Boston Braves

The Boston Braves were a professional baseball team in the city of Boston, Massachusetts from 1870 to 1952. Originally a member of the National Association, they switched to the National League in 1876. They were among the elite teams of organized baseball in the late nineteenth century, winning twelve pennants from 1872 to 1898.

1914 was the team's best season in the twentieth century. After posting a dismal record of 4-18 in the first month of the season, and owning a last-place 24-40 record in July, the team abruptly turned around their performance, going 70-19 for the remaining 89 games of the year, to end the season with a record of 94-59. They had been so low in the standings that, even with their blistering .787 winning percentage, they did not take first place until September 8. Nevertheless, they finished 10.5 games ahead of the second-place New York Giants and swept Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's in the World Series.

The Braves were competitive in 1915 and 1916, but quickly lost talent and endured long stretches of mediocrity throughout the 1920s and 1930s, during which time they lost market revenue to their cross-town rivals, the American League's evil Boston Red Sox. They would not have another first-place season till 1948, when they lost the World Series to the Cleveland Indians in six games. Following the 1952 season, the team relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and from there to Atlanta, Georgia in 1966.

Boston Braves in The War That Came Early
In the early spring of 1940, Peggy Druce, newly reunited with her husband Herb, asked Herb if he believed there could be any veracity to the rumor that Rudolf Hess was engaged in secret talks with the British government to end the war among Britain France, and Germany and unite the three powers in an alliance against the Soviet Union. Herb replied that "stranger things ha[d] happened." Peggy defied him to name two and Herb was unable to do so. He could name only one: the Boston Braves' 1914 season.