The Miracle Braves: Baseball’s Greatest Comeback

What if I told you one of the greatest underdog stories in baseball history happened over a century ago. In nineteen fourteen. The Boston Braves were dead halfway through the season in last place. Everyone had written them off. By the time October came around. They didn't only climb to the top, they shocked the world and would end up winning the World Series. How did this team go from worst to first in just three months? Join us as we go on this wild ride through a baseball miracle comeback of the story of the nineteen fourteen Boston Braves. Let's go. Welcome to daily sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guy, because I used load management as an excuse to get out of chores. So let's set the scene of the Boston Braves in nineteen fourteen. At the time, Boston actually had two baseball teams, the Red Sox in the American League and the Braves in the National League. Now, just so you know, these Boston Braves would eventually become the Milwaukee Braves, and then they would become the Atlantic Braves that we know today. But the Braves were always overshadowed by the Red Sox. That's because of years of mediocrity, so fans would flock to the Red Sox, who had been having success for years. And in nineteen thirteen, the Braves finished fifth in the National League with a losing record, so no one expected going into eighteen fourteen anything would change. There's no big signing, no new players that were up and coming. A few stars they had were just inconsistent, and in nineteen thirteen they actually hired George Stallings as their manager, and he was a great motivator and used psychological tactics to get the best out of its players and emphasize fundamental defense and aggressive bas running, which was very common at the time. But it doesn't mean you would have success, as he didn't in nineteen thirteen. Sometimes it takes a coach a little bit of time to really connect with his players and get them behind him. Now, they did have some good players on their team. Johnny Evers, who played second base, was a veteran by nineteen fourteen and he was the leader of the clubhouse. His defensive prowess was what really helped bring this team together and lead a turnaround, and in nineteen forty six he would actually be inducted into the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame, and at shortstop they had Rabbit Marionville, who was another defensive wizard who gave them a great middle and field in His outstanding play and longevity throughout his career led him to the Hall of Fame in nineteen fifty four, and they had some great other veterans to fill out the roster. But this comeback was really led by their pitching as well, in Dick Rudolph and Bill James, who would both end up with twenty six wins in the season, dominating especially in the second half of the year. So why did this team str By July fourth, they had a record of twenty six and forty fifteen games behind the New York Giants. It's a large number to come back from, and they didn't show any signs that they were going to come back. Offensively, they were ranked near the bottom of the league in batting average and run scored. Defensively, they had multiple costly errors in misplays that were so common they came to be expected, and their rotation was just inconsistent and struggled, and the bullpen was always unreliable. Then came a July exhibition game, which is weird. Why would this team be play an exhibition game in the middle of the season. Baseball was different back then, just remember that. So they were playing against Buffalo in an exhibition game and they lost, Just so you know, Buffalo was a minor league team. So after this loss, Johnny Evers got his team together and told them, hey, this needs to stop. When you just stopped feeling sorry for ourselves and believe that we can actually win. We're not bad, we just need to come together. So at this point, they were ranked last in the National League. Their batting average was ranked seventh out of eighth, and their team ERA was sixth out of eight fifteen games behind number one. So after this team meeting, the Braves started to respond. They would go on to win twelve over their next sixteen games, all on the road, beating Brooklyn and the Cubs and the Cardinals. And then after this they would have a fourteen game homestand which is a lot, and they would go on to win twelve of those games, climbing all the way to second place in the standings. Now, remember back in nineteen fourteen, if you did not win your league, you did not play in the World Series. There was no playoffs like we see today, so finishing second didn't mean anything. You needed to finish first, and over their last eighty seven games, they would go sixty eight and nineteen. That is a winning percentage of seventy eight percent, the best stretch of baseball that year, and that led to them to blow out the competition. They would end up winning the Pennant. They won their lea over ten games, so on July fourth, they were last, and they would go on to finish with a record of ninety four and fifty nine. And this late season surge brought fans from Boston who were long apathetic to the games, and these games were actually played at Finway at the time, and they would just rally around this team that just kept winning and winning. They were dubbed the Miracle Braves due to their improbable run, and they had never won a World Series title before despite winning the National League eight times before. So now they made it through their historic Pennant run and they're facing off against the Philadelphia Athletics, who was a reigning dynasty managed by legend Connie Mack who boasted a ninety nine and fifty three record, and they were heavily favored, featuring legendary pictures like Chief Bender and Eddie Plank with a roster of future Hall of Famers. So the first game takes place on November ninth, nineteen fourteen, in Philadelphia, and the Braves just come out swinging. They would win this game seven to one, with Hank Goudy really leading the way for the Braves, almost hitting for the cycle hit it. He hit a single, double and a triple as they shocked the A's. The next game in the series would happen the next day in Philadelphia, and the Braves again would come out in a hard fought battle, winning one to zero, with getting the winning run after a complete shutout game in the ninth inning. So they're up two to zero in the series and the game moves to finway. Despite being down the entire game, they rally in the ninth to tie the game up and send it in extra innings, with Hank Goudy hitting a walk off double in the twelfth inning to win five to four. So they're up three to zero. Now, if you don't know anything about baseball, it wasn't until two thousand and four when a team actually came back from three to zero in a series of any kind. So in nineteen fourteen, it didn't happen either, and on October thirteenth, the Boston Braves again beat the Philadelphia Athletics, who were heavily favored three to one, to win their first World Series. It was the first time there had ever been a four game sweep in World Series history, and it completed their miracle run through the season, not only coming from the last to first in winning the Pennant, they actually won the entire thing, showing it's never over even when you're in last place, and so this really endured them In Boston. They were always the second child to the Red Sox, their popularity always was really waning, but fans and media were high on them coming into the next season. Was it just a miracle run or was it lightning ready to catch fire? And the Braves actually did put up a decent season. They went the following year eighty three and sixty nine, finishing second place in the National League. As I said earlier, second place didn't mean anything then only first place got to go to the World Series, and they were seven games behind the Phillies and didn't get the chance to repeat. And sadly the team would wane and they would actually change their name to the Boston Bees and then go back to the Boston Braves, and by nineteen fifty two they were ready to call it quits, at least in Boston, and they moved to Milwaukee, where they had some success there, winning the World Series in nineteen fifty seven, but of course, due to financial issues in the MLB expanding, they moved to Ulana in nineteen sixty six, where they have been ever since and have won two more World Series in ninety five and in twenty twenty one by the Boston Braves. Nineteen fourteen miracle run has often forgot about, maybe because they don't even play in Boston anymore and it was over one hundred years ago. The question is was this the greatest comeback for a team in a season ever, going from last by mid season to first to winning it all at the end. I want to thank you for listening to The Day's Dayly Sports History. If you'd like this, please like and subscribe wherever you're at, and we'll see you on the next one.