re: Which 1990s-2000s Atlanta Braves team was the best?

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f it wasn't for the World Series title in '95

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Sure but there were 3 other series they likely should have won. You play out the 90s a 100 times and I bet very few end up with braves not having multiple titles.

Maddux owned the Yankees, granted only played them five times in his career lol. In game 6, the braves lost 3-2 but gave up all 3 runs in one inning due to errors mainly. Maddux had bad luck with that.

'98... Even though they didn't even reach the World Series. If postseason success is the main barometer, then it would obviously be '95.

This was not their best team and I was a Twins fan at the time but rarely follow baseball now other than box scores.

But its memorable to me because I was deployed onboard USS Forrestal CV-59 with F-14 squadron. And back then the games were radiocast late at night die to time difference. I can only recall how great the play by play was without TV. It felt like you were there, perfect amount of crowd noise and announcing. The WS spanned port calls at Antalya, Turkey and Souda Bay, Crete, with sea time in between

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It was almost certainly the most unlikely World Series matchup ever, as the Twins and Braves became the first two teams in Major League Baseball history to go from last to first in the space of one season.

This being an "odd year," Minnesota would be home team for the Series. In Game 1, the Twins cruised behind veteran right-hander Jack Morris, 5-2. The key hit was Greg Gagne's three-run homer off Charlie Leibrandt in the fifth inning. Game 2 was closer, but again the Twins prevailed. Minnesota DH Chili Davis blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the first, and then third baseman Scott Leius broke a 2-2 deadlock with a solo shot in the eighth. That's how it ended, with Rick Aguilera gaining his second save in as many nights.

The Series shifted to Atlanta for Game 3, and the Braves led 4-1 after six frames. But the Twins battled back, and tied the game in the eighth on another two-run homer off the bat of Chili Davis. The score remained 4-4 until the bottom of the 12th when, with two outs, Braves second baseman Mark Lemke singled home David Justice with the winning run.

Atlanta evened the Series with yet another dramatic victory, 3-2, in Game 4. In the bottom of the ninth, with runners at first and third, pinch-hitter Jerry Willard's sacrifice fly (barely) scored Lemke with the decisive run.

And Game 5 was no contest. The first three innings were scoreless, but then the Braves hammered five Minnesota pitchers for 14 runs, on their way to a 14-5 triumph and a 3-2 edge in the Series.

Game 6 was reminiscent of another Game 6, 16 years earlier. With the score tied 3-3, Twins superstar Kirby Puckett led off the bottom of the 11th inning and walloped Charlie Leibrandt's fourth pitch over the left-field fence to extend the Series to seven games. The following game is widely considered to be one of the greatest Game 7s ever. After nine innings, neither team had scored, though the Braves just missed scoring in the eighth when Lonnie Smith wasn't able to score from first base on Terry Pendleton's long double. In the bottom of the 10th, Dan Gladden led off with a double and went to third on a sacrifice bunt. After a pair of intentional walks, pinch-hitter Gene Larkin drove a ball over a drawn-in outfield, and the Twins were World Champs.

Jack Morris, with yet another clutch postseason performance, pitched all 10 innings to earn the victory. And the Twins became just the second team to win the World Series by winning four Series games at home. The first team to do it? These same Twins, just four years earlier.

Path to the World Series
ALCS: Minnesota over Toronto (4 games to 1)
NLCS: Atlanta over Pittsburgh (4 games to 3)

Managers: Tom Kelly, MIN; Bobby Cox, ATL

MVP: Jack Morris, MIN: 2-0, 1.17 ERA, 23 IP, 15 K

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This is such a random bump

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Wow... talk about. I hadn't even realized it was a bump until you said that. I just looked and saw it's a 6 year old thread. Now I feel weird for replying in it

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losing to the fricking Padres may be the worst of them all

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The Padres were a buzz saw that year. They caught lightning in a bottle. Kevin Brown was damn near unhittable.

frick Walt Weiss


Junction Jack or Death

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Don't know which Braves team was the best but '96 was their most baffling postseason loss. How is it possible for a team to have a +39 run differential in the playoffs and not even win the World Series?

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1960 Yankees would have done it if there were 3 rounds of playoffs back then.

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it wasn't for the World Series title in '95, the run the Atlanta Braves went on throughout the 90s and into the early-00s might be the biggest choke job in the history of professional sports. So many great teams, many of them with three future Hall of Famers in the bullpen, yet only one world title to show for it.

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The question is who are the bigger chokers.

90s braves or 2010-present dodgers



I say dodgers

All those good teams and 1 ring. Choked in the NLCS.