Atlanta Braves Opening Day countdown: 90, Billy Nash
The regular season for the Atlanta Braves opens with a game in Philadelphia on the afternoon of March 28, 2019. We count down the days until the season opens!
We at Tomahawk Take are very excited for the Atlanta Braves season opener on March 28 in Philadelphia! We will be counting down to the day with Braves related numbers all the way until Opening Day 2019!
While the easy route with 91 would be to recount the 1991 team, this one is something that really is good for Atlanta Braves fans to dip back to remember. In 1930 a 24-year-old rookie broke through into the starting lineup for the Boston Braves. He would go on to have a dominant half-decade for the team before being traded away.
Today, we’ll look at the number 90. That number in the runs batted in column for a hitter typically shows a productive season of a team’s offense and a player’s ability to drive in the runners on base in front of him. In Atlanta Braves history, 54 players have recorded at least one 90-RBI season.
When you look at the players who have recorded the most 90-RBI seasons in team history, the top 10 names all are pretty familiar – Aaron, Jones, Jones, Mathews, etc. However, one name sticks out strongly as a name that many don’t remember as a run producer worthy of remembering in Braves history.
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Standing just 5’8″ tall and listed as just 165 pounds, Billy Nash does not strike the pose of an intimidating run producer. A guy who stole 30 bases more than he hit for 30 doubles or double-digit home runs combined, his profile doesn’t fit the rest of the guys in the top 10, but one thing that does is that he’s a third baseman, and incredibly, of the top 40 RBI men at the hot corner in MLB history, over 1/4 (11) are guys who played some time there in a Braves uniform.
Nash was 20 when Boston purchased him from Richmond and he made his MLB debut in 1885. He played the next 10 years of his career for Boston, with a .281/.368/.389 line, 200 doubles, 69 triples, and 51 home runs. He drove in 811 runs for the Braves before being traded to Philadelphia for Billy Williams. Those 811 RBI are the 9th-most in franchise history.
Nash drove in 90 or more runs 5 times in his Braves career, good for 6th best in franchise history, tied with Wally Berger and Dale Murphy.
Next. Braves countdown: 91, Wally Berger. dark
Billy Nash started what has become a tradition in the Atlanta Braves organization to have a strong player at the hot corner. The 2019 Atlanta Braves will feature a new face at the position, but also a player who has a chance to be one of the best in the league in Josh Donaldson.