1963 Milwaukee Braves season

The 1963 Milwaukee Braves season was the 11th in Milwaukee and the 93st overall season of the franchise.

1963 Milwaukee Braves
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record84–78 (.519)
League place6th
Other information
Owner(s)William Bartholomay
(chairman)
General manager(s)John McHale
Manager(s)Bobby Bragan
Local televisionWTMJ-TV
(Mike Walden, Blaine Walsh)
Local radioWEMP
(Earl Gillespie, Tom Collins)
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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 9963 0.611 — 50–31 49–32
St. Louis Cardinals 9369 0.574 6 53–28 40–41
San Francisco Giants 8874 0.543 11 50–31 38–43
Philadelphia Phillies 8775 0.537 12 45–36 42–39
Cincinnati Reds 8676 0.531 13 46–35 40–41
Milwaukee Braves 8478 0.519 15 45–36 39–42
Chicago Cubs 8280 0.506 17 43–38 39–42
Pittsburgh Pirates 7488 0.457 25 42–39 32–49
Houston Colt .45s 6696 0.407 33 44–37 22–59
New York Mets 51111 0.315 48 34–47 17–64

Record vs. opponents
1963 National League Records

Sources:
Team CHC CIN HOU LAD MIL NYM PHI PIT SF STL
Chicago —9–99–97–1112–611–79–98–1010–87–11
Cincinnati 9–9—11–78–1010–810–88–1011–78–1011–7
Houston 9–97–11—5–135–1313–58–106–128–105–13
Los Angeles 11–710–813–5—8–10–116–27–1113–59–912–6
Milwaukee 6–128–1013–510–8–1—12–610–87–1110–88–10
New York 7–118–105–132–166–12—8–104–146–125–13
Philadelphia 9–910–810–811–78–1010–8—13–58–108–10
Pittsburgh 10–87–1112–65–1311–714–45–13—5–135–13
San Francisco 8–1010–810–89–98–1012–610–813–5—8–10
St. Louis 11–77–1113–56–1210–813–510–813–510–8—

Notable transactions

Roster
1963 Milwaukee Braves
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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
CJoe Torre142501147.2931471
1BGene Oliver9529674.2501147
2BFrank Bolling142542132.244543
SSRoy McMillan10032080.250429
3BEddie Mathews158547144.2632384
LFDon Dillard6711928.235112
CFLee Maye124442120.2711134
RFHank Aaron161631201.31944130

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 Menke146518121.2341150
Del Crandall8625952.201328
Mack Jones9322850.219322
Ty Cline7217441.236010
Norm Larker6414726.177114
Tommie Aaron7213527.200115
Len Gabrielson4612026.217315
Lou Klimchock24469.19601
Hawk Taylor16292.06900
Bubba Morton15285.17904
Amado Samuel15173.17600
Bob Uecker13164.25000
Gus Bell331.33300
Woody Woodward1020.00000
Rico Carty220.00000

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 Spahn33259.22372.60102
Denny Lemaster4623711143.04190
Bob Sadowski19116.2572.6272
Lew Burdette1584653.6428

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 Hendley41169.1993.93105
Bob Shaw481597112.66105
Tony Cloninger41145.19113.78100
Hank Fischer3174.1434.9672

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 Raymond454655.4044
Ron Piché371103.4040
Dan Schneider301003.0919
Frank Funk253302.6819
Bobby Tiefenauer121121.2122
Wade Blasingame200012.006

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. "Norm Larker Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  8. "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". web.archive.org. March 4, 2006.
  22. "Chico Fernandez Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  23. "1963 All-Star Game". baseball-almanac.com.

References
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