Atlanta Braves (Sports Team)

The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball franchise based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The franchise competes in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves played home games at Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium from 1966 to 1996, and Turner Field from 1997 to 2016. Since 2017, their home stadium has been SunTrust Park, a new stadium 10 miles (16 km) northwest of downtown Atlanta in the Cumberland neighborhood of Cobb County. The Braves play spring training games at CoolToday Park in North Port, Florida.

The "Braves" name, which was first used in 1912, originates from a term for a Native American warrior. They are nicknamed "the Bravos", and often referred to as "America's Team" in reference to the team's games being broadcast on the nationally available TBS from the 1970s until 2007, giving the team a nationwide fan base.

From 1991 to 2005, the Braves were one of the most successful teams in baseball, winning division titles an unprecedented 14 consecutive times (omitting the strike-shortened 1994 season in which there were no official division champions), and producing one of the greatest pitching rotations in the history of baseball. Most notably, this rotation consisted of pitchers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. The Braves won the National League West division from 1991 to 1993, and after divisional realignment, the National League East division from 1995 to 2005. They returned to the playoffs as the National League Wild Card in 2010. The Braves advanced to the World Series five times in the 1990s (1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, and 1999), winning the title in 1995 against the Cleveland Indians. Since their debut in the National League in 1876, the franchise has won 18 divisional titles, 17 National League pennants, and three World Series championships — in 1914 as the Boston Braves, in 1957 as the Milwaukee Braves, and in 1995 as the Atlanta Braves. The Braves are the only Major League Baseball franchise to have won the World Series in three different home cities.

The Braves and the Chicago Cubs are the National League's two remaining charter franchises. The Braves were founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1871, as the Boston Red Stockings (not to be confused with the American League's Boston Red Sox). The team states it is "the oldest continuously operating professional sports franchise in America."[b]

After various name changes, the team eventually began operating as the Boston Braves, which lasted for most of the first half of the 20th century. Then, in 1953, the team moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and became the Milwaukee Braves, followed by the final move to Atlanta in 1966. The team's tenure in Atlanta is noted for Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's career home run record in 1974.