22 Feb
By then, the Bravos had already made some NL noise with a 13-game winning streak to start the season. But acquiring Watson to fortify the bench appeared to be a helluva get. As it turned out, in ’82 and, especially, ’83—two seasons that saw Atlanta go down to the NL-West wire with L.A.—Watson would get some big and memorable hits.
Watson, who had just turned 36, was finishing up an impressive career as one of baseball’s more underrated hitters. A powerfully built right-handed, line-drive machine, Watson played the majority of his career in the Houston Astrodome (aka MLB’s Grand Canyon), a notoriously difficult park for power hitters.