The Miracle Braves: Baseball’s Greatest Comeback

On July 14, 1914, the Boston Braves were still under .500 and sitting in fourth place, trailing the National League leaders by over 7 games. Just days after a humiliating loss to a minor league team, the Braves began a historic turnaround that would see them surge from last place to World Series champions in less than three months. This episode explores the pivotal moments, key players, and the remarkable resilience that defined the “Miracle Braves.” Discover how Johnny Evers, Rabbit Maranville, and a dominant pitching staff rewrote baseball history and inspired generations of underdogs.


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Speaker 1: 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,

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you on the next one.