Turning to a new manager … sort of
Ted Turner running the Braves on May 11, 1977 (USA Today photo)
After watching the Braves drop 16 straight games to start the 1977 season at 8-21, Atlanta owner Ted Turner decides 47 years ago today that he can manage his team as well as his real-life manager, Dave Bristol.
And, just like that, Turner picks out jersey No. 27, finds the dugout, sticks a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth and then sits back as the Braves lose again — this time 2-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates before a Wednesday night crowd of 6,816 at Three Rivers Stadium.
Turner says he intends to manage the team for 10 days before Bristol returns from what Turner calls a scouting trip.
Ted Turner before his one and only game as Braves manager
Turns out that his managerial tenure lasts all of one game as National League president Chub Feeney quickly tells the 38-year-old Turner to end Bristol’s early season scouting trip, reinstall him as manager and then go watch games from any place in the ballpark so long as that place is not the dugout.
“In the dugout,” Turner says of his one and only game there, “I really didn’t do a whole lot other than crack some jokes and yell encouragement. I didn’t know the signs, so I had to sit next to one of the other coaches and when I thought we should steal or bunt, I’d have to tell them so he could relay the signal.”
Alas for Turner, the Braves did not even attempt to steal a base during the game, although they did have two sacrifice bunts – one by his No. 2 hitter, second baseman Rod Gilbreath, the other by his starting pitcher, Phil Niekro.
Under Turner’s alleged decision making, the Braves use two pinch-hitters – Darrel Chaney, who doubles with two outs in the top of the ninth inning against Pirates starter John Candelaria, and Rowland Office, who then strikes out against closer Goose Gossage to end the game.
As for Niekro, the future Hall of Famer allows just two runs on six hits and five walks through eight innings – pitching well enough to keep Turner from replacing him and leaving the neophyte manager to lament, “I never even got a chance to walk out to the mound.”