Q: When and against which team did the Atlanta Braves play with owner Ted Turner serving as manager? Did the Braves win that game? Which Braves manager has the best won-lost percentage?
—Lance DeLoach, Thomaston
A: Part of Spring Street recently was named for Ted Turner, but the honor wasn't because of his managerial abilities.
That lasted all of one game in 1977.
The Braves have had a lot of success since 1991, but there are plenty of folks who remember the team’s bleak days of the late 1970s, when 90-loss seasons were as constant as the summer heat and Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was nearly deserted for games.
Of course, there were benefits.
You could buy a cheap ticket and move to almost any seat.
The Atlanta Braves were plummeting fast by May 11. They had lost 16 consecutive games when Turner, who had bought the Braves the previous year, headed to the dugout.
This was another of Turner’s many publicity stunts in his first few years as owner.
“Our attitude was, anything goes that’s legal and acceptable,” longtime Atlanta PR exec Bob Hope, who worked for the Braves for 14 years, including throughout the 1970s, told me. “We didn’t have a great team and couldn’t compete financially, so we’d always say we have to keep the smoke going after the fire goes out.”
So on May 11, Turner sent manager Dave Bristol away and gave himself a uniform for the game at Pittsburgh that day.
The move didn’t work. The Pirates won 2-1 and the losing streak grew to 17 games.
Turner had planned to continue managing, but the league stopped it the next day. Coach Vern Benson took Turner’s place on May 12 and the Braves won, snapping the streak.
Turner ended his managerial career 0-1, and coincidentally, Benson finished his at 1-0.
“Everything Ted would do was calculated,” Hope said. “He knew he couldn’t spend the summer managing the team, but if he could do it for a one game, that would get a lot of attention. He liked to shake things up.”
Bristol returned to complete the season, but was replaced in 1978 by Bobby Cox, who became one of the most successful managers in franchise history (.557 winning percentage in 25 years) in two stints with the Braves.
Cox trails several managers, including Jim Hart, who had an 83-45 record in 1889 (.648 percentage), Frank Selee (.607 from 1890-1901) and Fred Haney (.596 from 1956-59, including the 1957 World Series title).
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