Why the Atlanta Braves’ all-black outfield is big for baseball

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It wasn’t just Gant, Nixon and Justice. It was Lonnie Smith, Deion Sanders, Mike Devereaux, Marquis Grissom, Jermaine Dye, Kenny Lofton, and Brian Jordan. Even when one would leave, another would come in. It became an unconscious staple of the Braves lineup, and one that a young black baseball fan would learn to take pride in.

The Braves were trendsetters, and those lineups brought in a new demographic of fans looking to support their own. Sure, the fans loved the fact that the Braves had recognizable black talent, but it also helped that they were winning a ton, too.

The Braves were the team of the decade in the 90’s, even if they won only one championship in that time span. Winning 9 divisional pennants in 10 years (with the players’ strike in 1994 ruining the chance to go 10 straight) will secure that honor for a team.

So what does the new union of the Upton brothers and Heyward mean for this current 2013 Braves squad? If the man who started it all, Hank Aaron, has anything to say about it, then the people will be out in full force to witness something truly outstanding at Turner Field.

“I’m pleased, and I hear people from my area talking about how pleased that they are,” Aaron, a Braves senior vice president, told the Associated Press. “So I’m hoping that they show their appreciation by coming to the ballpark.”

“I don’t know anybody that had the combination of speed and power and all of the things these three kids can do,” Aaron observed. “Here again, they’ve got to go out there and prove it.”

If these three and go out there and prove it like generation and generation before them did, then a new generation of kids will look up to them. Who knows, maybe they’ll be able to add another Divisional Pennant or World Series title to the Braves history books in the process.

Follow Eddie Maisonet on Twitter at @edthesportsfan and on Facebook.