Atlanta Braves Franchise Four
By Fred Owens
Eddie Mathews
Mathews is probably hurt in the voting because everyone remembers Chipper Jones but Mathews should clearly be on the list. He played for the Braves in all three of their franchise homes, starting in Boston in 1952 and ending in Atlanta after the 1966 season. When Mathews retired he was sixth on the all time hoe run list with 512 and he’s still tied for 22nd with Ernie Banks.
He was one of the games great power hitting third baseman with one of the smoothest swings in the game. From 1954 – Aaron’s first year – through 1966 Matthews and Aaron combined for 863 home runs (Aaron 442, Mathews 421) to claim the lead in home run hitter pairs from the previous holders Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. He’s also one of only two players (Willie mays is the other) to homer in the same game as a teammate at least 50 times with two different teammates. He and Aaron managed it 75 times while he and first baseman Joe Adcock launched big flies in the same contest 56 times.
Atlanta Braves
Matthews was mostly a dead pull hitter and teams implemented an extreme shift – for that era – on him. Matthews watched that happen a few times then started hitting line drives into left field forcing them to modify or abandon the shift. In his 15 years a a Braves player Matthews posted 94.3 rWAR and an OPS+ / wRC+ of 143. He was consistently superb at the plate, as a Brave he never posted a wRC+ less than 111 (that was in his last part of year before being traded) and though he wouldn’t have known what it was, never allowed his wOBA to drop below .341 after his first season. As a result he ended his career with a wOBA of .389.
Matthews became manager of the Atlanta Braves 112 games into the 1972 season and was in charge when his buddy Aaron hit number 715. The Braves weren’t a good team and 99 games into the 1974 season Matthews was fired, a move that did not please Aaron, Darrell Evans or Ralph Garr a lot.
Again, a lock.