Atlanta Braves Throwback Thursday Special: the Hot Corner

Eddie Mathews as a Milwaukee Brave

1966.  Eddie Mathews

More from Tomahawk Take

• The Weakest Braves Homers Since 2015
• Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
• Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves
• Braves News: How the Braves got their name, mailbag, more
• Atlanta Braves Mailbag: New Year’s Edition

It’s never a bad thing to start with a Hall of Famer.  Mathews is the only player whose career spanned all three Braves cities over the franchises history as his first playing year was in Boston (1952), the majority of his career was spent in Milwaukee (1953-1965), and he got one year in Atlanta (1966) before bouncing around for a couple more seasons elsewhere.

Mathews was a nine-time All-Star, which actually beasts Chipper Jones by one.  What he missed was the MVP trophy, finishing second on two occasions:  1953 (to Roy Campanella) and 1959 (to Ernie Banks).  You could easily make the argument that Mathews was jobbed by the ‘Eastern bias card’ in 1953, as his numbers easily beat Campanella.

SI First Issue Cover. Aug 18 1954

Mathews’ lone Atlanta year was not spectacular, but still good – 2.7 WAR for the then 34-year-old.  16 homers, which brought him to 499 (or an eventual 512) for his career.  Yet that was half the production of the year before (5.4 WAR) and signaled that his inevitable performance decline was in progress.

In addition to his HOF career as a player, Mathews managed the Braves over roughly 2 season – split from 1972-74 – for a combined 149-161 record. In terms of fWAR alone, he ranks 3rd all-time behind Mike Schmidt and some guy called ‘A-Rod’.

Oh:  how big was Eddie Mathews?  That’s him hitting in Milwaukee on the cover of the very first issue of Sports Illustrated:  August 18, 1954.