Bobby Bragan | |
---|---|
Shortstop / Catcher / Manager | |
Born: Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. | October 30, 1917|
Died: January 21, 2010 Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. | (aged 92)|
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
MLB debut | |
April 16, 1940, for the Philadelphia Phillies | |
Last MLB appearance | |
June 27, 1948, for the Brooklyn Dodgers | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .240 |
Home runs | 15 |
Runs batted in | 172 |
Managerial record | 443–478 |
Winning % | .481 |
Stats at Baseball Reference | |
Managerial record at Baseball Reference | |
Teams | |
As player
As manager As coach |
Robert Randall Bragan (October 30, 1917 – January 21, 2010) was an American shortstop, catcher, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball and an influential minor league executive. His professional baseball career encompassed 73 years, from his first season as a player in the Class D Alabama–Florida League in 1937, to 2009, the last full year of his life, when he was still listed as a consultant to the Texas Rangers' organization.
Bragan played eight seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s, before going on to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves in the late 1950s and 1960s. He also managed in the Cuban League, leading Almendares to two championships.
On August 16, 2005, Bragan donned a uniform to manage the independent Central League Fort Worth Cats for one game, making him—at 87 years, nine months, and 16 days old—the oldest manager in professional baseball annals, besting by one week Connie Mack, the manager and part-owner of the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 through 1950. Always known as an innovator with a sense of humor—and an umpire-baiter—Bragan was ejected in the third inning of his "comeback", thus also becoming the oldest person in any capacity to be ejected from a professional baseball game.
Bragan died on January 21, 2010, of a heart attack at his home in Fort Worth.[1][2][3]