1963 Milwaukee Braves | |
---|---|
League | National League |
Ballpark | Milwaukee County Stadium |
City | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Record | 84–78 (.519) |
League place | 6th |
Owners | William Bartholomay (chairman) |
General managers | John McHale |
Managers | Bobby Bragan |
Television | WTMJ-TV (Mike Walden, Blaine Walsh) |
Radio | WEMP (Earl Gillespie, Tom Collins) |
The 1963 Milwaukee Braves season was the 11th in Milwaukee and the 93rd overall season of the franchise.
The sixth-place Braves finished the season with an 84–78 (.519) record, fifteen games behind the National League and World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.[1] The season's home attendance was 773,018,[2] ninth in the ten-team National League.
On November 16, 1962, the 17-year tenure of Louis Perini as owner of the Braves ended when the Boston construction magnate sold the team to a Chicago-based group of investors led by William Bartholomay.[9][10][11] The Braves' home attendance had been declining since its 1957 high-water mark of over 2.2 million fans to 767,000 in five short years, due to a drop-off in on-field success since its last postseason appearance (the 1959 NL playoff) and a ban on "bringing your own" food and beer to County Stadium. Within two years of buying the Braves, the Bartholomay group would be negotiating with Atlanta, in a successful bid to move the club to the Southeast as early as 1965.
The change in owners overshadowed the Braves' continued turbulence in the managerial chair. On October 5, 1962, Birdie Tebbetts, in office for only 13 months, resigned to join the Cleveland Indians in the American League.[12][13] His successor, Bobby Bragan, 45, was the team's fourth manager in five seasons.[14][15][16] He had been a coach with the expansion Houston Colt .45s in 1962 and had previously been fired from managing posts with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1956–1957) and the Indians (1958).
In a 1976 memoir, longtime Dodger executive Harold Parrott would claim that the Braves' hiring of Bragan after the 1962 season was orchestrated by Branch Rickey to thwart a plan by Dodger owner Walter O'Malley to replace his manager, eventual Hall of Famer Walter Alston, with Leo Durocher. O'Malley was strongly considering firing Alston, but only if he could find a suitable "soft landing spot" for him. He chose the Braves, looking to replace Tebbetts, as Alston's ideal destination. But, according to Parrott, Rickey—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.[17] Bragan served as the Braves' last manager in Milwaukee in 1965, and their first in Atlanta in 1966, although he was fired on August 9 of that year,[18][19] after guiding the team to an overall record of 310–287 (.519) in over 3+1⁄2 seasons.
National League | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Los Angeles Dodgers | 99 | 63 | 0.611 | — | 50–31 | 49–32 |
St. Louis Cardinals | 93 | 69 | 0.574 | 6 | 53–28 | 40–41 |
San Francisco Giants | 88 | 74 | 0.543 | 11 | 50–31 | 38–43 |
Philadelphia Phillies | 87 | 75 | 0.537 | 12 | 45–36 | 42–39 |
Cincinnati Reds | 86 | 76 | 0.531 | 13 | 46–35 | 40–41 |
Milwaukee Braves | 84 | 78 | 0.519 | 15 | 45–36 | 39–42 |
Chicago Cubs | 82 | 80 | 0.506 | 17 | 43–38 | 39–42 |
Pittsburgh Pirates | 74 | 88 | 0.457 | 25 | 42–39 | 32–49 |
Houston Colt .45s | 66 | 96 | 0.407 | 33 | 44–37 | 22–59 |
New York Mets | 51 | 111 | 0.315 | 48 | 34–47 | 17–64 |
Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | CHC | CIN | HOU | LAD | MIL | NYM | PHI | PIT | SF | STL | |||||
Chicago | — | 9–9 | 9–9 | 7–11 | 12–6 | 11–7 | 9–9 | 8–10 | 10–8 | 7–11 | |||||
Cincinnati | 9–9 | — | 11–7 | 8–10 | 10–8 | 10–8 | 8–10 | 11–7 | 8–10 | 11–7 | |||||
Houston | 9–9 | 7–11 | — | 5–13 | 5–13 | 13–5 | 8–10 | 6–12 | 8–10 | 5–13 | |||||
Los Angeles | 11–7 | 10–8 | 13–5 | — | 8–10–1 | 16–2 | 7–11 | 13–5 | 9–9 | 12–6 | |||||
Milwaukee | 6–12 | 8–10 | 13–5 | 10–8–1 | — | 12–6 | 10–8 | 7–11 | 10–8 | 8–10 | |||||
New York | 7–11 | 8–10 | 5–13 | 2–16 | 6–12 | — | 8–10 | 4–14 | 6–12 | 5–13 | |||||
Philadelphia | 9–9 | 10–8 | 10–8 | 11–7 | 8–10 | 10–8 | — | 13–5 | 8–10 | 8–10 | |||||
Pittsburgh | 10–8 | 7–11 | 12–6 | 5–13 | 11–7 | 14–4 | 5–13 | — | 5–13 | 5–13 | |||||
San Francisco | 8–10 | 10–8 | 10–8 | 9–9 | 8–10 | 12–6 | 10–8 | 13–5 | — | 8–10 | |||||
St. Louis | 11–7 | 7–11 | 13–5 | 6–12 | 10–8 | 13–5 | 10–8 | 13–5 | 10–8 | — |
1963 Milwaukee Braves | |||||||||
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Roster | |||||||||
Pitchers
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Catchers
Infielders
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Outfielders
Other batters
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Manager
Coaches |
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | Joe Torre | 142 | 501 | 147 | .293 | 14 | 71 |
1B | Gene Oliver | 95 | 296 | 74 | .250 | 11 | 47 |
2B | Frank Bolling | 142 | 542 | 132 | .244 | 5 | 43 |
SS | Roy McMillan | 100 | 320 | 80 | .250 | 4 | 29 |
3B | Eddie Mathews | 158 | 547 | 144 | .263 | 23 | 84 |
LF | Don Dillard | 67 | 119 | 28 | .235 | 1 | 12 |
CF | Lee Maye | 124 | 442 | 120 | .271 | 11 | 34 |
RF | Hank Aaron | 161 | 631 | 201 | .319 | 44 | 130 |
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Denis Menke | 146 | 518 | 121 | .234 | 11 | 50 |
Del Crandall | 86 | 259 | 52 | .201 | 3 | 28 |
Mack Jones | 93 | 228 | 50 | .219 | 3 | 22 |
Ty Cline | 72 | 174 | 41 | .236 | 0 | 10 |
Norm Larker | 64 | 147 | 26 | .177 | 1 | 14 |
Tommie Aaron | 72 | 135 | 27 | .200 | 1 | 15 |
Len Gabrielson | 46 | 120 | 26 | .217 | 3 | 15 |
Lou Klimchock | 24 | 46 | 9 | .196 | 0 | 1 |
Hawk Taylor | 16 | 29 | 2 | .069 | 0 | 0 |
Bubba Morton | 15 | 28 | 5 | .179 | 0 | 4 |
Amado Samuel | 15 | 17 | 3 | .176 | 0 | 0 |
Bob Uecker | 13 | 16 | 4 | .250 | 0 | 0 |
Gus Bell | 3 | 3 | 1 | .333 | 0 | 0 |
Woody Woodward | 10 | 2 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
Rico Carty | 2 | 2 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Warren Spahn | 33 | 259.2 | 23 | 7 | 2.60 | 102 |
Denny Lemaster | 46 | 237.0 | 11 | 14 | 3.04 | 190 |
Bob Sadowski | 19 | 116.2 | 5 | 7 | 2.62 | 72 |
Lew Burdette | 15 | 84.0 | 6 | 5 | 3.64 | 28 |
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bob Hendley | 41 | 169.1 | 9 | 9 | 3.93 | 105 |
Bob Shaw | 48 | 159.0 | 7 | 11 | 2.66 | 105 |
Tony Cloninger | 41 | 145.1 | 9 | 11 | 3.78 | 100 |
Hank Fischer | 31 | 74.1 | 4 | 3 | 4.96 | 72 |
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Claude Raymond | 45 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5.40 | 44 |
Ron Piché | 37 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.40 | 40 |
Dan Schneider | 30 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.09 | 19 |
Frank Funk | 25 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2.68 | 19 |
Bobby Tiefenauer | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.21 | 22 |
Wade Blasingame | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.00 | 6 |
See also: Minor League Baseball |
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Yakima, Greenville