The Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame selected Greg McMichael as the Professional Athlete of the Year in 1994. And what a year it was for the right-handed reliever for Atlanta. When the Braves needed a closer in their race for the 1993 Western Division Championship, they called on McMichael. More often than not, he got the job done. The pitcher who led Webb High School in Knoxville to the 1985 state championship showed opposing batters a thing or two, as he made big pitch after big pitch in the pressure-packed days of Atlanta’s run to the division crown. The Braves, who faced a double-digit deficit in midsummer, rallied to win the division in a pennant race that was as closely fought as any in recent history. McMichael, who pitched for UT from 1986 to 1988, finished the 1993 season with nineteen saves, the most by a rookie in the National League. He was runner-up to Los Angeles Dodger catcher Mike Piazza in National League Rookie of the Year balloting. A seventh-round selection of Cleveland in 1988, McMichael was signed as a free agent by the Braves in 1991 and earned a spot on the major league roster in 1993. He did not get a World Series ring that 1993 season, but he would earn one just two years later in 1995 when the Braves won their first ever. Currently a member of the New York Mets, Greg McMichael’s awesome baseball career has made Tennessee proud.
