Atlanta Braves (1985)

1985 Regular Season:
Braves vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

     1985 was the 20th season of Braves baseball in Atlanta, Georgia, and 114th overall. After winning the 1982 National League West crown, the team had slid back into mediocrity, leading to manager Joe Torre's dismissal after 1984. 
     1985 was even worse than the previous year, as the Braves dropped to fifth place in the NL West with a 66-96 record. Manager Eddie Haas was canned after a 50-71 start and was replaced by Bobby Wine. Attendance dropped by nearly 400,000, as the Braves drew 1,350,137 to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, which ranked 9th in the National League.
      Atlanta was led by star centerfielder Dale Murphy, who batted an even .300 on the season, with 32 home runs and 111 RBI. Thanks to those numbers, Murphy took home the Silver Slugger award and led the National League in home runs. Power hitting first baseman Bob Horner was next in line with 27 home runs and 89 RBI, while batting .267 in 483 at bats. As a team, the Braves batted a mere .246 with 126 homers.
     Pitching was a weak spot for Atlanta that season, as the team had a league-worst 4.19 ERA. The only starter with a record above .500 was Rick Mahler, who went 17-15 with a 3.48 ERA and 107 strikeouts. The next best record in the rotation was 27-year old Steve Bedrosian, who had an ugly 7-15 record with 3.83 ERA, but did lead the team with 134 strikeouts. Pascual Perez had an ugly season, with a record of 1-13 and 6.14 ERA with 57 Ks. The closer that season was future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter, who signed with the Braves after spending the last four seasons in St. Louis. Sutter saved 23 games, but sported a 7-7 record and 4.48 ERA, rather high for a closer. 
     This program is from a September series vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers. Talk about two teams going in opposite directions: the Braves were stumbling toward a 5th place finish, while the Dodgers were cruising to the NL West crown. It was a four-game series, and while the Braves barely lost the first game, 9-7, they were bombed in the next three, outscored 32-8 in the process. Ouch!
     I found this program in, of all places, at flea market in Marlette, Michigan. It's 78 pages long, mostly in black-and-white, though there are color ads. Dale Murphy is on the cover (pretty sure that's a printed signature), and is featured in an article on page 5. Apparently, Dale earned the most All-Star votes of any player in either league that year. Third baseman Ken Oberkfell is profiled on page 78, and ex-Brave (and then White Sox coach) Mike Lum is featured in a "Where Are They Now?" article. 
     Local advertisements include the Atlanta Hawks (Ted Turner owned both the Braves and Hawks), Oxford Building Services, Kuppenheimer Men's Clothiers, Coca-Cola (and the New Coke) and WSB AM 750 (the home of the Braves).

Aftermath: The Braves would continue to struggle through the rest of the 1980s, but would slowly start to build the lineup that would dominate the National League during the 1990s.

Reference:

"1985 Atlanta Braves Statistics", from Baseball-Reference.com