Atlanta Braves: Top 5 Greatest Sluggers in Franchise History
By Seth Carter
5. Rogers Hornsby (1928)
The great Rogers Hornsby played just one season for the Boston Braves in 1928 and he made the most of his time. The Baseball Hall of Fame refers to Rogers Hornsby as the greatest right-handed hitter of all time. Baseball legend John McGraw claimed Hornsby was a better batter than the Babe. Off the field, he was the polar opposite of the Great Bambino as he did not drink or smoke and wouldn’t even go to a movie for fear of straining his eyes.
Before getting to his short stint with the Braves that still sits among the greatest in the history of the franchise, I have to share another amazing story from the Hall of Fame.
The minor leagues or the “farm system” was still in the beginning stages in 1915 when he was a rookie. At just 5-11, 135 pounds, Hornsby looked like a boy among men in stature and in statistics. He hit .246 that season before Manager Miller Huggins informed him that he should be “farmed out.”
In what I assume was a combination of self-consciousness about his size and no clue what Huggins actually meant, Hornsby naturally concluded that his manager was telling him he needed to go to work on a farm to gain some size. After living amongst the livestock for a winter he returned to camp with 20 pounds extra pounds and incessant and uncontrollable dreams of milking cattle.
He went on to hit .400 three different times, including a .424 in 1924 which is still the Major League record for the 21st Century. The following season he slugged an astounding .756 which still stands as the ninth-highest single-season mark in Major League history.
He was the National League batting champ from 1920 to 1925, and again in 1928. That’s seven batting titles with the final one coming as a member of our beloved franchise.
Did you know he played for the Braves? I certainly had no clue until fellow Tomahawk-Taker Jake Mastroianni wrote the following piece (linked below) covering the greatest oWAR season in Braves history, credited to none other than Rogers Hornsby.
Hornsby’s magical 1928 season is the fifth-best in franchise history, finishing with a .632 slugging percentage. Mr. Rogers hit 21 homers, seven triples, and 42 doubles while walking 107 times compared to just 41 strikeouts. Hornsby currently holds the 11th-highest slugging percentage in the history of the game.