Atlanta Braves: a dynasty was born — 150 years ago

The franchise that became the Atlanta Braves began 150 years ago, and it started with a bang.

You have no doubt noticed the commemorative patches adorning the uniforms of the Atlanta Braves this season, marking the 150th anniversary of the inaugural season of their ancestor club known as the Boston Red Stockings.

The names have changed over the years — Red Stockings to Beaneaters to Doves, Rustlers, Bees, and finally “Braves” in 1912 — but this is the longest continuously operating professional baseball operation ever.

You may have noted that in 2019, the Cincinnati Reds laid claim to a 150-year anniversary of their own, though there’s an asterisk associated with their history.

While the Cincy Red Stockings formed the first “openly all-professional” team in 1869 (the culmination of an effort that began 3 years earlier to begin a pro league), that club folded after the 1870 season due to costs… and 3 of those displaced Cincinnati players ended up with the Boston club in 1871.

Ultimately, the newest Cincinnati franchise — while retaining the name — isn’t a true descendant of the 1869 team, and thus the Braves have the “purer” claim to the title as oldest professional baseball franchise.

The Atlanta Braves’ ancestor began as a formidable foe.

Armed with those former Cincinnati players — who were undefeated as a team in 1869 — the Boston Red Stockings dominated play in the National Association during its existence from 1871-1875.

In the first season (1871), Boston went 20-10, finishing second among the nine teams, just 2 games behind the 21-7 Philadelphia Athletics.

After that, the Boston team took over, finishing in 1st place every season through 1875, when the league had expanded to 13 teams.

During that 1875 season, Boston won 71 games and lost just 8 (with 3 ties).  All of that was accomplished with an average player age of 25.4.

Boston was led by Hall of Famer Al Spalding — yeah, that Spalding who founded the sports equipment company in 1876.

Spalding pitched virtually every Boston game, and he played elsewhere on the diamond (centerfield and first base) when he took an off-day.

Example:  for that 1875 team that went 71-8-3, he was 54-5 on the mound with a 1.59 ERA in 72 of those games (throwing 570.2 innings!).

It was definitely a different era back then:  Spalding gave up 1 homer and struck out just 75 of 2,354 batters that year… but also walked only 18.

He was better than that at the plate, too, hitting .312 in 346 plate appearances.

Spalding was supported by a team that hammered the baseball regularly, with five players hitting well above .300 and supplying 15 homers along the way behind player/manager Harry Wright.

During the inaugural 1871 season, Spalding was the youngest player on the team at 20 years old, but still pitched virtually all of the team’s innings (257.1 of 276 overall) in a 19-10 campaign.

Just imagine this:  here in 2021, the Atlanta Braves started play with 14 pitchers on their roster.  In 1871, the Red Stockings had just one… with manager 36-year-old Harry Wright functioning as the occasional closer and emergency pitcher.

These Red Stockings were 225-60 while winning four National Association pennants.

In the years since as members of the National League (1876+), the Braves have won 10,741 games dropped 10,695 (through Sunday’s first game).

The first National League year was difficult as the Red Stockings finished 4th among 8 teams.  In the two years following, though, it was 1st place again as Boston consistently competed in the upper half of the league through the end of the century.

Still, it’s an anniversary year and a chance for a walk through a rich history of baseball over a century-and-a-half through three cities.

Here’s hoping for a celebratory gift of another playoff appearance for this year’s version of our Braves.

There’s much more history about this club that can be found on the web, and let’s hope this is an encouragement to check that out.