Atlanta Braves: Looking back at Deion Sanders’ time in Atlanta
The current head football coach at Jackson State, do you remember Deion Sanders’ time with the Atlanta Braves?
About a month ago, I wrote about 10 players that you may have forgotten were Atlanta Braves, a list that can be found here.
If you’ve read that list, you’ll likely know that one of the more interesting names on the list was Sanders Commings, a former star cornerback at the University of Georgia.
After finishing his playing career in the NFL, Commings signed a minor league deal with the Braves, where he would go on to appear in six games with the Danville Braves of the Appalachian League during the 2017 season before being released.
A football player who has also played baseball professionally is not a total unknown in the sport, and has been seen multiple times, most recently with Tim Tebow and the Mets from 2017-19.
However, if you were to simply take a look-back at Atlanta Braves history, you’ll find that one of the greatest football players to ever play baseball at the professional level saw time with the organization in the early-1990’s in Deion Sanders.
Looking back at the Atlanta Braves career of Deion Sanders
After being released by the New York Yankees towards the end of the 1990 season, Sanders was signed by the Braves in January of 1991, bringing the Atlanta Falcons star cornerback to Atlanta for baseball as well.
The-then 23-year-old Sanders struggled at times across his first season in Atlanta in 1991, posting a combined .616 OPS across 54 games. However, Sanders’ fortunes flipped entirely in 1992 when the outfielder enjoyed a phenomenal season, arguably the best of his nine-year MLB career.
Slashing .304/.346/.495 across 97 games during the regular season, Sanders also added eight home runs with 28 RBI’s, as well as 26 stolen bases with a major league-leading 14 triples.
Posting a by-far-career-high 3.2 WAR, Sanders also culminated his career season by going 8-for-15 in the 1992 World Series with two doubles and five stolen bases.
Sanders enjoyed success during the 1993 season in a similar sample-size, as well as across the first 46 games of the 1994 campaign before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds.
When looking at Sanders’ baseball career overall, the former two-sport star appeared in a total of 292 career games with the Atlanta Braves from 1991-94, the most of any of the four teams he saw time with during his MLB career.
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Across that span, Sanders slashed a combined .277/.328/.443 with 22 home runs, 90 RBI’s, and 75 stolen bases, as well as posting a combined 4.9 WAR with the Braves.