12 Reasons To Love The Atlanta Braves

12 Reasons To Love The Atlanta Braves book cover — Braves Win 14 Straight Division Titles 4 The Big Three Are Masters of the Mound 6 Braves Are on the Move 8 Chipper Jones Is First at Third 10 Braves Bring 1957 Title to Milwaukee 12 Andy Messersmith Is Baseball’s First Free Agent 14 TBS Superstation Sends Braves Coast to Coast 16 Braves Go from Worst to First 18 Braves Win World Series Finally 20 Hank Aaron Becomes Baseball’s Home Run King 22 The Braves Battle Behind Bobby Cox 24 Turner Field Is a Ballpark of Olympic Proportions 26 12 Key Dates 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 About the Author 32 TABLE OF CONTENTS

12 Reasons To Love The Atlanta Braves — page 1 — It began on October 5 1991 The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros for their eighth win in a row With it they clinched the National League NL West division title It began an amazing streak of 14 straight division titles The streak actually ran until 2005 That’s because a players strike ended the 1994 season early No team won division titles that year Only the New York Yankees can come close to the Braves record winning streak New York reached the playoffs 13 consecutive seasons from 1995 to 2007 THINK ABOUT IT Despite the Braves success they won only a single World Series The Yankees won four over the same 15-year period Do you still consider the Braves to be a great success Or does a team have to win championships to be successful Use examples to make your point 5 NL pennants won by the Braves from 1991 to 2005 Atlanta beat the Cleveland Indians to win their only World Series in 1995 The Braves won at least 100 games six times including a team-record 106 in 1998 They spent 1,632 days in first place during their 14-year run BRAVES WIN 14 STRAIGHT DIVISION TITLES 1 4

12 Reasons To Love The Atlanta Braves — page 2 — Every summer in Atlanta was a winner The Braves won 60 6 percent of their games from 1991 to 2005 That is an average of 98 wins per year Dozens of players had a role in the streak Atlanta always had a strong pitching staff The Big Three pitchers of Tom Glavine Greg Maddux and John Smoltz led the way Smoltz later became the team’s dominant closer Atlanta had no shortage of bats though Great hitters such as Chipper Jones Andruw Jones and Gary Sheffield played major roles too And the people running the team president Stan Kasten general manager John Schuerholz and field manager Bobby Cox were there the whole time Andruw Jones left and Rafael Furcal celebrate the Braves 2005 division title 5

1

PAGE 1 OF 29

The only kids' eBook subscription service that offers thousands of high-quality books from well known publishers like HarperCollins, National Geographic and others.

JavaScript Required

Whoops! We're sorry but Epic doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Check your web browser's settings to make sure it's enabled.