Atlanta Braves' Players in the Hall of Fame

The Atlanta Braves presently have seven players in the Hall of Fame.  They are:

(1) Hank Aaron OF 1966-74

(2) Eddie Mathews 3B 1966

(3) Orlando Cepeda 1B 1969-72

(4) Phil Niekro RHP 1966-1983, 1987

(5) Hoyt Willhelm RHP 1969-70, 1971

(6) Gaylord Perry RHP 1981

(7) Bruce Sutter RHP 1985-1988

Note that none of these spent their entire career with the Atlanta Braves and almost all had their best and most productive seasons outside of Atlanta.

Of course, Phil Niekro spent the vast majority of his career with the Atlanta Braves and had his most productive seasons with Atlanta.

Obviously, Hank Aaron has awesome seasons both with the Milwaukee Braves and the Atlanta Braves.

Although Eddie Matthews spent only one season in Atlanta, he is the only Brave in franchise history to play in all three cities – Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta.

Fans in general are split whether or not former Atlanta Brave Dale Murphy (1976-90 –  C, 1B, and OF) should be in the Hall of Fame.  Murphy is regarded by many as one of the premier players during the 1980s.

Murphy still receives support each year from the Baseball Writers Association to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. but not near enough to become a member.

Of course the Atlanta Braves had a considerably successful run until 2005 with 14 successes out of 15 seasons winning Divisional Championship in NL West three times and NL East 11 times. The Atlanta Braves advanced to World Series five times in 1990s (1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, and 1999). They won the World Series in 1995.

How many of these Braves will end up in the Hall of Fame?  Let’s start with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and manager Bobby Cox.

Former general manager John Shuerholtz is Hall of Fame material in my mind.

In the 1990s, the Braves had a lot of great role players (Fred McGriff, Javy Lopez, David Justice, Terry Pendelton, Marquiz Grissom, Jeff Bagwell, Sid Bream, etc.), but did any produce Hall of Fame careers?

Chipper Jones is still on a Hall of Fame run. I pray and hope that Chipper Jones will end up playing his entire career with the Atlanta Braves.

In his career, through the 2008 season, Jones is a .310/.408/.548 hitter with 409 home runs, 1,243 walks and 1,374 RBIs in 2,023 games. He is behind only Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray on the all-time switch hitters career home run list.

He is considered one of the game's best all-around hitters and one of the best switch hitters in the history of the game. He is the only switch hitter in Major League Baseball history to have a .300+ career (.310 at the end of the 2008 season) bating average and 400 home runs.

On May 31, 2006, he passed Hank Aaron for second place on the Atlanta Braves all-time career home run list. On July 5, 2007, he passed Dale Murphy for the Atlanta club record of 372 home runs.

Chipper Jones’ career statistics as of June 22, 2009 are: .310 batting average, 416 home runs, 1,406 runs batted in, and 2,338 hits.

Quote of the Day:
A good composer does not imitate; he steals.
--Igor Stravinsky