The good old days of two years ago.
Braves Franchise History
1914: The Braves make their second trade in four days, acquiring OF Josh Devore from the Phils for IF Jack Martin.
1932: With a Boston law restricting games within 1,000 feet of a church on Sundays having just been repealed, the first Sunday game is played at Fenway Park with the Red Sox losing to the Yankees, 13-2. The Sox had used Braves Field for Sunday games when the bylaw was in effect from 1929 until this season.
1951: Giants rookie Willie Mays blasts a 13th-inning solo homer off the Phillies’ Jocko Thompson to give New York a win. It is Willie’s second extra-inning homer in two weeks: he will hit another on July 7th, against the Braves’ George Estock.
1966: Pitcher Tony Cloninger hits two grand slams and drives in nine runs, as the Atlanta Braves rout the Giants at Candlestick Park, 17-3. Cloninger is the first National League player to slam two in a game, and the first pitcher ever, and his nine RBIs are a major-league record for pitchers, breaking Vic Raschi’s mark of seven. The National League record for pitchers was five, held by several; the last hurler to collect five RBIs in a game was Cloninger himself, who had five on June 16th against the Mets.
1967: At the launching pad in Atlanta, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Randy Hundley homer for Chicago, and Rico Carty and Felipe Alou answer for the Braves – all in the 1st inning, a major league record. Carty adds another homer later, but Glenn Beckert’s three-run shot helps put the game out of reach. Ray Culp emerges the winner, 12-6.
1970: Mike Lum hits three homers as the Braves beat the Padres, 8-1, in the first game of a doubleheader. The Braves continue hitting in the second game to win, 9-4.
1996: In Atlanta’s 3-1 win over the Expos, Montreal first baseman David Segui fractures his left thumb when pitcher Ugueth Urbina fires over to first base and hits his teammate. Henry Rodriguez takes over at 1B.
2001: The Braves score eight runs in the 7th inning on their way to a 14-7 victory over the Phillies. Chipper Jones goes 4 for 4 in the contest and scores five runs.
2012: Chipper Jones celebrates being named an All-Star in replacement of the injured Matt Kemp by going 5 for 5 with four RBI and two doubles in the Braves’ 10-3 win over the Cubs. The 40-year-old third baseman even steals his first base of the season.
2016: Major League Baseball celebrates military appreciation day by staging a game in Fort Bragg, NC, the nation’s largest military base. The Marlins defeat the Braves, 5-2 in a temporary 12,500-seat ballpark with no paid admission, as all spectators are active military members and their families. It’s the first major league game ever played in the state of North Carolina.
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
2023: Ronald Acuña Jr. records his 40th steal of the year in Atlanta’s 4 – 2 win over the Guardians, the ninth straight victory by the Braves. He has already also hit 20 homers and driven 50 runs, a combination that is unprecedented by any player before the All-Star break.
MLB history
1977: On his 24th birthday, Angel Frank Tanana records his 14th straight complete game in beating the A’s, 6-4, and raising his record to 12-5. His overworked arm will plague him for the rest of the season, and he will wind up 15-9.
1994: The Indians retire Larry Doby’s uniform number, 47 years after he broke the American League color line.
2009: Albert Pujols, the major league home run leader, hits his fourth grand slam of the year, a team record, as the Cardinals dispose of the Reds, 7-4. He now has 350 career dingers, becoming the third-youngest to reach the mark, after Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr.
2009: Manny Ramirez, back from his 50-game suspension, goes 0 for 3 with a walk, but the Dodgers beat San Diego, 6-3. Los Angeles scores five runs in the 1st, taking advantage of Manny Ramirez walk and of two throwing errors. Hiroki Kuroda is the winner against Chad Gaudin.
2017: The Cincinnati Enquirer reveals that Cuban-born umpire Angel Hernandez has sued Major League Baseball before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging racial discrimination that has resulted in his being passed over for prestigious postseason assignments and for promotion to the rank of crew chief. He points specifically to the appointment of Joe Torre, with whom he had run-ins when he was a manager, as MLB Vice-President for Baseball Operations in 2011 as a source of the alleged poor treatment he has received.
Information for this article was found via Baseball Reference, NationalPastime.com and Today in Baseball History.