Atlanta Braves history: their most whacked hitters ever

Last year, we watched catcher Tyler Flowers get thumped on a regular basis, but does where does he rank in the long annals of Braves franchise history?

For the Atlanta Braves, several players have fallen victim to the “hit-by-pitch” on more than enough occasions.  Flowers was punished a team-high 20 times in 2017, 11 more in 2016.

From the late 1800’s to the 21st century, here are the top 5 Atlanta Braves players that lead the franchise in the painful, hit-by-pitch category:

#5 Fred Tenney

Tenney played first base, outfield, and catcher for the Boston Beaneaters, Boston Doves, and Boston Rustlers from 1894-1907. During his tenure with the franchise before moving to other teams, Tenney accumulated 53 HBP’s.

Yes, the team name changed that much during that small time span:  The Boston Beaneaters was the name of the franchise from 1882-1906, the Boston Doves was the team’s name from 1907-1910, and the Boston Rustlers was the team name in 1911.

#4 Bobby Lowe

Bobby Lowe was a teammate of Tenney as Lowe played for the same Boston Beaneaters from 1890-1901. However, it’s likely Lowe and Tenney were trying to follow the footsteps of their manlier teammate, who is #1 on this list.  We’ll talk about him shortly.

Lowe comes in at #4 with 57 HBP’s in 12 years of service with the Beaneaters.

#3 Jeff Blauser

Many of you that watched the Atlanta Braves in the early 90’s might remember this guy... Blauser played 2nd base for the Braves from 1987-1997, and made 2 All-Star appearances with the Braves: 1993 and 1997.

Blauser absorbed 75 HBP’s at the plate in an entire decade of service with Atlanta.

#2  Andruw Jones

Andruw Jones was not only known for his fielding ability and long ball threat, but he takes the cake as #2 on Atlanta’s list of players with the 2nd most HBP’s.

Jones is a10-time Gold Glove winner and 5-time All Star center fielder for the Braves.  He is also on the ballot this year for the Hall of Fame.

During his 11-year stint with the Braves from 1996-2007, he tallied a painful 83 HBP’s.

That’s a big number… but it doesn’t even rival our #1 horsehide target:

#1  Tommy Tucker

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Tucker was the Boston Beaneaters first baseman from 1890-1896, and playing with both Tenney and Lowe for several years in the mid 1890’s. In his 7-years of eating beans in Boston, he got “beaned” exactly 150 times.

That’s an average of 21 hit-by-pitches every season while averaging 130 games per season. This means Tucker averaged 1 HBP every 6 games for 7 years with the Beaneaters! Talk about tough as nails…

But Boston wasn’t Tucker’s only team.  He was bruised elsewhere, too.  On the all-time leader board, Tucker ranks #3 overall in HBP with a total of 272, only behind Craig Biggio (285), and Hughie Jennings (287).

Freddie Freeman

Freeman currently ranks #6 on this Braves all-time list with 52 HBP’s, one short of tying Fred Tenney. Unfortunately, we witnessed a HBP that landed Freeman on the DL for a significant amount of time in 2017.

Getting hit by a pitch is certainly a dangerous thing, but if you wanna know a thing or two about getting hit by a pitch, just ask this next guy…