Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves are a Major League Baseball team, and have been based in Atlanta, Georgia since 1966. The team competes in the competitive Eastern Division of the National League. For the last decade and a half, the Braves have been one of the most successful franchises in baseball, winning their division title an unprecedented 14 consecutive times beginning with 1991 and ending in 2005 (omitting the strike-shortened 1994 season in which no division champions were officially crowned). The Braves have won 16 divisional titles, nine National League pennants, and three World Series championships: 1914 as the Boston Braves, 1957 as the Milwaukee Braves, and 1995 in Atlanta. The Braves are one of the only two remaining charter members left in the National League along with the Chicago Cubs.

History

Boston

1871-1913

The Cincinnati Red Stockings, established in 1869 and the first professional baseball team, voted to dissolve after the 1870 season. Player-manager Harry Wright then moved to Boston, Massachusetts, with brother George and two other Cincinnati players, to form the nucleus of the Boston Red Stockings, a charter member of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. The original Red Stockings team and its successors can lay claim to being the oldest continuously playing team in American professional sports. (The only other team that has been organized as long, the Chicago Cubs, did not play for the two years following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.) Two young players hired away from the Forest City club of Rockford, Illinois, turned out to be the biggest stars during the NAPBBP years: pitcher Al Spalding and second baseman Ross Barnes.

Led by the Wright brothers, Barnes, and Spalding, the Red Stockings dominated the National Association, winning four of that league's five championships. The team became one of the National League's charter franchises in 1876, sometimes called the "Red Caps" (as a new Cincinnati Red Stockings club was another charter member). Boston came to be called the Beaneaters in 1883, while retaining red as the team color.

Although somewhat stripped of talent in the National League's inaugural year, Boston bounced back to win the 1877 and 1878 pennants. The Red Caps/Beaneaters were one of the league's dominant teams during the 19th century, winning a total of eight pennants. For most of that time, their manager was Frank Selee, the first manager not to double as a player as well. The 1898 team finished 102-47, a club record for wins that would stand for almost a century.

Source: www.wikipedia.com