Bobby Bragan

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Bobby Bragan
Bragan as manager of the Braves in 1963.
Shortstop / Catcher / Manager
Born: (1917-10-30)October 30, 1917
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Died: January 21, 2010(2010-01-21) (aged 92)
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 16, 1940, for the Philadelphia Phillies
Last MLB appearance
June 27, 1948, for the Brooklyn Dodgers
MLB statistics
Batting average.240
Home runs15
Runs batted in172
Managerial record443–478
Winning %.481
Teams
As player

As manager

As coach

Robert Randall Bragan (October 30, 1917 – January 21, 2010) was an American shortstop, catcher, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball and an influential minor league executive. His professional baseball career encompassed 73 years, from his first season as a player in the Class D Alabama–Florida League in 1937, to 2009, the last full year of his life, when he was still listed as a consultant to the Texas Rangers' organization.

On August 16, 2005, Bragan donned a uniform to manage the independent Central League Fort Worth Cats for one game, making him—at 87 years, nine months, and 16 days old—the oldest manager in professional baseball annals, besting by one week Connie Mack, the manager and part-owner of the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 through 1950. Always known as an innovator with a sense of humor—and an umpire-baiter—Bragan was ejected in the third inning of his "comeback", thus also becoming the oldest person in any capacity to be ejected from a professional baseball game.

Bragan died on January 21, 2010, of a

Fort Worth.[1][2][3]

Career as player and field manager

During his Major League managerial career, Bragan never skippered a game past his 49th birthday. He managed the

).

Despite his lack of success in the majors, Bragan was highly respected as a minor league manager, winning championships in 1948 and 1949 with

Baseball Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams, who played for Bragan at Fort Worth from 1948 to 1950, lauded Bragan in his Cooperstown induction speech in 2008, and wrote, in his autobiography: "There should be a note under every one of my [managerial] records that says 'See Bobby Bragan.' Because a bit of every one of my wins belongs to him."[8]

Bragan was born in

drive home Carl Furillo with the eventual winning run.[10]
Bragan's hit gave him a perfect 1.000 career batting average in Fall Classic play.

Influenced by Branch Rickey

Bragan was a protégé of

at-bats. When Rickey wanted to make room for Roy Campanella
, who was starring in the minors, he offered Bragan the Fort Worth managerial job; he took over in July 1948, and remained with the Cats through 1952. Then, in 1953, Rickey, by now heading the Pittsburgh front office, brought Bragan to Hollywood and the Pirates' organization.

Bragan had clashed with Rickey in 1947 over the Dodgers' breaking of the baseball color line after the big-league debut of Jackie Robinson. Bragan—the Dodgers' second-string catcher at the time—was one of a group of white players, largely from the American South, who signed a petition against Robinson's presence. He even asked Rickey to trade him. But Bragan quickly relented. "After just one road trip, I saw the quality of Jackie the man and the player", Bragan told MLB.com in 2005. "I told Mr. Rickey I had changed my mind and I was honored to be a teammate of Jackie Robinson." When Bragan attended Rickey's funeral in 1965, he stated he decided to attend because, "Branch Rickey made me a better man."[11]

As a manager, Bragan earned a reputation for "color-blindedness." When he was the skipper of the Dodgers'

stolen bases in a season, with 104 thefts, breaking Ty Cobb
's 47-year-old mark.

In his 1976 memoir The Lords of Baseball, longtime Dodger executive Harold Parrott would claim that Bragan's hiring by the Braves in 1963 was orchestrated by Rickey to thwart a plan by Dodger owner Walter O'Malley to replace his manager, eventual Hall of Famer Walter Alston, with Leo Durocher. Alston had come under withering criticism for failing to win the 1962 National League pennant but O'Malley decided he would make the move on hiring Durocher only if he could find a suitable "soft landing spot" for Alston, who had managed his club for nine seasons and, to that point, had won three NL flags and two World Series titles. The owner chose Milwaukee, fading as contenders and with a managerial vacancy to fill, as Alston's ideal destination. According to Parrott's memoir, Rickey—then in semi-retirement but still O'Malley's bitter enemy—discovered the scheme and brokered the marriage between Bragan and the Braves' ownership before O'Malley's plan could materialize. Alston kept his job in Los Angeles and led the 1963 Dodgers to the world championship for his third Series triumph; he would remain at the Dodger helm through 1976, win three additional pennants and, in 1965, his fourth and final world title.[13]

Managerial Record

Team Year Regular season Postseason
Games Won Lost Win % Finish Won Lost Win % Result
PIT 1956 154 66 88 .429 7th in NL
PIT 1957 103 36 67 .350 Fired
PIT total 0 0 0 0 0
CLE 1958 67 31 36 .463 Fired
CLE total 67 31 36 .463 0 0
MIL 1963 162 84 78 .519 6th in NL
MIL 1964 162 88 74 .543 5th in NL
MIL 1965 162 86 76 .531 5th in NL
ATL 1966 111 52 59 .468 Fired
MIL/ ATL total 597 310 287 .519 0 0
Total[14] 921 443 478 .481 0 0

President of Texas League and National Association

Bragan scouted for the newborn

Fort Worth resident since 1948, when Rickey gave him his first managerial assignment, he became president of the Double-A Texas League,[16]
and served seven seasons in the post.

His appointment came during a period of contraction and low attendance for minor league baseball; in 1971, the Texas circuit—down to only seven members when the

El Paso franchise withdrew—temporarily merged with the Southern League to form the 14-club Dixie Association. The following season, however, El Paso returned to the Texas League, and Bragan's circuit successfully weathered the defection of two successful franchises, Dallas–Fort Worth, who jumped all the way from Double-A to the American League, and Albuquerque
, who moved up to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. With eight member clubs each, the Texas and Southern leagues resumed their former identities and were poised to capitalize on the attendance boom in the minor leagues that would follow during the 1980s.

Bragan's achievements were recognized during the 1975–76 offseason when he was elected president of the minor leagues' governing body, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, headquartered in

Saint Petersburg, Florida. He spent three full years as president of the minor leagues before he and his wife Gwenn returned to Fort Worth, where he joined the Texas Rangers
' front office in 1979. He continued to make appearances and speaking engagements on behalf of the ballclub well into his eighties.

After Gwenn Bragan's death in 1983, Bobby married Roberta Beckman. It was Roberta who suggested to Bobby that he establish a scholarship foundation to encourage youth to do well in school and go on to college. With the financial seed money provided by Roberta, the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation (BBYF) was established in 1991.

Roberta Beckman Bragan died in 1993. Bobby married Betty Bloxam in 1995 and the two stayed together until his death.

As he passed his 90th birthday, Bragan continued an active schedule, as the Chairman of the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation and making numerous appearances for civic organizations and businesses, including his beloved Fort Worth Cats as well as in schools, where he enjoyed entertaining and motivating students.

Each year, the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation honors outstanding athletes and executives for the achievements on and off of the playing field at the annual Bobby Bragan Gala to raise funds for the scholarships. Honorees have included Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, Larry King, Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Valentine, Bud Selig, Willie Mays, Lou Brock and Brooks Robinson.

Bragan came from a baseball family. Five of the six Bragan boys played baseball professionally. His brother

Jacksonville Suns of the Southern League for more than 25 years, and his son, Bobby Bragan Jr., operated the Elmira ball club in the New York–Penn League
.

Honors

References

  1. ^ Wilonsky, Robert (January 22, 2010). "A Poignant Farewell to Bobby Bragan". Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. Retrieved January 22, 2010.
  2. ^ Reeves, Jim (January 22, 2010). "Bragan was friend to all who knew him. Fort Worth icon, who died Thursday, will be missed by baseball world and beyond". ESPNDallas.com.
  3. ^ Goldstein, Richard (January 26, 2010). "Bobby Bragan, Ex-Baseball Manager and Executive, Dies at 92". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Creamer, Robert (May 12, 1958). "The World Turned Upside Down". Sports Illustrated.
  5. ^ "Atlanta Braves". Sports Illustrated. April 18, 1966.
  6. ^ Sports Illustrated, February 1, 2010, p.18
  7. The Society for American Baseball Research
    . Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  8. ^ Baseball in Wartime.com
  9. ^ Retrosheet box score (5 October 1947): "Brooklyn Dodgers 8, New York Yankees 6"
  10. ^ Baseball (TV series), by Ken Burns
  11. ^ Bavasi, Buzzie; Jack Olsen (May 29, 1967). "They May Have Been A Headache But They Never Were A Bore". Sports Illustrated.
  12. .
  13. ^ "Bobby Bragan Managerial Record". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
  14. The Associated Press (October 8, 1968). "Montreal Hires Bragan as Coach". The New York Times
    . Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  15. ^ "Scorecard: Bragan the Couturier". Sports Illustrated. May 12, 1969.

Further reading

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Fort Worth Cats manager
1948–1952
Succeeded by
Preceded by Hollywood Stars manager
1953–1955
Succeeded by
Preceded by Spokane Indians manager
1958–1959
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Hugh Finnerty
Texas League president
1969–1975
Succeeded by