Poll Position: Who was Atlanta’s greatest Brave of all?
After a long winter — in terms of the state Legislature and the GOP presidential race, not the temperature — the boys of summer are almost back, which means spring is near. But before we could reach Opening Day, we found out it’ll be the last season for one Larry Wayne Jones Jr., better known as Chipper.
Those of us who watched the Braves’ unprecedented streak of division titles during the 1990s and early 2000s have been treated to a succession of retiring greats during the past few years: Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Bobby Cox and, now, Chipper Jones.
Who was the greatest *Atlanta* Brave ever?
- Chipper Jones (66 Votes)
- Greg Maddux (60 Votes)
- Dale Murphy (42 Votes)
- Someone else (28 Votes)
- John Smoltz (22 Votes)
- Phil Niekro (19 Votes)
- Tom Glavine (9 Votes)
- Andruw Jones (2 Votes)
Total Voters: 248
Loading ...And that got me thinking: Is Chipper the best Atlanta Brave ever?
Note the phrasing: Atlanta Brave. So, greats from the franchise’s days in Milwaukee like Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn don’t qualify. Hank Aaron does, and I think few people would dispute he’s the greatest Brave regardless of city, but he played only about 40 percent of his games in Atlanta.
The other recent Braves I already mentioned are certainly in the running, as are players like Andruw Jones, Dale Murphy and Phil Niekro. Some others burned very bright for a short time, such as Ron Gant and Terry Pendleton. A few other Hall of Famers passed through town, usually toward the end of their careers — players like Orlando Cepeda, Hoyt Wilhelm and Bruce Sutter — but they aren’t typically considered Atlanta Braves.
So, let’s take the short-timers out of the running and, for argument’s sake, Aaron as well. And let’s keep it only to the players (so no Cox). Who’s the greatest Atlanta Brave of all?
That’s this week’s Poll Position question. Answer in the nearby poll and in the comments thread below — and feel free there to suggest other names.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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85 comments Add your comment
Rafe Hollister
March 23rd, 2012
10:12 am
Hard to compare pitchers and position players. Pitchers are out there once every five days, unless they pitch in relief and so far we have not had a star at that position on a sustainable basis.
Murphy, 2 MVP’s and Maddox 4 Cy Youngs are the greatest with Chipper and Glavine close seconds. Aaron is in a class by himself.
UGA 1999
March 23rd, 2012
10:12 am
Easy question. Without a doubt Chipper Jones is the greatest of all time.
St Simons- island off the coast of New Somalia
March 23rd, 2012
10:26 am
I would say Lonnie Smith
’cause w/one play he had the greatest effect on the Braves org for all time
No Artificial Flavors
March 23rd, 2012
10:27 am
Kyle, of course Ken Oberkfell should be included in my list along with Joe Boever, Zane Smith, and Pete Smith.
UGA 1999
March 23rd, 2012
10:30 am
John Rocker.
No Artificial Flavors
March 23rd, 2012
10:30 am
Excellent recall of the Lonnie Smith clutch performance.
@@
March 23rd, 2012
10:33 am
Not one mention of the little infield mouse with the heart of a lion.
Rafael Belliard!
I actually cried when he got his ONE homerun.
What can I say? LUV a good shortstop.
UGA 1999
March 23rd, 2012
10:34 am
Furcal was the Braves best shortstop.
ragnar danneskjold
March 23rd, 2012
10:43 am
Kyle’s note on Warren Spahn brings to mind a great story, July 2, 1963
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2008%2F07%2F05%2FSP7Q11K0C5.DTL
O House Dawg
March 23rd, 2012
10:46 am
Biff Pocoroba …..jk…..it has to be Murph then Chipper.
UGA 1999
March 23rd, 2012
10:47 am
I would take Chipper over Murphy. I like Murphy alot but I dont think he is as accomplished at Chipper.
Dusty
March 23rd, 2012
11:21 am
There have been so many great BRAVES. They brought us joy in abundance..
Now Chipper will be leaving us at the end of the year. He’s been a fine player and never left us. For his farewell gift, I say CHIPPER has been the best.
detritusUSA
March 23rd, 2012
11:54 am
Dale Murphy played on teams with little to no talent, but he played with character, grace,and tremendous ability. He is the greatest player to ever wear the uniform.
brianc
March 23rd, 2012
11:56 am
“I would say Lonnie Smith
’cause w/one play he had the greatest effect on the Braves org for all time”
If you are talking about negative plays, I’d put Mark Wohlers giving up the grand slam ahead of that. The Braves never came close to winning a World Series again after that blown game, and it effectively ended a pretty good closer’s career.
brianc
March 23rd, 2012
12:13 pm
In that previous post, I mistakenly said it was a grand slam Wohlers gave up against the Yankees, but it was actually a 3-run homer.
Jefferson
March 23rd, 2012
12:15 pm
Larry “Chipper” Jones, while a hall of famer for sure, is no clutch hitter and stays hurt too much to be on the list. Hank for sure. Andrew Jones ? He still can’t hit a curve ball.
Jefferson
March 23rd, 2012
12:18 pm
If you want to BLOW a world series just bring in a junk ball pitcher to pitch against Puckett, which is what they hit all year long in the AL. Cox won a lot, but his coaching in the series is why they are like 1 for 8 or whatever.
Jefferson
March 23rd, 2012
12:21 pm
Alou, Boyer, Torre, Arron(s)… there were some good Braves playing when they didn’t win much.
MountainMan
March 23rd, 2012
12:29 pm
The most memorable game in the early years was August 9, 1966. Denny LeMaster vs. Sandy Koufax. This was the only Braves game my dad ever attended. The game was sold out and they sold 3,000 standing room only tickets. There were people between the fence and the wall. It p0ured down rain in the third inning and we left because it didn’t look like they could continue the game. Of course my Dad didn’t know that the Braves would avoid issuing 52,000 rain checks at all costs. Both pitchers pitched complete games. LeMaster had a no-hitter through 7. Eddie Matthews hit a walk-off hommer to win 2-1. There were still 45,000 fans in the stands when the game ended after 1:00 AM.
That said, I like Murph.
Brosephus
March 23rd, 2012
12:44 pm
OF – Andruw Jones
Really???? I’d take Claudell Washington or Ron Gant over Andruw anyday…
brianc
March 23rd, 2012
12:44 pm
I just don’t get the level of support for Murphy. Super nice guy, yes.Good, sometimes very good player. But there have been much better hitters on bad teams that don’t get the same props in their towns. I could understand it twenty years ago, when the Braves had had very few great players, but they have had many players better than Murphy since.
Jack
March 23rd, 2012
1:05 pm
Murphy always comes to mind when I think about how things used to be.
brianc
March 23rd, 2012
1:05 pm
And another thing: Andruw Jones’s Braves numbers are almost identical to Murphy’s, and most people consider Andruw as somewhat of a disappointment, at least as a hitter. No question he was a better defensive player, though Murphy was a very good one too.
St Simons- island off the coast of New Somalia
March 23rd, 2012
1:27 pm
I’m telling you, if Lonnie d’oh Smith dosn’t fall for that 2nd grade “slap your
glove” trick, and went to 3rd, next batter Ron Gant hit a deep fly, and
Smoltz pitched a perfect 9th. Boom.
That would have been our Montana to Clark “the Catch” moment,
changed the whole dynamic & attitude & started the
Greatest Dynasty Ever. But no, not in Loserville usa
Finn McCool (Class Warfare = Stopping Rich People from TAKING MORE of OUR MONEY)
March 23rd, 2012
1:34 pm
I was the greatest Atlanta Brave evah!
~Thomas Jefferson
brianc
March 23rd, 2012
1:42 pm
My problem with the Lonnie Smith play, as bad as it was, being dubbed so pivotal is that it hinges on the assumption that everything else stays the same if he isn’t fooled on the play and the Braves go on to win. Maybe Gant gets a different pitch if Smith had been at third (almost certainly he would have). With the Wohlers home run, we know what happened without making any assumptions: the Braves lost a game and series they were ahead in, Wolhers was never the same again, and the Braves have yet to win a World Series game since. At least after the 91 series the Brave made it back and eventually won one.
md
March 23rd, 2012
2:46 pm
I’ll take Niekro……one can only imagine what his record could have been had he played on the recent teams like Glavine, Maddox and Smotlz got to do. He got his 300+ wins the hard way……on perennially crappy teams.
And he was all class……..
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm,mmmm,mmmmm!
March 23rd, 2012
3:07 pm
Mr. Post Season Choke was always my favorite, just saying…
HDB
March 23rd, 2012
3:17 pm
For argument’s sake…leaving Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews out of the mix…..
Joe Torre behind the plate!!
HDB
March 23rd, 2012
3:19 pm
…..and for comic relief..Pascual Perez….
Kyle Wingfield
March 23rd, 2012
3:24 pm
HDB: Re: Mathews, it’s *Atlanta* Brave. And see my comments throughout the thread re: Aaron…in short, I wanted to keep it competitive, and he spent the bulk of his career in Milwaukee anyway.
Devil's Advocate
March 23rd, 2012
5:00 pm
Don’t forget to adjust for inflation as offensive stats are so much higher now. Murph and CJ are pretty darn close.
Chipper Jones (19 years):
Batting average .304
Home runs 454
Runs batted in 1,561
# The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award (1995)
# World Series champion (1995)
# Players Choice Award NL Outstanding Rookie 1995
# 7× All-Star (1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2011)
# 2× Silver Slugger Award winner (1999, 2000)
# NL MVP (1999)
# Players Choice Award NL Outstanding Player 1999
# NL Batting Champion (2008)
Dale Murphy (18 years):
Batting average .265
Home runs 398
Runs batted in 1,266
# 7× All-Star selection (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987)
# 5× Gold Glove Award winner (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986)
# 4× Silver Slugger Award winner (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985)
# 2× NL MVP (1982, 1983)
# 1988 Roberto Clemente Award
# 1985 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award
Dusty
March 23rd, 2012
5:01 pm
Did Kyle cut the light off ?
Dusty
March 23rd, 2012
5:23 pm
Well, let’s see.
Will Romney knock the ball out of the field? Will Santorum carry water for the players? Will Newt say “Aw shoot!” and give up pitching? Will Rubio say “Si!” to second base? Will Obama pitch a fit when he loses? When asked if the Braves will win, will Sarah Palin say “You betcha!” If Christie is questioned about the Braves winning every game, will he say “Not a fat chance!”?
Just keeping on subject, folks. Baeball & politicis have a lot in common. hmmm.. I wonder if Chipper would like to be Secretary of State? We certainly need someone who will get in there and win a few games for us..
Hillbilly D
March 23rd, 2012
6:20 pm
A few observations:
Glavine I think you could make a good case for, as well as Maddux, even though Maddux also had a lot of his success with another team. Murphy was a dominant player on what were usually pretty bad teams, so you have to throw him into the mix.
Kyle’s youth is showing a bit, though. Orlando Cepeda was an intergral part of the ‘69 Division winning team. True he’d had more years behind him than in front of him but he was hardly at the end of the road., when he got here.
At 3B, Clete Boyer was actually the best fielding 3B’man that’s been in Atlanta. And Eddie Mathews was still pretty good when he came to Atlanta. He must have been mighty good because Darrell Evans spent all his time in Atlanta whining about being compared to Mathews.
If I had to pick who was Atlanta’s greatest Brave, I’d probably pick John Scheurholz. In spite of all the talk about Ted Turner being a great owner, the team largely sucked for the first 15 or so years that he owned them. It was when he hired Scheurholz and got out of the way, that things turned around.