Atlanta Braves

The origin story of the Atlanta Braves takes us on a journey through three cities and over a century and a half of legendary baseball.

A few episodes back we talked about the Cincinnati Reds and how they came about into the National League of baseball. During their origin story we learned that:

The club was formed by a man named Harry Wright per the MLB.com story on the Reds origins. The Red Stockings played their home games at a place called the Union Grounds, which was located just west of downtown.

The 1896 Red Stockings, were dressed to the hilt for ballplayers of that era and they were an exceptionally good team. Yeah good enough that they recorded an unbelievable record of 57-0 in that inaugural season! They played not only home games but they traveled from the East Coast all the way to the West Coast taking on all challenges of opponents. To do this Wright paid his men on the roster making them the very first paid players in professional baseball. For some unknown reason, except for maybe it was thought there would be a better opportunity in a larger market, Harry and his brother George Wright left the team for Boston. That version of the Red Stockings disbanded in their absence. This pair of Wright brothers from South Eastern Ohio didn't fly an airplane but they did help to start another Red Stockings baseball club in Boston. I know what you are thinking but no they did not directly become the Red Sox.

Yes on January 20, 1871, the Boston Red Stockings were incorporated by a man named Ivers Whitney Adams with $15,000 and the help of Harry Wright according to MLB.com bio on the team. A few months later the team would be one of nine initial registrants into the forerunner of the National League which at that time came to be known as the National Association of Professional Baseball Players. Wright knew how to build a good team back then and with the help of Adams they had Boston as the most dominant team winning 6 of the first 8 pennants in the fledgling NL. In 1875, they won 26 straight games, and won all of their home games at the Union Base Ball Ground in Boston's South End, yes an amazing 38 "W"s out of 38 in their own house. They were eventually known by various nicknames besides the Red Stockings including the Red Caps, Beaneaters, Rustlers and even the Bees.

Things went along swimmingly for the original Boston Red Stockings club in the early years. There was an ownership change when James Gaffney bought the team in 1912. Gaffney had strong politcal ties with the Tammany Hall group and thus adopted the nickname Braves for his new team after the Native American symbol used by Tammany supporters. It was another way to relay his politcal views and alignment to the public. The team played as the Boston Braves for about 4 decades winning the NL pennant in both 1914 and 1948 and capturing the World Series Title in 1914. That year they are known as the Miracle Braves as they went from last place on July 15 to go on a historic run that led to the World Series Championship.

Shortly after World War II, the other team in Boston the American League's Red Sox started becoming the more popular team in Bean Town and the writing was on the wall that the city was not big enough for both to thrive. Braves owner Lou Pereni was an advocate of his farm sytem squads and he promised at least one of them that he would help to get an MLB club to move. All eyes were onthe St. Louis Browns to be the franchise on the move but they were not who Pereni spoke of. he choice was a bit more obvious. It was the Braves who decided to pack up shop and relocate to the city of Milwaukee to start the 1953 season because that was the locale of their top minor league affiliate, who were extremely popular in Beer Town. According to the MLB's website a crowd of over 60,000 Wisconsin residents cheered the arrival of the franchise to their city in a celebratory parade.

After about a decade, the crow sizes started to dwindle in Milwaukee much like they did in Boston, so true to form the club looked for a new home. In 1966 it was announced that the Braves would would be once again moving, this time south to Atlanta, Georgia as that city was gaining ground in the porfessional sports world by luring franchises from other major sports such as football to open up shop in the growing city.

The Braves have become an integral part of Atlanta especially in the 1990s when they were by far the top team in baseball. From the 1991 season or worst to first to capturing a World Series title in 1995 and a plethora of appearances in the post season ever since. The Atlanta Braves are a pinnacle franchise in Major League Baseball but they also have a great long history as a franchise, touching the hearts of millions representing three different cities along the way.

Of course we also could not have done the above stat research without the assistance of Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com and Stathead.com resources.

The banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons in the public domian of Boston Braves Baseball Team of 1948
Description: Front L. to R. -- Sibby Sisti, Clyde Shoun, Bob Keely, Fred Fitzsimmons, Billy Southworth, Johnny Cooney, Bob Elliott, Red Barrett, Bill Salkeld, Vern Bickford, Phill Masi, Jim Russell. Second L. to R. -- George Young, Frank McCormick, Ernie White, Connie Ryan, John Sain, Bill Hogue, Mike McCormick, Clint Conatser, Jeff Heath, John Antonelli, Warren Spahn, Nelson Potter. Third L. to R. -- Bob Sturgeon, Si Johnson, Earl Torgeson, Al Dark, Tommy Holmes, Bill Voiselle, John Beazley, Al Lyons. Bat Boys L. to R. -- Charlie Chronopoulos, Tom Ferguson, Frank McNulty. Compliments of Tichnor Brothers of Boston, Mass.