FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S
#12 DARRELL EVANS
ATLANTA BRAVES 1969-1976, 1989
I like the fact that in the Darrell Evans rookie card above, Rick Kester and Mike McQueen look oddly confused whereas Darrell looks quietly confident.
Slugger Darrell "Howdy Doody" Evans had an interesting symmetry to his career. He hit roughly the same amount of home runs for all three teams he played for on his way to 414 for his career (132 as a Brave, 142 as a Giant and 141 as a Tiger). Spending most of his Atlanta time at third base, Darrell's best Brave year was 1973, where he and Dave Johnson and Hank Aaron all topped 40 home runs for the Braves. He also led the league in walks in 1973 and 1974.
Looking back at the 1976 stats, I can see why he was traded. Despite getting a walk in the first 15 games of that season, Darrell was hitting below .200 through the first forty games of Atlanta. Then he was traded to the Giants for Willie Montanez. He eventually got his swing back and ended up playing twelve seasons away from Atlanta (winning a World Series with Detroit in 1984) before coming back for one season in Atlanta in 1989.
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