Atlanta Braves Best 2nd Baseman

Leaving Turner Stadium on his thunderous Harley-Davidson after home games, a tough-looking 30+ year baseball veteran scoots down precarious Atlanta highways to his home in Stone Mountain.

The Sporting News proclaims him as the greatest 2nd baseman the Atlanta Braves ever had. And there are plenty of statistics to back that up; he currently holds all Braves 2nd base records, played in a total of 1180 games over 10 years, was selected as an All-Star in “83, and led the league in double-plays three times and assists twice.

Though his first game for the Braves was in 1978, strangely, he”s still with the team.

As resident “infield coaching expert” and full-time 1st base coach, Glenn Hubbard retains the same no.17 jersey number as he did for 10 seasons with the Braves.

He was a lite-hitting defensive dynamo and at 5′ 7”, 180 pounds soaking wet, he was the Braves original scrappy player. So much so, that Hubbard was even profiled in the Braves year book in an article with a cartoony illustration of Hubbard in a Davey Crocket outfit entitled, “True Grit.” Aggressive, fearless, and never to be denied, Hubbard set the standard for gravel-in-your-gut baseball.

His full beard and scrappy appearance belied a utilitarian efficiency at 2nd base, anchoring a Braves infield that went 13-0 in 198209090909 Add to that 98989 5-4-3 double plays and you begin to see his contribution to this team.

However, Hubbard’s influence continues to this day. After working his way through the Braves minor-league system, you will see him every game-day pitching batting practice, working out the team, and standing at first base during his team’s offensive efforts.

Yet, perhaps Hubbard’s fingerprints on the team’s “Youth Movement” are the true sign of his ongoing longevity. Kelley Johnson was a better-than-average leftfielder, drafted in 2000, making his first full season in 2005, and sat out 2006 in the minors.

But the team saw something in the kid. And, with a Zen-like intensity reminiscent of the first Karate Kid movie, Hubbard schooled the youngster into one of the games rising young infield stars. Not to mention a similar tutelage of Marcus Giles.

However, it was in the last of his final two years of play at Oakland that would land him a starting role in the 1988 World Series. Ever the unsung, Hubbard was released midway through 1989, the year the A’s would again make the Series, this time victorious.

And so, after toiling for twelve years, greeting sliding spikes with his shins at 2nd, being the first on the team to get dirty, Hubbard quietly ended his career the dignified street-fighter we all knew he was.