#40 CECIL UPSHAW

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#40 CECIL UPSHAW

ATLANTA BRAVES 1966-1973

First of all, I'm sure it wasn't his fault, but when I went to a shoe store (can't remember which store it was) for an autograph signing featuring Cecil Upshaw and Ralph Garr, Upshaw was a no-show. Like I said, I'll assume it was out of his control. But Upshaw and his cool submariner pitch had some success in the closer role for the Braves during his tenure. His best year was the 27 save season for the West Division winners of 1969, but he had a couple of good years during the 70's, including a 17 save season in 1971.

Cecil Upshaw died in Lawrenceville, GA at age 52 in 1995.

Note: His former teammate Clete Boyer died in Lawrenceville in 2007. 

#41 MARTY PEREZ

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#41 MARTY PEREZ

ATLANTA BRAVES 1971-1976

Shortstop Marty "Taco" Perez did spend parts of six seasons with the Braves during the 70's so that does count for something as far as this list goes. His best year may have been 1973 when he hit eight home runs and batted .250 in 141 games. This stat leaves me a little dumbfounded because most of my memories of Marty usually involve him popping out to second. Anyway, he left Atlanta for San Francisco in the 1976 Darrell Evans/Willie Montanez trade.

He also reminded me a little of Walter "Chekov" Koening from Star Trek. So I'll bump him up a couple of notches for that.

#42 CLETE BOYER

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#42 CLETE BOYER

ATLANTA BRAVES 1967-1971

Cletis "Clete" Boyer had several good years in the 60's with the Yankees, but also had some pretty good ones with the Braves at the end of his career. Best 70's game may have been a two homer game against Don Sutton and the Dodgers on May 23, 1970.  Apparently he didn't always get along so well with Braves management and ended up playing baseball in Japan by 1972. (A similar Yankee-Braves-Japan route that Joe Pepitone would later take). Clete and his brother Ken both had solid major league careers, but his other brother Cloyd gets a couple of extra "Brave points" for being Bobby Cox's pitching coach during the late 70's.

Clete died in Lawrenceville, GA in 2007 at the age of 70.

#43 JOE NIEKRO

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#43 JOE NIEKRO

ATLANTA BRAVES 1973-1974

Joe Niekro had a very nice 221 win career in the majors, with his best years coming with the Houston Astros. Before became an all-star with the Astros, Joe pitched a couple of years with the Braves and his big brother Phil. Joe won only five games for the Braves during his two years with the team before being sold to the Astros for $35,000. My favorite stat on Joe has got to be that in 972 career at bats he had only one home run. And who was that home run off of? Why, big brother Phil Niekro of course! His May 29, 1976 blast at the launching pad started a late rally for Houston and  the Astros and Joe ended up besting Phil and the Braves 4-3 that night. I would also guess that Joe probably never let Phil live that down.

Joe Niekro passed away at age 61 in 2006.

#44 SONNY JACKSON

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#44 SONNY JACKSON

ATLANTA BRAVES 1968-1974

Braves shortstop Roland "Sonny Jackson" may be the first player I can remember who wore glasses while playing. He certainly gets some points for that. It's also interesting that in both of his TOPPS cards on this page, he is demonstrating the fine art of bunting. So he gets additional bonus points for showing that he knows basic game fundamentals. And Sonny also gets points for being the Braves first base coach for several years after his playing days were through. One of his best games as a Brave was a 4 for 4 game against Tom Seaver and the Mets on May 22, 1971. 

Additional stat of Sonny: He had 49 stolen bases in 1966 for Houston. He only had 53 for his entire seven year Brave career.

#45 MAX LEON

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#45 MAX LEON

ATLANTA BRAVES 1973-1978

Mexico native Max Leon gets credit for spending all six of his years in the majors with the Braves.  But what can you say about Max, really? He won 14 games in his career. He only started 13 times. He saved 13. But his career highlight is easy. The 1977 Braves had just lost their 17th game in a row sinking their record to 8-22. They were facing the hard hitting Pittsburgh Pirates.  Rare starter Max pitched seven strong innings and the 20-7 Pirates went down to the Braves 6-1, giving Vern Benson a win for the only game he managed during his career. 

#46 JIM NASH

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#46 JIM NASH

ATLANTA BRAVES 1970-1972

It's interesting how certain stats pop out at you. Twenty-one year old Jim "Jumbo" Nash posted a most impressive 12-1 record and 2.06 ERA for the Kansas City A's in 1966. He finished his career with the Phillies and posted an 0-8 and a 6.27 record before being released.

His two full seasons of as a Brave starter weren't bad, going 13-9 in 1970 and 9-7 in 1971. His best game may have been a complete game 1-0 victory over Montreal on August 11, 1970. 

Jim gets raised a couple of notches for going to school locally, at least as local as Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Ga. 

#47 ADRIAN DEVINE

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#47 ADRIAN DEVINE

ATLANTA BRAVES 1973-1976, 1978-1979

Adrian Devine had the rather odd career trajectory of starting his career with the Braves and being traded to Texas and then being returned to the Braves before being sent back to Texas to finish his career.  I remember him being a starter and a reliever, but when I look at his stats, he only started 10 of his 148 career Brave appearances. I also remember camera day 1978 and my taking some "home movies" of him  for about a minute before he waved at me to stop filming (Or was that Joe Nolan? Maybe it was both of them!).  

#48 BRUCE BENEDICT

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#48 BRUCE BENEDICT

ATLANTA BRAVES 1978-1989

Ah, where do you put Bruce Benedict on a list like this. If this were an 80's list of favorite Braves players, he'd be in the top ten without question. But if we are only dealing with the years 1978 and 1979, we are only talking about 98 games. I figure sticking him in the middle of this list is the best option. He did have back to back rookie cards in the 70's. I like the fact that in 1979 he was just a "prospect" but in 1980, his 46 hit,.225 batting average season had apparently catapulted him into the category of "future star."

#49 TOM KELLEY

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#49 TOM KELLEY

ATLANTA BRAVES 1971-1973

The only reason Tom Kelley is on this list is for the fact that he posted a nice 9-5 record and 2.96 ERA the first year I ever followed baseball and I guess that made an impression on me. His career ended a couple of years later without him duplicating that success. He did have several good starts during that career year of '71, the best of which may have been eight innings of shutout ball against the Padres on July 22, 1971 in a 1-0 win.

#50 LARRY MCWILLIAMS

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#50 LARRY McWILLIAMS

ATLANTA BRAVES 1978-1981

Larry McWilliams got off to a fast start on his Brave career, posting a 9-3 record and a 2.81 after being called up from the minors. He pitched seven shutout innings in his first major league game against the Mets on July 17, 1978. The fact that he had a winning record during these trying years with the Braves (25-24) is something to his credit.

I might have rated him higher, but when I watched a special on Jim Bouton's comeback with the Braves, I noticed McWilliams turn away and not shake Bouton's hand after Bouton was pulled from a game. Bad form Larry, bad form. 

#51 DICK ALLEN

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#51 DICK ALLEN 

ATLANTA BRAVES ?

This is pretty sad. I rated my 51st favorite Braves player of the decade as a player who never even played for the team. Obviously, the card above is a fake. 

The super cool Dick "Richie" Allen had been a star for years with several teams. In my memory, he had an MVP season with the White Sox in 1972 and led the AL in home runs in 1974. The often troublesome Allen was sold to the  Braves after the 1974 season. I was so excited! Other than Hank Aaron, I thought he was probably the best slugger out there (Now this was the opinion of a 12-year old). However, my excitement waned when Allen decided he would rather retire than play with the Braves.  Well, it was a nice dream while it lasted. 

#52 KEN HENDERSON

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#52 KEN HENDRSON

ATLANTA BRAVES 1976

Ken Henderson probably had his best year with the Chicago White Sox in 1974, which probably led the Braves to think it was a good idea to acquire him from the Sox for Ralph Garr in 1976. By the time the Braves acquired him, he managed a decent if not outstanding season of 13 home runs and a .262 batting average that year.  The following year he went to Texas with several other Braves in the Jeff Burroughs trade. 

It's easy to pick out Ken's career Brave highlight. April 13, 1976 marked the first Brave home game since the Braves were purchased by their colorful new owner Ted Turner. In the second inning of that game, Ken knocked a home run off Gary Nolan of the Reds. As he rounded third a crazed fan jumped onto the field and came right at him! Except it wasn't a fan. It was Ted Turner! It proved to be a temporary thrill as the Braves ended up losing the game 6-1. But I'll always remember that rather odd moment.

#53 NORM MILLER/JOE NOLAN

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#53 NORM MILLER

ATLANTA BRAVES 1973-1974

&

JOE NOLAN

ATLANTA BRAVES 1975, 1977-1980

Norm and Joe share this ranking because there is a retrospective tendency for me to get them mixed up. 

Both spent their Brave careers as pinch hitters.

Norm was actually only 10 for 60 at the plate during his Brave career. He did have a pinch hit homerun  that started a winning rally in San Francisco off John D'Acquisto on May 21, 1974. That was about it for highlights for his Brave career. In retrospect, I rated him too highly, but maybe I just like the  smirk on his 1974 Topps card.

Backup catcher Joe Nolan did a bit more during his Brave career than Norm did with 136 hits during his 4 plus year career with the Braves. Career Brave highlight may have been two home runs against Steve Rogers and Montreal on July 28, 1978.

He also waved me off during fan appreciation day when I was filming him with my movie camera.

No hard feelings, Joe.

#54 CRAIG SKOK

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#54 CRAIG SKOK

ATLANTA BRAVES 1978-1979

I must have watched a lot of baseball in 1978 and 1979 as I have vivid memories of Craig pitching. Yet he only appeared in 87 games as a Braves with 4 wins and 4 saves. Perhaps part of that longstanding memory was Craig's participation in the infamous July 30, 1978 game against the Expos(a 19-0 loss where I was in attendance). Keep in mind this was Craig's 42nd appearance of the season and he had a a nice 2.45 ERA entering the game. When he left the game 2.2 innings later, Craig had given up 8 earned runs and his ERA blew up to 4.29. Another interesting stat is that Craig gave up 5! home runs in that game. 

In his other 61 games that season, he only gave up 3 homers.

Craig gets his #54 ranking for taking one for the team that day.

#55 TOM PACIOREK

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#55 TOM PACIOREK

ATLANTA BRAVES 1976-1978

Tom "Wimpy" Paciorek couldn't break into a good Dodgers line-up during the early 70's and went to the Braves in the Dusty Baker trade. The Braves never seemed to know how to use him and Tom was traded to the American League before finally becoming a starter for several years with the Mariners and White Sox.  

In review, Tom came to Atlanta in the Dusty Baker trade (bad trade for the Braves) and was released by the Braves in 1978 (another bad move by the Braves) and went on to play until 1987, including being selected as an all-star in 1981. Oh, boy. Who was responsible for all these misguided trades again?

#56 DAVE CAMPBELL

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#56 DAVE CAMPBELL

ATLANTA BRAVES 1977-1978

Dave "Chopper" Campbell had an interesting but brief career with the Braves. In his rookie season, he spent much of the year as the Braves closer, with a respectable ERA of 3.05 and 13 saves, despite losing all six of his decisions. The following year he pitched in 53 games with only 1 save and then in 1979, he was traded to the Expos for Pepe Frias, but never pitched in the majors again.  I remember liking him during his brief reign as closer: a cool nickname, a chaw of tobacco always in his cheek and a pretty tough pitcher. 

He is also the only person on this countdown that actually contacted me through email, so I'm giving him extra points for that.

#57 STEVE BARBER

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#57 STEVE BARBER

ATLANTA BRAVES 1970-1972

Steve probably gets the high rating on this list because of the fact that his baseball cards listed him as a former 20-game winner and two-time all-star. I really couldn't believe it, when I looked it up and his career win total for the Braves was...3. It sure seemed like more at the time. One of those victories came by Steve pitching a perfect 17th inning in a 2-1 victory over the Mets. He started the first Braves game (July 19, 1971) I ever went to, so he gets some points for that. I'm willing to overlook that he didn't make it out of the first inning in that game.

And he did look pretty stylish on the 1971 card above.

Steve died in 2007 at the age of 68.

#58 EDDIE SOLOMON

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#58 EDDIE SOLOMON

ATLANTA BRAVES 1977-1979

Perry, Georgia native Eddie "Buddy J." Solomon spent three season with the Braves during the late seventies, compiling a 17-26 record during that span. Career Braves highlight was probably a complete game 3-hitter against the eventual World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates on May 8, 1979.

He seemed to be called both Eddie and Buddy J. during his playing career. Well, the more names you have, the higher you are going to rate on this list.

Sadly, Eddie died in a car accident at the age of 34 in 1986.

#59 JOE PEPITONE

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#59 JOE PEPITONE

ATLANTA BRAVES 1973

Pepitone is best know for being a heavy hitter for some good Yankee teams in the 60's and later getting into a slew of drug-related legal problems. But for the purposes of this blog, his career with the Atlanta Braves is the only thing that matters. The Braves acquired him in 1973 from the Cubs for a pretty good prospect named Andre Thornton. Joe hit an impressive .348 during his career with the Braves. The bad news is that his time with the Braves only lasted for 11 at bats before he took flight to play in Japan. I'm not sure why, but his Atlanta cameo is good enough for me to put him at fairly high on this list. Maybe it's the sideburns.

And just for the record:

Joe Pepitone's major league career after being traded to the Braves: 
4 hits, 0 home runs.

Andre Thorntion's major league career after being traded for Joe Pepitone: 
1,342 hits, 253 home runs.

#60 ZOILO VERSALLES

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#60 ZOILO VERSALLES

ATLANTA BRAVES 1971

For some reason I have a fairly clear memory of Zoilo's 66 game career with the Braves. Not only did he have a really hard name to spell, I knew by my baseball cards that Zoilo was the 1965 American League MVP! He hit only .191 during his Brave career with 5 home runs. 

A 1971 highlight for Zoilo was a four hit game against the Cardinals on June 7, 1971, which helped stake the Braves to a 6-2 lead going to ninth inning. Unfortunately, the Cardinals scored 4 in the top of the ninth to tie the game. But in the bottom of the ninth, with a runner on second and two outs, Zoilo comes to the plate and...strikes out looking. The Cardinals score a run in the tenth and Zoilo's four hit game goes to waste. 1971 proved to be his last year in the majors.

Zoilo died at the age of 55 in 1995.

#61 GIL GARRIDO

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#61 GIL GARRIDO

ATLANTA BRAVES 1968-1972

I honestly don't know what to say about Gil Garrido. The Panamanian shortstop had his best season in 1970 playing in 101 games and hitting .264. He hit his only career home run on May 27th of that year against Denny Lemaster of the Astros.

He did have the first single in Braves postseason history during the 1969 playoffs. Against Tom Seaver no less!...But then Seaver picked him off. He was the first Brave to have that done to him in the post-season, too. 

He also got thrown out at the plate in this picture below.

#62 CHARLIE SPIKES

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#62 CHARLIE SPIKES

ATLANTA BRAVES 1979-1980

A starter for the Indians in the early 70's, "Big Charlie" ended his career as a pinch-hitter for the Braves. He did pretty well in that role, hitting .280 in 1979.  I remember the time when Charlie went from second to third on a single. But Charlie wasn't planning on stopping there despite the fact that he was likely going to get thrown out at the plate. After Charlie rounded third, Braves third base coach Bobby Dews practically tackled him to get him to stay at third. (At least that's the way I remember it.) 

#63 JIM WYNN

FAVORITE BRAVES PLAYERS OF THE 1970'S

#63 JIMMY WYNN

ATLANTA BRAVES 1976

Jimmy "The Toy Cannon" Wynn was another case of the Braves getting a name player at the tail end of their career. He hit only .207 during his one year with the Braves, but in his defense, he did lead the league with 127 walks, so I guess by Bill James sabermetiric standards he didn't really have that bad a year. 1976 did prove to be his last year in the majors as a starter, sabermetric worthiness or not.