1984 Atlanta Braves season

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1984 Atlanta Braves
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record80–82 (.494)
Divisional place2nd
Other information
Owner(s)Ted Turner
General manager(s)John Mullen
Manager(s)Joe Torre
Local televisionWTBS
Superstation WTBS
Local radioWSB
(Ernie Johnson, Pete Van Wieren, Skip Caray, John Sterling)
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The 1984 Atlanta Braves season was the 19th season in Atlanta along with the 114th overall.

Offseason[]

  • October 4, 1983: Tommy Boggs was released by the Braves.[1]
  • October 21, 1983: Brett Butler, Brook Jacoby, and Rick Behenna were sent by the Braves to the Cleveland Indians to complete an earlier deal (the Braves traded players to be named later to the Indians for Len Barker) made on August 28, 1983.[2]

Regular season[]

The 1984 Braves third season with Joe Torre at the helm was a disappointing one. Despite a winning record throughout most of the season they finished the campaign with an 80-82 mark, tied for second with the Houston Astros, 12 games behind the San Diego Padres.

Atlanta stumbled out of the gate with a 2-7 mark on April 13, and were six games out of first place. The Braves had a 6-11 record on April 25 but won three in a row and later won eight of nine to go above the .500 mark for the first time in 1984. They were 18-15 on May 13, tied for third and two games out of first.

On May 24 Atlanta lost a double-header to the Cubs 10-7, 7-5 to drop to the .500 mark at 21-21. Atlanta rebounded to win 13 of its next 15 games to surge into first place with a 34-23 mark on June 7. The Braves were 32-16 since April 14 and were in first place by 1½ games. The season was beginning to look good for Atlanta.

Unfortunately for the Braves this would prove to be the high water mark for the season. Atlanta lost five in a row from June 8 to 12 to fall into second place, 3½ games out of first. They were never to be in first place again in 1984.

June 16, 1984: The Braves were playing the Cincinnati Reds in Atlanta. Mario Soto threw several brushback pitches at Braves slugger Claudell Washington. Washington tossed his bat in the direction of Soto, appeared to go out to retrieve it, but instead walked toward the mound. Umpire Lanny Harris attempted to restrain Washington. Harris was thrown to the ground. Soto used the distraction to punch Washington. Several of Washington's teammates attempted to hold Washington to the ground. While they were doing that, Soto fired the baseball into the crowd of players, striking Braves coach Joe Pignatano. He was suspended three games for this incident; Washington received a five-game suspension for shoving (umpire) Lanny Harris. (Both Soto and Washington were ejected from the game.)

On June 20 the Braves were 39-29 and in second place, 1½ games out of first. By the end of June they were 43-35 and three games out of first. July would prove to be tougher for the Braves however. Atlanta went 5-12 to begin the month of July. On July 19 the Braves owned a 48-47 record and were seven games out of first and still in second place. It was growing more obvious that this wouldn't be the magical season fans had wished it would be. Atlanta was 8½ games out of first on the last day of July.

On August 3 the Braves were six games over the .500 mark with a 57-51 record following a 2-1 win over the Giants. The league leading San Diego Padres lost that day and the Braves closed within 7½ games of the lead. The Braves were still hopeful of a late season surge but it appeared that might not happen.

After August 3 things turned rotten on the Braves. From August 4 to September 9 the Braves posted a 12-23 record that reduced them to 69-74 with an eleven-game deficit with 19 games to play. The Braves had also slipped to third place. The "pennant race" was over.

Season standings[]

  • v
  • t
NL West 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
San Diego Padres 92 70 0.568 — 48–33 44–37
Atlanta Braves 80 82 0.494 12 38–43 42–39
Houston Astros 80 82 0.494 12 43–38 37–44
Los Angeles Dodgers 79 83 0.488 13 40–41 39–42
Cincinnati Reds 70 92 0.432 22 39–42 31–50
San Francisco Giants 66 96 0.407 26 35–46 31–50

Record vs. opponents[]

1984 National League Records
  • v
  • t

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta — 3–9 13–5 12–6 6–12 5–7 4–8 7–5 8–4 7–11 10–8 5–7
Chicago 9–3 — 7–5 6–6 7–5 10–7 12–6 9–9 8–10 6–6 9–3 13–5
Cincinnati 5–13 5–7 — 8–10 7–11 7–5 3–9 5–7 7–5 7–11 12–6 4–8
Houston 6–12 6–6 10–8 — 9–9 7–5 4–8 6–6 6–6 6–12 12–6 8–4
Los Angeles 12–6 5–7 7–11 9–9 — 6–6 3–9 3–9 4–8 10–8 10–8 6–6
Montreal 7–5 7–10 5–7 5–7 6–6 — 7–11 11–7 7–11 7–5 7–5 9–9
New York 8–4 6–12 9–3 8–4 9–3 11–7 — 10–8 12–6 6–6 4–8 7–11
Philadelphia 5-7 9–9 7–5 6–6 9–3 7–11 8–10 — 7–11 7–5 8–4 8–10
Pittsburgh 4–8 10–8 5–7 6–6 8–4 11–7 6–12 11–7 — 4–8 6–6 4–14
San Diego 11–7 6–6 11–7 12–6 8–10 5–7 6–6 5–7 8–4 — 13–5 7–5
San Francisco 8–10 3–9 6–12 6–12 8–10 5–7 8–4 4–8 6–6 5–13 — 7–5
St. Louis 7–5 5–13 8–4 4–8 6–6 9–9 11–7 10–8 14–4 5–7 5–7 —


Notable transactions[]

Roster[]

1984 Atlanta Braves
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

  •  4 Biff Pocoroba
 Manager
  •  9 Joe Torre

Coaches

Player stats[]

Batting[]

Starters by position[]

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Bruce Benedict 95 300 67 .223 4 25
1B Chris Chambliss 135 389 100 .257 9 44
2B Glenn Hubbard 120 397 93 .234 9 43
SS Rafael Ramírez 145 591 157 .266 2 48
3B Randy Johnson 91 294 82 .279 5 30
LF Gerald Perry 122 347 92 .265 7 47
CF Dale Murphy 162 607 176 .290 36 100
RF Claudell Washington 120 416 119 .286 17 61

Other batters[]

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Brad Komminsk 90 301 61 .203 8 36
Alex Treviño 79 266 65 .244 3 28
Jerry Royster 81 227 47 .207 1 21
Ken Oberkfell 50 172 40 .233 1 10
Albert Hall 87 142 37 .261 1 9
Bob Horner 32 113 31 .274 3 19
Terry Harper 40 102 16 .157 0 8
Milt Thompson 25 99 30 .303 2 4
Paul Runge 28 90 24 .267 0 3
Bob Watson 49 85 18 .212 2 12
Rufino Linares 34 58 12 .207 1 10
Mike Jorgensen 31 26 7 .269 0 5
Paul Zuvella 11 25 5 .200 0 1
Matt Sinatro 2 4 0 .000 0 0
Biff Pocoroba 4 2 0 .000 0 0

Pitching[]

Starting pitchers[]

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Rick Mahler 38 222 13 10 3.12 106
Pascual Pérez 30 211.2 14 8 3.74 145
Craig McMurtry 37 183.1 9 17 4.32 99
Rick Camp 31 148.2 8 6 3.27 89
Len Barker 21 126.1 7 8 3.85 95
Zane Smith 3 20 1 0 2.25 16
Ken Dayley 4 18.2 0 3 5.30 10

Other pitchers[]

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Pete Falcone 35 120 5 7 4.13 55
Tony Brizzolara 10 29 1 2 5.28 17
Mike Payne 3 5.2 0 1 6.35 3

Relief pitchers[]

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Gene Garber 62 3 6 11 3.06 55
Jeff Dedmon 54 4 3 4 3.78 51
Donnie Moore 47 4 5 16 2.94 47
Steve Bedrosian 40 9 6 11 2.37 81
Terry Forster 25 2 0 5 2.70 10

Farm system[]

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Richmond Braves International League Eddie Haas and Bobby Dews
AA Greenville Braves Southern League Bobby Dews and Leo Mazzone
A Durham Bulls Carolina League Brian Snitker
A Anderson Braves South Atlantic League Rick Albert
Rookie Pulaski Braves Appalachian League Buddy Bailey
Rookie GCL Braves Gulf Coast League Pedro González

See also[]

  • Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.

References[]

  1. ^ Tommy Boggs at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Brett Butler at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Biff Pocoroba at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Tom Glavine at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Ken Dayley at Baseball Reference

External links[]

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