History Of The Atlanta Braves Essay

Submitted By Hammatime13
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History of the Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are known to be the oldest major league franchise in MLB history. But, they were not always called the Braves. They also weren’t always based in Atlanta, either. The franchise goes way back even into the 1800’s! The franchise has a rich history full of defeats and triumphs.
The franchise got its start in Cincinnati in 1868. The team was originally known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The team traveled all over the country playing baseball games with great success winning 130 consecutive games until suffering their first lost in 1870. The team did not play the 1871 season and moved to Boston and joined the National Association as the Boston Red Stockings. They played as the Red Stockings until 1875 when it went bankrupt and changed their name to the Red Caps. Arthur Soden, the team’s owner for 30 years, led the team to 8 pennants and changed their name again to the Boston Beaneaters. Soden sold the team to the Dovey brothers in 1906. They changed the Beaneaters to the Doves in honor of their last name. George Dovey died in 1909 and left the team to his brother John Dovey, who sold the team to William Russell. Russell changed the name to the Rustlers in 1910. Russell however, was just trying to make money so he sold the team to James Gaffney for a whopping $750,000. In 1912, Gaffney changed the name to the Braves, the name we all know today. Gaffney led the “Miracle Braves,” which was the season that the Braves went from last in the league to first in the league to win the World Series. Gaffney became ill and had to sell the team to Percy Haughton. Haughton financed the building of Braves field in Boston in 1915. Haughton then sold the team in 1919 to George Grant, who then quickly sold it to Emil Fuchs due to financial reasons. Fuchs boosted attendance at Braves Field by having famous ball players of that time come and play for the Braves for a game, including Babe Ruth. The National League stepped in and forced Fuchs to sell the team to Charles Adams for some more financial problems. Adams did not care about the team and did nothing about the poor attendance, so he ended up selling the Braves to Perini. Under Perini, the Braves won its first pennant in 1952, the first pennant in over 30 years. Unfortunately, attendance dropped after that season due to the Boston Red Sox who had a more successful ball club than the Braves. Perini then decided to move the club to Milwaukee. Although the commissioner of the National League would not allow the franchise to move so late into spring training, Wisconsin state officials outvoted him and the Boston Braves became the Milwaukee Braves. The move was a fantastic financial move as well because the first 13 games in Milwaukee made more money then the whole 1952 season in Boston! The 1957 Braves led by Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews, won the NL pennant and the World Series. They also won the NL pennant in the following season. Unfortunately the Minnesota Twins moved into the same area and took away form the Braves’ revenue, so Perini decided to sell the franchise to Bill Bartholomay. Bartholomay saw that the attendance was not going to get better so in 1965, he made the