1961 Milwaukee Braves season

1961 Milwaukee Braves
1961 Milwaukee Braves
League	National League
Ballpark	Milwaukee County Stadium
City	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Record	83–71 (.539)
League place	4th
Owners	Louis R. Perini
General managers	John McHale
Managers	Chuck Dressen 71–58 (.550); Birdie Tebbetts 12–13 (.480)
Radio	WEMP; (Earl Gillespie, Blaine Walsh)
	← 1960 1962 →

The 1961 Milwaukee Braves season was the ninth in Milwaukee and the 91st overall season of the franchise.

The fourth-place Braves finished the season with an 83–71 (.539) record, ten games behind the National League champion Cincinnati Reds.^[1]^[2] The home attendance at County Stadium was 1,101,411,^[2] fifth in the eight-team National League.^[3] It was the Braves' lowest attendance to date in Milwaukee, and was the last season surpassing one million fans.

Offseason

October 14, 1960: Red Schoendienst was released by the Braves.^[4]
October 14, 1960: Stan Lopata was released by the Braves.^[5]
December 3, 1960: Billy Martin was purchased by the Braves from the Cincinnati Reds.^[6]
December 14, 1960: Joe Azcue was purchased by the Braves from the Cincinnati Reds.^[7]
Prior to 1961 season (exact date unknown)
- Jim Campbell was traded by the Braves to the Houston Colt .45s for Morrie Martin.^[8]
- Clay Carroll was signed by the Braves as an amateur free agent.^[9]

Regular season

On April 28, Warren Spahn threw a no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants.

On June 8, against the Cincinnati Reds, four consecutive Braves batters hit home runs off pitchers Jim Maloney (two) and Marshall Bridges (two more) in the seventh inning. The batters who accomplished this feat were Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock, and Frank Thomas. Oddly, both Adcock and Thomas were former players for the Reds.

Season standings

v
t
e
National League
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Cincinnati Reds	93	61	.604	—	47‍–‍30	46‍–‍31
Los Angeles Dodgers	89	65	.578	4	45‍–‍32	44‍–‍33
San Francisco Giants	85	69	.552	8	45‍–‍32	40‍–‍37
Milwaukee Braves	83	71	.539	10	45‍–‍32	38‍–‍39
St. Louis Cardinals	80	74	.519	13	48‍–‍29	32‍–‍45
Pittsburgh Pirates	75	79	.487	18	38‍–‍39	37‍–‍40
Chicago Cubs	64	90	.416	29	40‍–‍37	24‍–‍53
Philadelphia Phillies	47	107	.305	46	22‍–‍55	25‍–‍52

Record vs. opponents

1961 National League record v t e Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team	CHC	CIN	LAD	MIL	PHI	PIT	SF	STL
Chicago	—	12–10	7–15	9–13–1	13–9	11–11	5–17	7–15–1
Cincinnati	10–12	—	12–10	15–7	19–3	11–11	12–10	14–8
Los Angeles	15–7	10–12	—	12–10	17–5	13–9	10–12	12–10
Milwaukee	13–9–1	7–15	10–12	—	16–6	12–10	11–11	14–8
Philadelphia	9–13	3–19	5–17	6–16	—	7–15	8–14–1	9–13
Pittsburgh	11–11	11–11	9–13	10–12	15–7	—	10–12	9–13
San Francisco	17–5	10–12	12–10	11–11	14–8–1	12–10	—	9–13
St. Louis	15–7–1	8–14	10–12	8–14	13–9	13–9	13–9	—

Notable transactions

April 1961: Morrie Martin was released by the Braves.^[8]
May 9, 1961: Mel Roach was traded by the Braves to the Chicago Cubs for Frank Thomas.^[10]
May 10, 1961: Wes Covington was selected off waivers from the Braves by the Chicago White Sox.^[11]
June 1, 1961: Billy Martin was traded by the Braves to the Minnesota Twins for Billy Consolo.^[6]

Managerial turnover

Chuck Dressen, 66, was fired on September 2, less than a month shy of finishing his second year as the Braves' manager.^[12]^[13] The club was in third place at 71–58 (.550), seven games behind the league-leading Cincinnati Reds, when the change was announced after a Saturday home win over the Dodgers.^[14]^[15] The Braves were 159–124 (.562) under Dressen's command.

His successor was executive vice president Birdie Tebbetts, 48, a former Cincinnati manager, who came down from the Milwaukee front office to take the reins; the Braves went 12–13 (.480) under him to finish the season. Tebbetts was signed through the 1963 season but he would spend only 1962 as the Braves' skipper before leaving to become manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1963. Tebbetts retained two of Dressen's coaches, Andy Pafko and Whit Wyatt, while George Myatt departed for the American League Detroit Tigers.^[16]

Roster

1961 Milwaukee Braves

Roster

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

30 Neil Chrisley
3 Billy Martin

Manager

7 Chuck Dressen
4 Birdie Tebbetts

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Joe Torre	113	406	113	.278	10	42
1B	Joe Adcock	152	562	160	.285	35	108
2B	Frank Bolling	148	585	153	.262	15	56
SS	Roy McMillan	154	505	111	.220	7	48
3B	Eddie Mathews	152	572	175	.306	32	91
LF	Frank Thomas	124	423	120	.284	25	67
CF	Hank Aaron	155	603	197	.327	34	120
RF	Lee Maye	110	373	101	.271	14	41

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Gino Cimoli	37	117	23	.197	3	4
Mack Jones	28	104	24	.231	0	12
Al Spangler	68	97	26	.268	0	6
Félix Mantilla	45	93	20	.215	1	5
Charley Lau	28	82	17	.207	0	5
John DeMerit	32	74	12	.162	2	5
Sammy White	21	63	14	.222	0	5
Bob Boyd	36	41	10	.244	0	3
Mel Roach	13	36	6	.167	1	6
Del Crandall	15	30	6	.200	0	1
Hawk Taylor	20	26	5	.192	1	1
Wes Covington	9	21	4	.190	0	0
Johnny Logan	18	19	2	.105	0	1
Neil Chrisley	10	9	2	.222	0	0
Billy Martin	6	6	0	.000	0	0
Phil Roof	1	0	0	----	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Lew Burdette	40	272.1	18	11	4.00	92
Warren Spahn	38	262.2	21	13	3.02	115
Bob Buhl	32	188.1	9	10	4.11	77
Bob Hendley	19	97.0	5	7	3.90	44

Other pitchers