player and a Gold Glove award. Murphy also won a Most Valuable Player award the following season. Murphy, excelling in defense, hitting, and running, was consistently recognized as one of the league's best players. However, he was one of the few bright spots during the team's worst stretch since its days in Boston. The Braves averaged only 65 wins per season between 1985 and 1990, bottoming out in 1988 when they lost 106 games, the most in the Atlanta portion of franchise history and their most overall since 1935.
The 1986 season saw the return of Bobby Cox to the Braves organization as general manager. Also in 1986, the team stopped using their Native American-themed mascot, Chief Noc-A-Homa.
1990–2004: Successes and stars
1990–1994 Cox returned to the dugout as manager in the middle of the 1990 season, replacing Russ Nixon. The Braves would finish the year with the worst record in baseball, at 65–97, and traded Dale Murphy to the Philadelphia Phillies after it was clear he was becoming a less dominant player. However, pitching coach Leo Mazzone began developing young pitchers Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, and John Smoltz into future stars. That same year, the Braves used the number one overall pick in the 1990 MLB draft to select Chipper Jones, who would go on to become one of the best hitters in team history. Perhaps the Braves' most important move, however, was not on the field, but in the front office. Immediately after the season, John Schuerholz was hired away from the Kansas City Royals as general manager.
The following season, Glavine, Avery, and Smoltz would be recognized as the best young pitchers in the league, winning 52 games among them. Meanwhile, behind position players Dave Justice, Ron Gant and unexpected league Most Valuable Player and batting champion Terry Pendleton, the Braves overcame a 39–40 start, winning 55 of their final 83 games over the last three months of the season and edging the Los Angeles Dodgers by one game. The "Worst to First" Braves, who had not won a divisional title since 1982, captivated the city of Atlanta (and, to a larger degree, the state of Georgia and the entire southeast) during their improbable run to the flag. They defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in a very tightly contested seven-game NLCS only to lose the World Series, also in seven games, to the Minnesota Twins. The series was the first time a team that had finished last in its division one year went to the World Series the next; both the Twins and Braves accomplished the feat.
During the Braves' rise to prominence in the early 1990s, their long-standing ethnic nickname came under much closer scrutiny, even being protested in Minneapolis when the Braves visited the Twins for Game 1 of the 1991 World Series. The team was especially criticized for selling plastic and foam tomahawks, encouraging the so-called tomahawk chop and the accompanying war cry emitted by the fans. The war cry and tomahawk chop are similar, if not identical, to what Florida State University fans do at their games. Initially, the war chant music was played by the Braves' organist, but in recent years, a recording of the FSU band has been used instead. This tradition can be traced back to the arrival of former Seminole Deion Sanders, who also played for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons at the time (he would go on to play both sports simultaneously in San Francisco for one year).
Despite the World Series loss, the Braves' success would continue. In the 1992 season, the Braves returned to the NLCS and once again defeated the Pirates in seven games, only to lose in the World Series to a dominating Toronto Blue Jays team.