Tuesday, March 23, 2010

My Top 10 Favorite Atlanta Braves (of my lifetime)

1. John Smoltz
without a doubt the greatest Brave of all time not named Hank Aaron. watched Smoltz pitch was and always will be a thrill. if he's not in the Hall of Fame then they should burn that fucking place to the ground.

2. Dale Murphy
the man, the legend, my childhood hero. he probably deserves the number 1 spot...but Smoltz was a winner.

3. Greg Maddux
it's a toss up between Maddux and Pedro as to who the best right handed pitcher of this era is (fuck Roger Clemens) but Maddux has the hardware to claim the title. it's just too bad he wasn't more consistent in the post season and maybe the Braves would've won more than 1 World Series.

4. Ron Gant
Gant was by far my favorite player on those early 90s squads. he was a dynamic athlete and a really good guy. i was so bummed when he left town.

5. David Justice
there are sooooooooooooo many reasons to dislike David Justice on a personal level, but the dude was the Superstar we needed to replace Dale Murphy and help guide the Braves to the promised land. plus he hit the homerun that clenched the 95 title.

6. Chipper Jones
Chipper will probably go down as one of the greatest Atlanta Braves of all time. he might (should) make it to the Hall Of Fame. he's been the cornerstone of the franchise for almost the entire Bobby Cox era...but i've always had a love/hate relationship with him and the fact he's injured half the time keeps him out of my top 5.

7. Tom Glavine
ya know, he probably deserves to be way higher on this list...but going to New York and acting like a big baby at the end of his career just left a bad taste in my mouth.

8. Terry Pendelton
he was the leader of that early 90s team that turned the Braves from the laughing stock of the National League into the most dominate NL team of the 90s.

9. Fred McGriff
one of the all time underrated stars of the game.

10. Bob Horner
Bob Horner hit a homerun at the first Braves game i ever went to. that sorta stuck with me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ron Gant was my favorite on those teams. Damn that dirt bike wreck.

gabe said...

nice list.
11-15.

Phil Neikro
Claudell Washington
Bruce Benedict
Otis Nixon
Glenn Hubbard