Word: bragan
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...Braves have a new home, a new first baseman, and a new lease on life. Just being in Atlanta is bound to be a hypo for Bobby Bragan's team, and with Lee Thomas coming from Boston to take over first base, several problems are solved. Joe Torre can now concentrate on catching, and Gene Oliver can be platooned much more effectively...
Nobody ever accused Milwaukee Manager Bobby Bragan of lacking imagination. At one time or another, to protest an umpire's call, he has 1) fainted on the field, 2) staged a sitdown strike in the middle of the diamond, and 3) announced, then called back seven successive pinch hitters before finally allowing the game to proceed. One day last month, to back up his claim that the umps were permitting flagrant use of the illegal spitball, he deliberately ordered Braves pitchers to moisten the ball, kept careful count of how many times (75) they got by with...
...players felt the excitement most of all. "I've never seen this team so spirited," said Manager Bragan. How else to explain the fact that Catcher Gene Oliver, who hit only 13 home runs all last year, clouted four in 24 hours to win two games? Or the clutch pinch-hitting of Don Dillard (average: .200), who drove in the winning run twice in a week in the last inning? Or the fantastic spurt of Third Baseman Eddie Mathews, who raised his average 26 points (to .259) and accounted for 25 runs in nine games...
...success, no explanation was needed. Rightfielder Henry Aaron was batting .332 last week, with 29 doubles, 27 homers and 63 RBIs. With a lifetime batting average of .320 for eleven big-league seasons, he is the best hitter in baseball. "When Henry looks out at that pitcher," says Bobby Bragan, "it's like an animal stalking its prey." Says Los Angeles' Sandy Koufax, baseball's No. 1 pitcher, with 21 victories already in the bank: "It's no wonder his name begins with a double...
Aaron naturally gets a handsome salary for doing what comes naturally $67,500 a year, which seems only reasonable by Mickey Mantle standards. If all goes according to Manager Bragan's plan, Milwaukee's fair-weather fans will contribute another $8,000 to that when the Braves get into the World Series and they get into the ballpark. There is some opinion that they shouldn't be allowed. "If I owned the Milwaukee ball club," says San Francisco Giants Owner Horace Stoneham, "I wouldn't sell one World Series ticket in Milwaukee...