When owners become managers
Judge Emil Fuchs and Rogers Hornsby in 1928
Long before they move to Atlanta and even longer before moving to Milwaukee, the Braves reside in Boston.
And, as they often find themselves, the Boston Braves and their owner, Judge Emil Fuchs, are short on cash.
So, Fuchs decides to save some money 95 years ago today by sending player-manager Rogers Hornsby to the Chicago Cubs for five puzzle pieces worth of players and, most important, $200,000 in cash.
Judge Emil Fuchs
The Braves are coming off a 1928 season in which they start 11-20 with Jack Slattery as their manager before turning to Hornsby, their second baseman whom they just acquire before the season from the New York Giants.
The Braves stumble as much with Hornsby, losing 83 of 122 games and finishing a staggering 44 ½ games behind the National League pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals.
For this, Hornsby is paid – depending on the source – as much as $40,000 to be the Braves’ player-manager.
For that salary – worth $720,000 today – Fuchs decides to save some money by trading Hornsby and naming himself manager.
“I can do it a lot more cheaply,” Fuchs tells The Boston Globe.
Fuchs actually does better, albeit marginally, in 1929 as the Braves improve to 56-98 and finish, ahem, only 43 games behind the pennant-winning Chicago Cubs.
The 51-year-old Fuchs decides one year in the dugout is enough and hires Bill McKechnie to run his team in 1930 and beyond.
Fuchs remains the majors’ last manager with no pro playing experience until Atlanta owner Ted Turner decides on May 11, 1977 that he can do the job as well as his manager, Dave Bristol, after the Braves drop 16 straight games to start the season 8-21.
Ted Turner in 1977
So, Turner tells Bristol to take some time away from the field and go do some scouting.
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.
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.”
