Pendleton shocks the baseball world by winning the 1991 NL MVP over Barry Bonds.
Braves Franchise History
1911: William Russell, head of the syndicate that owns the Boston Nationals, dies. No doubt helping his demise was watching his team finish the season with a .291 winning percentage. Former player, now attorney, Monte Ward and New York politician James Gaffney will purchase 945 of the 1000 shares for $177,000. The team, also known as the Rustlers (or Doves) will start next season as the “Braves” – a name that will eventually stick.
1978: Bob Horner of the Atlanta Braves edges Ozzie Smith of San Diego to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Horner batted .266 with 23 home runs in just 323 at-bats after starting the season at Arizona State University before being the first overall pick of the June draft.
1991: Atlanta Braves third baseman Terry Pendleton, who hit .319 with 22 home runs and 86 RBI, wins the National League MVP Award. Pendleton surprisingly out-distances runner-up Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Barry Bonds (.292, 25, 116).
2002: The Montreal Expos may play approximately twenty-five percent of their home games (22 of 81) in San Juan, Puerto Rico next season. Away “home games” are not unprecedented as the Brooklyn Dodgers played seven games in Newark, NJ in 1956 and 1957, and the Chicago White Sox, filling a void when the Braves left, played nine games in Milwaukee, WI in 1968 and another 11 in 1969.
2017: The Commissioner’s office issues its ruling in the investigation of improprieties committed by the Atlanta Braves by willingly circumventing international signing rules from 2015 through 2017. Former General Manager John Coppolella receives a lifetime ban, and 12 prospects in the organization are declared free agents. The Braves are also forbidden from signing any prospect for a bonus of more than $10,000 in the 2019-20 signing period, their bonus pool will be cut by 50% the following year, and they will lose a third-round selection in the 2018 amateur draft while sanctions against other employees are expected to follow. The scam involved secretly diverting bonuses declared for certain prospects towards others governed by signing pool limits, in order to make it appear as if the team had not exceeded these limits.
MLB History
1889: The National League issues its reply to the Players League manifesto. Claiming that the League saved baseball in 1876 and that under the reserve rules players’ salaries have “more than trebled,” the NL denounces the Brotherhood movement as “the efforts of certain overpaid players to again control [baseball] for their own aggrandizement… to its ultimate dishonor and disintegration.”
1970: The Sporting News announces Gold Glove Award selections. Chicago White Sox shortstop Luis Aparicio wins the ninth and final honor of his career, while New York Mets outfielder Tommie Agee becomes the first position player to win it in each league. Aparicio has now won a gold glove in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, while Agee also won the honor with the White Sox during his 1966 Rookie of Year season.
1972: Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk is the first-ever unanimous choice for American League Rookie of the Year. Fisk hit 22 home runs and led the AL East Division with a .293 batting average. Pitcher Jon Matlack of the New York Mets is named the National League winner.
2000: Citing statistics to a U.S. Senate panel, Commissioner Bud Selig states it is time for “sweeping changes” in the game’s economic make-up, raising the possibility of a work stoppage after the current contract expires on October 31, 2001.
2011: The Tigers’ Justin Verlander adds the American League Most Valuable Player Award to the Cy Young Award he won a week ago after a dominating season in which he led Detroit to the AL Central title. He is the first pitcher to win the award in the AL since reliever Dennis Eckersley in 1992, and the first starting pitcher to do so since Roger Clemens in 1986. He secures 13 of 28 first-place votes to finish ahead of Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury, Toronto’s Jose Bautista and New York’s Curtis Granderson in a bunched-up vote.
Information for this article was found via Baseball Reference, NationalPastime.com and Today in Baseball History.