Doing a little 1970s research on baseball-reference and noticed something truly remarkable. I was not aware of it before, and while I cannot be certain, I have to imagine it is a unique occurrence in baseball history.

The Braves of the 70s were, generally speaking, a bad baseball team. After winning the inaugural NLW division race in 1969, they went the entire decade of the 70s below .500, often in last place, except for 1971 (82-80), and 1974 (88-74). So right away something stands about the '74 Braves. But digging a little deeper, I noticed the following. Here is where the Braves ranked, out of the 12 NL teams, in runs allowed (technically runs allowed per game), for the entire decade:

1970: 9th
1971: 11th
1972: 12th
1973: 12th
1974: 1st
1975: 11th
1976: 10th
1977: 12th
1978: 12th
1979: 12th

How is that possible? They spent the entire decade as basically the worst team in the league in terms of run prevention, yet in 1974 they somehow were the best? Niekro had one of his best seasons, but basically they got career years all at once from such luminaries as Buzz Capra, Carl Morton, and Max Leon. Tom House had the best season of his career as their relief specialist, in 103 IP. I'll have to go see what I can find in other books from the era, but I have no recollection of reading about this astonishing accomplishment before - and I have read almost every baseball book ever written about that era.

I don't remember Hank Aaron talking about that team particularly in "I Had a Hammer" - he was pretty focused on the HR record at that point. But I will go back and check and see if he did talk about it.

Was the pitching coach different that year?

Atlanta had an average home field attendance of 12,212 per game.
Fortunately for them they had the Aaron home run march packing them in.

That's some good observational research, contrarian. Could be the subject of a lengthy paper.

It seems the Braves staff suddenly found good control in 74, cutting their walks allowed by almost 100.
But they also prevented many hits, even though they didn't strike out a ton of batters. Comparing 1974 to 1975, they allowed one and a half fewer hits per 9 innings in 74; that is HUGE. Was it fantastic fielding, or simply a year where the opponents hit a bunch of "at'em" balls? The Braves allowed the 3rd fewest hits in the NL in 74, despite being near the bottom in striking batters out. Buzz Capra led the league in ERA, and in fewest hits per 9 allowed, and never remotely had a season like that again. It smells kinda fluky.

Baseball Reference changed Hank Aaron’s name to Henry Aaron. I’ve never heard anyone say that. Whatsup with that?!?

I remember Aaron's 715th that season. I was 9 years old, and I think I was watching Emergency! that Saturday night when NBC News interrupted the show to report on the feat. And I remember the two guys running the bases with him.

Very interesting info, contrarian. I'm amazed that it still took until the early 1990s for the Braves to return to success.

They changed managers from Eddie Mathews to Clyde King during the season. They went 50-49 with Matthews, and then went 38-25 with Clyde King, who was also a pitching coach for some other teams.

That may have made a difference....EXCEPT, King then went 58-76 to start 1975, and got replaced by Connie Ryan at the end of the season. Ryan went 9-18, and the following year, under Dave Bristol for the whole season they were 70-92 in 1976.

So, King's arrival coincides with the upbeat for 1974. But maybe it also coincided with something else?

The 1974 Braves had:

The newly-crowned all-time HR champion - Henry Aaron
The National League batting Champion - Ralph Garr
The NL leader in Wins - Phil Niekro
The NL ERA title winner - Buzz Capra.

It looks like it actually underperformed in other words, the Matthews period with them being a .500 team the real anamoly for the season, but over time as contrarian23 points out, it is the good stuff is full of anamolies.

"

ing's hiring aroused some controversy when Aaron noted that he had been bypassed as a managerial candidate; he would have become baseball's first African-American manager had he been named to the post. He would have taken the Braves' job, Aaron said, "simply because there are no black managers in baseball."^[12] Braves' owner William Bartholomay responded by claiming he had had no inkling that Aaron was interested in managing in the Major Leagues.^[12]

As events turned out, however, the Braves responded to King, winning 38 of their final 63 games (.603) and King was rehired for the 1975 season. Frank Robinson became MLB's first black manager when he was hired by the Cleveland Indians on October 3, 1974. Aaron was traded to the American League Milwaukee Brewers on November 2, 1974; he finished his active career in the Junior Circuit with two years as a designated hitter before returning to the Braves as a front-office executive. Meanwhile, Mathews finished his managerial career with a 149–161 (.481) record over all or parts of three seasons." - Wikipedia

So, I definitely have to re-read that part of "I Had a Hammer" - Aaron's autobiography, and report back here on what he had to say about that season.

Posted by dannino on 6/4/2021 10:44:00 AM (view original):
I remember Aaron's 715th that season. I was 9 years old, and I think I was watching Emergency! that Saturday night when NBC News interrupted the show to report on the feat. And I remember the two guys running the bases with him.

Very interesting info, contrarian. I'm amazed that it still took until the early 1990s for the Braves to return to success.

ringers lactate!

Posted by italyprof on 6/4/2021 11:24:00 AM (view original):
They changed managers from Eddie Mathews to Clyde King during the season. They went 50-49 with Matthews, and then went 38-25 with Clyde King, who was also a pitching coach for some other teams.

That may have made a difference....EXCEPT, King then went 58-76 to start 1975, and got replaced by Connie Ryan at the end of the season. Ryan went 9-18, and the following year, under Dave Bristol for the whole season they were 70-92 in 1976.

So, King's arrival coincides with the upbeat for 1974. But maybe it also coincided with something else?

I wondered about King as well but Team ERA with Mathews was 3.05 and with King 3.07 so that wasn't it.

The did get a new pitching coach in '74 ... Herm Starrette who came over from the Orioles organization, thing is Starrette was there for too '75 and '76 which weren't good.

I wonder though if Starrette changed the approach and it took hitters a while to adjust? above it was noted they cut their BBs by almost 100 I wonder if he told 'em throw ball down the middle on the first pitch or something and so a lot of hitters were down on the count 0-1 or something?

Buzz Capra did have a wildly low BAbip of .235, he never had anything like that any other time in his career but he was the only one I saw who had a BApbip that far below anything else they ever had

It really is a puzzle!

ps

They also allowed fewer HRs at home than on the road, that was the only time all decade that happened and I'd guess (though I haven't confirmed) that didn't happen too often when they played in Fulton County Stadium

I just checked it was the only time in the entire time they played at Fulton County that they allowed fewer HRs at home than on the road though there were a couple of seasons where it was close. Their hitting did not seem to affected as they hit more HRs at home that year than they did on the road

If they played in a dome we could start a conspiracy theory regarding twiddling with the AC / fans!