The Atlanta Braves have an ever-growing number of former players that are in the Hall of Fame. Hank Aaron, Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Bobby Cox, Fred McGriff, Warren Spahn, you get the idea. 

But it is an absolute travesty that two former Braves – Dale Murphy and Andruw Jones – have not already taken their rightful place in Cooperstown. And both haven’t for the same reason. 

Andruw was on 58 percent of the ballot a year ago, enough to return to the 2024 ballot. The man had 10 Gold Gloves in the outfield, only Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente have more. Oh and those two? First-ballot inductees into Cooperstown. He tied outfielders Ken Griffey Jr., Al Kaline and Ichiro. That’s two more first-ballot inductees and Ichiro, who is most certainly going to join them. 

Ozzie Smith got in on defense with 28 home runs in his CAREER. 

He had 434 homers, and led MLB with 51 in 2005. From 1998-2006, his WAR was 54.5, behind only Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez – we’re not going to get into why they had those numbers. 

On the defensive side, his WAR was 24.4 – the highest of any outfielder in MLB HISTORY by 5.6. If he retires after 2006, he’s a lock for the Hall. But he wanted to keep playing. 

Let’s hope he gets his due this year. 

Now, Dale Murphy. The same Dale Murphy who absurdly never received more than 23.2 percent of the BBWAA vote during his initial 1999-2013 run on the ballot. 

Again, he had a span from 1980-1987 where he was one of the best players in the game of baseball. He won back-to-back MVPs and finished top 12 four other times. That’s six of the eight. 

He played four-straight 162-game seasons. He had a career WAR of 46.5 and outside of the waning years of his baseball career, a main argument against him was that he never achieved 400 homers. He had 398. 

Seven All-Star appearances. Five Gold Gloves. Four Silver Sluggers. 2,111 hits. But again, his years following that final All-Star Game have “kept” him out of Cooperstown. Absurd. 

It’s time for the BBWAA to take consistent and obvious Hall of Fame careers for exactly what they are: Hall of Fame careers. A Hall of Fame-worthy career should not be punished because the player behind it wanted to continue playing the game they loved.