Best season was 18-10 with Braves in 1969 when they won the NL West.
Had double-figure win totals in seven major league seasons.
Was 146-140 with a 3.46 ERA in 19 seasons.
Scored 30 in an NBA game against the Baltimore Bullets in Dec. 1966.
It has been 30 years since Ron Reed threw his last major-league pitch, but that is the lens through which he’ll always view himself.
“I kind of consider myself an ex-player more than anything else,” said Reed, who pitched the first 9½ seasons of a 19-year career for the Braves. “Any conversation that people come up and start talking, once they find I played baseball, all the conversation goes straight to baseball. It’s hard to say, ‘No, I’m a businessman.”
Reed, 71, broke in with the Braves in 1966, the team’s first season in Atlanta. He was the starting and winning pitcher on the night Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record in 1974. He was an All-Star in 1968, won a World Series with Philadelphia in 1980 and pitched in another. He is one of only 14 players in major league history with 100 wins and 100 saves. He’s also one of a handful of athletes to play in both the NBA and major leagues.
Perhaps working for a company called Marketing Event Partners, an event management company that puts on charity golf tournaments, does pale a little bit. Reed has labored there, procuring sports memorabilia for charitable auctions, for nearly 20 years.
He and wife Julie, who have been married 43 years, still live in the Lilburn home near Stone Mountain that they moved into 36 years ago, when Reed was still pitching for the Braves. Reed still keeps the company of a number of former Braves. He calls Braves legend Phil Niekro “my best friend on the planet.”
“He’s one of those rare individuals that, anytime you’re around him, you’re happy,” he said. “You never have a bad time with Phil Niekro.”
He was part of the Turner Field celebration for Aaron’s record-breaking home run in April. On the historic night, Reed went six innings and left the game with a 7-4 lead, which proved to be the final score. Aaron’s home run tied the game at 3 in the bottom of the fourth.
“When Hank hit the home run, I realized later on what a special win that is, to be the winning pitcher the night Hank breaks Babe’s home run record, but you don’t realize it much at the time,” Reed said. “At least I didn’t. I was so wrapped up (in winning the game).”
Growing up in Indiana, Reed’s first love was actually basketball, not baseball. He was a third-round pick of the Detroit Pistons in 1965 out of Notre Dame and averaged 8.0 points and 6.4 rebounds in two seasons. He played against Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, among others. But he determined that baseball offered the chance at a longer career.
“As it worked out, that was a very good decision,” he said.
