2019 Atlanta Braves would be very different from 1973 as 40/40/40 club members

It’s a different era, a different generation, and even a different baseball; but this season’s Atlanta Braves may accomplish something done only thrice before.

We’ve already seen a lot of rare stats involving the Atlanta Braves in recent weeks, but there’s still a good chance for more coming soon.

If you dig the long ball, you’ll want to see this one happen in particular, for it’s even more rare than the coming spectacle of Ronald Acuna getting to 40 homers and 40 steals.

It’s the 40/40/40 club… three teammates clubbing 40 home runs in a single season.  It’s been done only 3 times before.  But let’s put this in context before getting to the details.

MLB players have hit 40 or more home runs in a single season quite often:  in fact, it’s happened 345 times to date.  217 of them came since 1980 and 7 of these instances already on the board this year.

In fact, it could be a record-setting year for 40+ players – and why not, with the baseballs flying around with more regularity than passenger airliners?

1998 saw 13 hitters produce 40+ homers.  Four of them were above 50, led by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (I’ll let you mull over the legitimacy of that season’s stats).

At this point, 14 players have 36 dingers recorded and 10 more are still within sight of a possible 40-homer season.

Three of these are Atlanta Braves:  Ronald Acuna, Freddie Freeman, and Josh Donaldson.  With 39/38/37 homers respectively, they have a real chance to become the first 40/40/40 teammates in over 20 years.

Still… all of this ‘nouveau power’ seems to cheapen a real feat done by the Atlanta Braves of 1973.