That Time Satchel Paige Was an Atlanta Braves Pitching Coach (1969)

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1968, 1969, Atlanta Braves, Satchel Paige

The great Satchel Paige. The ageless stalworth of the Negro Leagues. We’re all familiar with Satchel Paige and his greatness, and many of us can even quote a classic Satchel quote or two. But, what you might not have known, is that Satchel Paige was an Atlanta Braves pitching coach once. Well, sort of.

In 1968, Satchel Paige was just 158 days shy of the five years’ playing time needed to qualify for Major League pension. Satchel reached out to 29 teams to give him just one more chance and 29 teams turned the ageless wonder down.

It’s also important to note that Satchel was shy of the major league pension because of the bogus color barrier. He didn’t get called up to the majors, from the Negro Leagues where he played 17 years, until 1949. And in 1949, the man was already 42 years old.

So, when 1968 came around and 62 year old Satchel Paige realizes that he’s just shy of a nice major league pension, he just figured he’d make some calls and pick up a baseball again.

But, when every other team was quick to turn down Satchel Paige, Atlanta Braves president Bill Bartholomay saw an opportunity. In 1968, the Braves had been in Atlanta for just three years, and Bartholomay knew that he could kill two birds with one stone. Bill could do the right thing for the legendary Satchel Paige, and he could sell a few tickets along the way in the newest baseball city.

In order to make Satchel Paige eligible to receive his pension, Bartholomay signed Paige to a contract running through the 1969 season as the Atlanta Braves pitching coach. Satchel would actually suit up and pitch a couple of innings during two exhibition games early in the spring 1969, but he’d spend the rest of the season “coaching” from his living room in Kansas City, Missouri.

After reaching his 158 required days, Paige left the Atlanta Braves organization and less than three years later, began drawing that Major League pension. He received $250 a month.

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The Atlanta Braves lose the first ever League Championship game to the Mets 9-5 (October 4, 1969)

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1969, Atlanta Braves, League Championship Series, New York Mets, October 4

In the first ever League Championship Series playoff game on October 4, 1969, the Mets beat the Braves 9-5 in Atlanta.

The League Championship Series  is the official name for the semifinal round of postseason play in Major League Baseball which has been conducted since 1969. In 1981, and since 1995, the two annual series have matched up the winners of the Division Series, and the winners advance to meet in the World Series

The League Championship Series was promulgated in 1969, when both the National League and the American League increased in size from ten teams to twelve with the addition, via expansion, of the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres to the former and the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers of the NL) to the latter. As a result, both leagues formed Eastern and Western Divisions, the first-place teams from which faced off in the LCS.

Bobby Bonds joins Hank Aaron in the elite 30/30 club (September 13, 1969)

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1963, 1969, Bobby Bonds, Hank Aaron, Ken Williams, Milwaukee Braves, September 13, Willie Mays

Hank Aaron

In a 6-4 defeat to the Reds on September 13, 1969, Bobby Bonds becomes the fourth player in major league history to steal at least 30 bases and hit at least thirty home runs in the same season.

The other members of the 30/30 club include Ken Williams (1922-Browns), Willie Mays (1956 & 1957-Giants) and Hank Aaron (1963 – Milwaukee Braves).

The man from Haina – Felipe Alou (1964 – 1969)

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1935, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, All Star, Atlanta Braves, Billy Hoeft, Bob Hendley, Bob Shaw, Del Crandall, Ed Bailey, Ernie Bowman, Felipe Alou, Jesus Alou, Jim Nash, Matty Alou, May 12, Milwaukee Braves

Felipe Alou

Felipe Alou played for the Atlanta Braves from 1964 to 1969. Born in Haina, Dominican Republic on May 12, 1935, he batted and threw right handed. He was both an outfielder and first baseman.

Felipe was considered an amazing team player. He was devoted to the game and to what it took to help the Braves in any way he could. He was a very powerful athlete. He could play almost anywhere and the Braves moved him around a lot. He also could hit from any where in the batting order, it didn’t matter to him. He hit for average and for power.

He made his major league debut in 1958 and was an All-Star in 1962, when he batted .316 with 25 home runs and 98 RBI. Felipe was joined by his brothers, Matty in 1960, and Jesús in 1963, who, on September 15 of that year became the first, and as of today only, all-brother outfield.

He was traded to the Milwaukee Braves before the 1964 season with Ed Bailey, Billy Hoeft and a player to be named later (Ernie Bowman) for Del Crandall, Bob Hendley and Bob Shaw. Two years later he enjoyed his best season, when he batted .327 with 31 home runs and led the league in runs (122), hits (218), at bats (666) and total bases (355); he finished second in the batting race to his brother Matty. He also had a good year in 1968, batting .317 and leading the league in hits (210) and at bats (662); he made the All-Star team both years.

After the 1969 season, the Braves traded him to the Athletics for Jim Nash. In April 1971, he was traded by the Athletics to the Yankees for Rob Gardner and Ron Klimkowski.

Like picking horses (1969)

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1969, Billy Southworth, Clint Conatser, Leo Durocher

Billy Southworth

Billy Southworth was considered a “genius on the diamond”.

He lived a long life. At age 76, in 1969, he died in Columbus, Ohio. He had emphysema. What is said at the funeral is always a tribute. One of Billy’s former players on the 1948 Braves was there. He was Clint Conatser. Here is his tribute.

“He just had a gut feeling about the right thing to do in a situation,” Conatser recalled. “The moves he would make would work for him — all the time, not occasionally. Leo Durocher was the same way. It’s like some guys can pick horses out of nowhere. Southworth was a genius like that on the diamond.”

Harvard, as in Harvard Nebraska (1893)

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1893, 1913, 1929, 1969, 2008, Billy Southworth, Boston Braves, Hall of Fame

Billy Southworth

Billy Southworth was born William Harrison Southworth. The year was 1893 and that was in Harvard, Nebraska. He died in 1969. He saw a lot of baseball for sure. He played the game and managed. He was a right fielder and center fielder. He was a player  in 1913, 1915 and from 1918 to 1929. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was a player for the Boston Braves from 1921 to 1923.

Southworth turned to managing in 1929. He then took a break until 1940 and kept going until 1951. He managed for the Boston Braves from 1946 to 1949 and then again from 1950 to 1951.

He was finally inducted into the hall of fame in 2008.

Unlike me, he decided to play baseball against his father’s wishes. He didn’t do too bad. He batted .300 three times in his career.

Ken Holtzman no-hits the Braves 3-0 (August 19, 1969)

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1969, Atlanta Braves, August 19, Chicago Cubs, Ken Holtzman, No Hitter, Phil Niekro, Ron Santo, Wrigley Field

Phil Niekro

At Wrigley Field on August 19, 1969, Ken Holtzman no-hits the Braves, 3-0. Now that is not a good day.

The kicker was that Ron Santo‘s first inning homer off Phil Niekro provided all of the Cubs‘ runs. It is the fifth no-hitter of the season, and the first since 1923 (Sad Sam Jones) in which no strikeouts are recorded.

It is hard to imagine a no hitter with no strike outs. It isn’t too easy to do that as a pitcher I think. But, Ken Hotzman did it against us.

Ball Four (1978)

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1969, 1970, 1978, Atlanta Braves, Ball Four, Houston Astros, Jim Bouton, Seattle Pilots

Ball Four Book Cover

Jim Bouton was briefly an Atlanta Brave. He played for us in 1978 for one year. He was born on March 8, 1939 in Newark, New Jersey. He was a right handed pitcher who also batted right.

Jim was better known as an author than as a pitcher though. He certainly wasn’t well known for playing with the Braves. He wrote the controversial Ball Four in 1970.

Bouton chronicled his 1969 season with a frank, insider’s look at a professional sports team, eventually naming his book Ball Four. The backdrop for the book was the Seattle Pilots’ one and only operating season, though Bouton was traded to the Houston Astros late in the season. Unlike previous sports works, Ball Four named names and described a side of baseball that was previously unseen. Bouton did this by writing about the way a professional baseball team actually interacts; not only the heroic game-winning home runs, but also the petty jealousies, the obscene jokes, the drunken tomcatting of the players, and the routine drug use, including by Bouton himself.

Upon its publication, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn called Ball Four “detrimental to baseball,” and tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying that the book was completely fictional. Bouton, however, refused to deny any of Ball Four’s revelations. Many of Bouton’s teammates never forgave him for publicly airing what he had learned in private about their flaws and foibles. The book made Bouton unpopular with many players, coaches, and officials on other teams as well, as they felt he had betrayed the long-standing rule: “What you see here, what you say here, what you do here, let it stay here.”

A kiss gets Clete Boyer a hit (August 31, 1969)

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1969, August 31, Clete Boyer, Slump

Clete Boyer

Morganna, a well-endowed fan dressed in a mini dress, jumps onto the Atlanta Stadium field on August 31, 1969 and kisses the batter Clete Boyer on the cheek.

The Braves’ third baseman then promptly ends a 1-for-17 slump with a RBI single and goes on an 8-for-15 tear.