#114 JOHN RABB

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#114 JOHN RABB
ATLANTA BRAVES 1985

I remember John Rabb. Catcher with the Giants during the 80's. What I do NOT remember is him playing with the Braves. Looking at his stats, it's no wonder. After a solid season in Richmond in 1985, he was called up to the Braves that September. His first at-bat, he grounded out against Rick Reuschel. A few days later, he struck out against Dennis Powell. And that's it. Two at-bats, no hits. Brave career over.

I do like his 1987 BOBS CAMERAS Richmond Braves card above.

#115 JOE JOHNSON

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#115 JOE JOHNSON
ATLANTA BRAVES 1985-1986

Pitcher Joe Johnson's career got off to a fast start for the Braves in 1985. He won his first four decisions that year including a complete game win over the Cubs on August 30th. After his fourth win, his ERA was a very impressive 2.17. This guy was going places! Then he ran into trouble. Joe lost his last four decisions of the year and his ERA rose to 4.10.The next year was also streaky. He won three. Then he lost three. Then he won three. Then he lost four. Then....he was traded to Toronto. He did end up with 13 wins in 1986 between Toronto and Atlanta. 

No relation to the future Atlanta Hawk all-star
named Joe Johnson

#116 TERRY BLOCKER

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#116 TERRY BLOCKER
ATLANTA BRAVES 1988-1989

Most of Terry's major league playing time occurred with the Braves in 1988, when he managed 42 hits in 210 at-bats for a .212 average. Probably the big blow of Terry's career was a two-run homer off of Frank Williams of the Reds on August 12, 1988.

I've included a picture of Dan Blocker
of Bonanza because I can't think of
anything else to say about
Terry Blocker.

#117 JOHN MIZEROCK

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#117 JOHN MIZEROCK
ATLANTA BRAVES 1989

John Mizerock spent only the last twenty-seven at-bats of his four year major league career with the Braves. He got his first two hits and RBI as a Brave in his very first game for the team on September 14, 1989. But his comeback was not to be. His final career hit was an RBI single off the Astros (his old team) on September 25, 1989.

I think "John Mizerock" would have been a great character
name for a baseball player on The Flintstones...Maybe not.

#118 TOMMY GREENE

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#118 TOMMY GREENE
ATLANTA BRAVES 1989-1990

Like yesterday's entry Duane Ward, we don't care too much for Tommy Greene because of his pitching against the Braves in the postseason. Tommy's crime occurred in the 1993 postseason. Greene's nine game Brave career did include a three-hit shutout against Houston on September 21, 1989.

#119 DUANE WARD

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#119 DUANE WARD
ATLANTA BRAVES 1986

We don't really like Duane Ward because of his pitching against the Braves in the 1992 World Series. But only his Brave career matters here. The only decision of his ten game Brave career was an April 22, 1986 loss when he gave up a ninth inning home run to Alan Ashby and the Astros. He was traded that year to Toronto for Doyle Alexander, which wasn't that great of a trade. But the next year, Alexander was traded to Detroit for John Smoltz which WAS a great trade.

Ward Cleaver-A Ward we do like.

#120 CHUCK CARY

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#120 CHUCK CARY
ATLANTA BRAVES 1987-1988

The highlight of Chuck Cary's Braves career was probably a four-inning save against the Astros on September 22, 1987, a game that was probably also the highlight of starter Kevin Coffman's Brave career. Cary had one career win for the Braves. It was a relief appearance (also against the Astros) on September 30, 1987, when the Braves scored three runs in the top of the ninth to give the team an unlikely (for that 1987 team, anyway) victory and a big"W" for Mr. Cary.

#121 KEVIN COFFMAN

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#121 KEVIN COFFMAN
ATLANTA BRAVES 1987-1988

Kevin Coffman's long minor league career found him playing on a dozen or so teams, mostly in the Braves and Cubs organizations. He had a 4-9 record during his two year major league career with the Braves. His first major league win (after posting three straight losses) occurred on September 22, 1987. Kevin pitched the first five innings in that game against Houston which was punctuated by a four RBI day for Jeff Blauser and a four-inning save from Chuck Cary.

#122 STEVE SHIELDS

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#122 STEVE SHIELDS
ATLANTA BRAVES 1985-1986

Steve Shields won only one game for Atlanta during his thirty-two game Brave career. That occurred on June 9th, 1985 against the Dodgers. It was just one of those games for the Dodgers. The Braves scored in every inning but the fourth on their way to a 10-3 victory. The Braves had thirteen hits off Fernando Valenzuela and two other Dodgers pitchers, including a single by Shields. 

Steve would have to wait two more years as a member of the Seattle Mariners to get another major league win. 

Steve Shields and Biff Pocoroba.
Separated at birth?

#123 SERGIO VALDEZ

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#123 SERGIO VALDEZ

ATLANTA BRAVES 1989-1990

Don't remember much about Sergio's tenure with the Braves. Came over from the Expos in 1989 in the Zane Smith trade. Played on five major league teams during his 116 game career. First major league win came as a Brave on August 29, 1989 in middle relief against the Cubs. Also got a hit in that game in his only at-bat for that season. 

Sergio's career batting average for Braves: 1.000. 

Sergio's career batting average for everyone else: Under .100 (See the book "How to Lie with Statistics")

#124 RANDY O'NEAL

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#124 RANDY O'NEAL

ATLANTA BRAVES 1987

Journeyman hurler (I got that phrase from reading too many backs of TOPPS baseball cards over the years) Randy O'Neal spent only part of one season for the Atlanta Braves. He did post a 4-2 record, but his 5.19 ERA was a bit on the high side. Traded away to the Cardinals in 1987 for Joe Boever. Guess you could say the Braves got a little more out of that trade as Boever became the Braves main closer for the 1989 season.

Randy was actually 3-0 after his first four starts of 1987, but his fortunes, like that of the team, quickly sank during that most unfortunate season. After getting shelled by the Padres on July 20th, he was traded quickly thereafter.

Randy's name reminded me of the Superbad
Superfly played by Ron O'Neal, so I'll just wax
nostalgic about that one for a moment.

#125 BOB PORTER

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#125 BOB PORTER

ATLANTA BRAVES 1981-1982

Bob Porter spent his entire two year, forty-one game major league career as an Atlanta Brave. Drafted by the Braves in 1977. He had a few solid if not spectacular minor league seasons. He was released in 1982 and never played in the majors again. 

Did get half of his career four RBI's on one swing of the bat on May 17, 1981 against future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter of the Cardinals. And I think his old style Richmond Braves cap in the card above is kinda cool.

"The Porter" from Macbeth
"Knock, knock, knock! Who's there in the name of Beelzebub?"

#126 ED ROMERO

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#126 ED ROMERO

ATLANTA BRAVES 1989

I suppose if you want to be technical about it, you could say that Ed Romero was a three decade player. He played in ten games for the 1979 Brewers and thirty-two games for the 1990 Tigers. He spent most of his 80's career with the Brewers and Red Sox, even getting some playing time in the 1986 World Series. 

But what about his Braves tenure? Signing as a free agent with the Braves in 1989, Ed played in only seven games with the Braves before being traded to the Brewers for Jay Aldrich. His Braves batting highlight would have to be an August 14, 1989 home run off of Joe Magrane of the Cardinals. He had only seven other homers in an over 2,000 at bat career.

Another Romero (Cesar)
I post here simply because it's fun to look
at pictures of Cesar Romero as the Joker

#127 JAY ALDRICH

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#127 JAY ALDRICH

ATLANTA BRAVES 1989-1990

Jay Aldrich came over to the Braves in the middle of the 1989 season in a trade with the Brewers for Ed Romero, a trade which didn't exactly go down as a blockbuster transaction. Jay pitched in eight games in relief for his Atlanta career and posted a nice 2.19 earned run average for what it's worth. His only win as a Brave came at Candlestick Park on September 12, 1989. The Braves had clearly written this one off and put Jay out there while trailing 5-1. The Braves mounted a five-run rally in the eighth highlighted by a three-run Dale Murphy homer and held on to win it. Jay was released at the end of the season and his career ended after 1990.

Jay's time in Atlanta was so short-lived that I couldn't find a picture of him in a Braves uniform. The above 1988 TOPPS card reminded me of how lousy some of the TOPPS sets were during the 80's. Of course, I admit to a generational bias towards the 60's and 70's sets.

Remember those old Henry Aldrich movies from the 40's? You don't?
Well, get the complete set on DVD while they are still available!

#128 MIKE PAYNE

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#128 MIKE PAYNE

ATLANTA BRAVES 1984

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MOONLIGHT GRAHAM AWARD CANDIDATE LIST

Mike Payne spent parts of eight years in the Braves minor league system and pitched on six different teams (Kingsport, Durham, Savannah, Richmond, Greenville and Sumter). But Mikes' career major league stats looks a lot like Steve Ziem's: Three career games, 0-1 record. He lost his only career start on August 22, 1984. 

Mike died at the very young age of 40 in 2002.

Mike Payne wins the Moonlight Graham Gold Medal

#129 STEVE ZIEM

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#129 STEVE ZIEM

ATLANTA BRAVES 1989-1990

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MOONLIGHT GRAHAM AWARD CANDIDATE LIST

Pitcher Steve Ziem wins the Moonlight Graham Silver Medal. Despite several winning minor league seasons, Steve only appeared in two games during his career. In his major league debut, he came in during a tie game in the ninth. He allowed a hit, got one batter out, balked! and was taken out of the game. The runner came around to score and Steve took the loss.

Steve Ziem wins the Moonlight Graham Silver Medal

#130 RUSTY RICHARDS

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#130 RUSTY RICHARDS

ATLANTA BRAVES 1989-1990

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I'm giving the bronze medal to Rusty Richards, who pitched in three major league games with the Braves without a decision of any kind. Rusty started his first major league game on September 20, 1989, and left the game in the 6th inning with a 6-2 lead. The Astros scored four in the seventh and Rusty's only opportunity for a major league win vanished.

Rusty Richards wins the Moonlight Graham Bronze Medal

#131 TRENCH DAVIS

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#131 TRENCH DAVIS

ATLANTA BRAVES 1987

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Trench finished his brief career with a .121 batting average. He was hitless during his three trips to the plate as a Brave, though he did reach base on June 30, 1987 on an error by Chris Spier.

It is pretty cool to me that Trench played several minor league seasons in Mexico and Hawaii.

I think it's even cooler that his name is so close to fictional minor league home run hitter Crash Davis from the movie Bull Durham. Of course, it's confusing, because there was a real major leaguer named Crash Davis as well.

So just to clarify:

Trench Davis (real)

Career minor league home runs: 15

Career major league home runs: 0

Crash Davis: (fictional)

Career minor league home runs: 247

Career major league home runs: Unknown

Crash Davis: (real)

Career minor league home runs: 51

Career major league home runs: 2

Glad I got all that straight now.

#132 TERRY BELL

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#132 TERRY BELL

ATLANTA BRAVES 1987

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MOONLIGHT GRAHAM AWARD CANDIDATE LIST

Terry Bell is a very strong candidate for the Moonlight Graham award, striking out in his only plate appearance as a Brave. 

I have two things in common with Terry. We were both born in October of 1962 and we both never had a career hit in the big leagues.

If it weren't for Terry's three at-bats as a Kansas City Royal, I would probably have given the Moonlight Graham award to him. As it is, I'll give him the consolation prize of the Al Autry Award, named after the Braves all-time Moonlight Graham winner.

Terry Bell wins the Al Autry Award

#133 GARY COOPER

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#133 GARY COOPER

ATLANTA BRAVES 1980

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I think the Braves hoped Gary would eventually become a lead-off batter, but he just never developed as a good enough hitter and finished his minor league career with a .234 average. He had only two major league at-bats with no hits. He did finish his career with three runs scored as he was occasionally used as a pinch runner.

Gary's career best at-bat was a ground out to second off Kent Tekulve on August 27, 1980. 

Gary never had the kind of career that would have ever put him on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but his Hollywood namesake did manage to make the SI cover in 1959.

#134 DAVE SCHULER

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#134 DAVE SCHULER

ATLANTA BRAVES 1985

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Dave Schuler spent much of the late 70's in the minors before pitching nine games for the California Angels in 1979 and 1980. He then went back to the minors for five years before coming up to the Braves in 1985. He pitched nine games for the Braves that year. The Braves lost all nine of those games. The Braves gave up at least seven runs in eight of those nine games. It wasn't really Daves's fault since he did a lot of mop-up work, but it did strike me as an odd stat. He never ptiched in the majors again after 1985 and finished his career 0-1 with no saves.

Dave doesn't get the Moonlight Graham Award, but I will give him the Dave Cheadle award for being the Braves "Dave Cheadle of the 80's"

#135 KEVIN BLANKENSHIP

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#135 KEVIN BLANKENSHIP

ATLANTA BRAVES 1989

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Kevin Blankenship pitched only two of his career eight games with the Braves. His career Brave highlight was a seven inning no-decision against the Reds on September 25th. The Braves thanked Kevin for his good outing by trading him to the Cubs for Jody Davis four days later.

Kevin pitched a little too much to get the Moonlight Graham award, but I will give him the honorary Herb Hippauf award, named after the Braves pitcher whose one year Brave career netted him the same number of Brave victories as Kevin Blankenship.

#136 GARY EAVE

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#136 GARY EAVE

ATLANTA BRAVES 1989

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Pitcher Gary "Desperadoes Under the" Eave won 2 games for the Braves during his major league career. He had a nice 13-3 record at AAA before being called up to the big leagues. He then pitched 7 scoreless innings against Houston and the very tough Mike Scott in a 3-0 victory on September 19th. Then he pitched well enough on September 24th to beat the Reds on September 24th. He allowed only one run in seven innings against the Dodgers on October 1st in a game the Braves eventually lost.

He was traded to Seattle before the 1990 season, but his career was pretty much over after that.

Just what happened to Gary Eave after such a promising beginning? 

Gary doesn't get the Moonlight Graham Award, but I will present him with the Jerry Maddox Award, the former Arizona State home run king who never had the career one might have thought.

#137 CLIFF SPECK

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#137 CLIFF SPECK

ATLANTA BRAVES 1986

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First of all, I love the look of determination and effort that Cliff is putting into the pitch above. One of the best baseball cards of the 80's. You can't really say the same for Cliff, though he did have a winning career record of 2-1 over his thirteen game major league career. And Cliff also got the win in his only major league start, a 3-2 victory over Ed Whitson and the San Diego Padres on August 5, 1986.

Cliff spent parts of fifteen seasons in the minors, so he certainly earned that one start.

Cliff doesn't win the Moonlight Graham Award, but I'll give him the John Fuller Prize named after the 1974 Brave player who also had a long minor league career that translated into only three major league at-bats.

#138 ED WHITED

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1980'S

#138 ED WHITED

ATLANTA BRAVES 1989

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Ed had a real good year at the A level in 1987 (28 homers, 126 RBI's), but with each jump in leagues, things got a bit tougher. He did manage 74 major league at-bats during the 1989 season and finished his career with a .162 batting average. He also managed to hit one big league dinger, a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off of Craig Lefferts of the Giants on July 25, 1989. It didn't win the game or anything, but maybe when Ed tells the story to his children, it was the game winner.

Ed doesn't win the Braves Moonlight Graham Award, but I'll happily present him with the Les Nessman prize, named after WKRP radio newsman who, like Whited did with his homerun against Lefferts, came through with a memorable catch on the ballfield when needed...He didn't fare so well with the turkeys. 

Oh, the humanity!