1963 Milwaukee Braves
LeagueNational League
BallparkMilwaukee County Stadium
CityMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Record84–78 (.519)
League place6th
OwnersWilliam Bartholomay
(chairman)
General managersJohn McHale
ManagersBobby Bragan
TelevisionWTMJ-TV
(Mike Walden, Blaine Walsh)
RadioWEMP
(Earl Gillespie, Tom Collins)
← 1962
1964 →

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.

Offseason

Ownership change and managerial turnover

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 3½ seasons.

Regular season

Season standings

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

Record vs. opponents

1963 National League record

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 —


Notable transactions

Roster

1963 Milwaukee Braves
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

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

Other batters

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

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

Other pitchers

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

Relief pitchers

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

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Toronto Maple Leafs International League Bill Adair
AAA Denver Bears Pacific Coast League Jack Tighe
AA Austin Senators Texas League Jimmy Brown
A Waycross Braves Georgia–Florida League Bill Steinecke
A Yakima Bears Northwest League Buddy Hicks
A Boise Braves Pioneer League Billy Smith
A Greenville Braves Western Carolinas League Jim Fanning and Paul Snyder

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Yakima, Greenville

Notes

  1. ^ "Baseball in a nutshell". Milwaukee Sentinel. (final standings). September 30, 1963. p. 4, part 2.
  2. ^ Thisted, Red (September 30, 1963). "Spahn spices finale, 2-0". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 2, part 2.
  3. ^ "Ron Hunt Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  4. ^ "Ellis Burton Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  5. ^ "Hal Haydel Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  6. ^ "Don Taussig Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  7. ^ a b "Norm Larker Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  8. ^ a b "Lou Klimchock Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  9. ^ Thisted, Red (November 17, 1962). "McHale, six others buy Braves for $5.5 million". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 1.
  10. ^ Wolf, Bob (November 17, 1962). "Midwestern group purchases Braves". Milwaukee Journal. p. 1, part 1.
  11. ^ "Perini sells Braves to Milwaukee group". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. November 17, 1962. p. 11.
  12. ^ Larson, Lloyd (October 6, 1962). "Tebbetts quits Braves!". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 1.
  13. ^ Wolf, Bob (October 6, 1962). "Braves suddenly have some room at the top in wake of Tebbetts' abrupt disappearing act". Milwaukee Journal. p. 14.
  14. ^ Thisted, Red (October 18, 1963). "Bragan new Braves' manager". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 2, part 2.
  15. ^ Walfoort, Cleon (October 18, 1963). "Bragan learned along way in baseball". Milwaukee Journal. p. 17, part 2.
  16. ^ "Bragan will pilot Braves". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. October 18, 1962. p. 16.
  17. ^ Parrott, Harold (1976). The Lords of Baseball. Praeger Books. pp. 38–39. ISBN 0275225704.
  18. ^ "Hitchcock plans changes". Milwaukee Sentinel. UPI. August 10, 1966. p. 2, part 2.
  19. ^ Wolf, Bob (August 10, 1966). "'Impulsive' best describes brash Bobby; orange drink costs him $100 and job". Milwaukee Journal. p. 2, part 21.
  20. ^ "This Day In Baseball - Where Your Memories Live". This Day In Baseball.
  21. ^ "Duke Snider | The BASEBALL Page". March 4, 2006. Archived from the original on March 4, 2006.
  22. ^ a b "Chico Fernandez Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  23. ^ "1963 All-Star Game". baseball-almanac.com.

References

Categories