Atlanta Braves

Why were the atlanta braves in the NL West?

i was researching nl west and i found out the atlanta braves used to be in that divison before they went to the nl east. i cannot logically figure this out..atlanta is on the east coast lol. and they werent in a different city, they were still in atlanta. does neone know why?

The fact that the Braves had been in Milwaukee has nothing to do with the fact that Atlanta played in the NL West. Division play began in 1969, which was the 4th season the Braves played in Atlanta.
If the teams had been set up strictly geographically, the divisions would have been like this –

East – Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Montreal, NY (Mets), Cincinnati, Atlanta
West – Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Houston, St. Louis, Chicago (Cubs)

If you look at the NL standings from 1968, you will see that the top 3 teams were the Cardinals, Giants and the Cubs – which would have meant that you put the 3 best teams in the same division. BY basically flipping the Cardinals and the Cubs to the East, and the Reds and Braves to the West, the competitive balance was more spread out. Just a quick calculation can tell you the divisions were pretty equal as a result. Add the places up for each division. (1 for first, 2 for 2nd, etc.) You will see that if set up geographically, the West total would be 23 (1, 2, 3, 7, 10) while the East would be 32 (4,5,6,8,9). With the adjusted divisions, the totals are much closer – 28 for the West, 27 for the East.(Note there is no 11th or 12th place – the Expos and Padres were added for the 1969 season)
Looking also at the 1968 standings, and putting the teams into divisions strictly geographically, you would have had the Cardinals (best record in the NL) playing the reds (4th best record) while the Giants and the Cubs (2nd and 3rd) would have been sent home.
The only conclusion I can reach is that it was more for competitive balance then anything else. Perhaps the only other way may have been to split the Cards and Cubs up (one in the west, one in the east), but I’m sure baseball wanted to keep that rivalry intact.
Just a theory – have never really heard any true reasons for it.

Mike Minor, P, Atlanta Braves