1972 Atlanta Braves season
1972 Atlanta Braves | |
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Major League affiliations | |
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Location | |
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Results | |
Record | 70–84 (.455) |
Divisional place | 4th |
Other information | |
Owner(s) | William Bartholomay |
General manager(s) | Paul Richards, Eddie Robinson |
Manager(s) | Lum Harris, Eddie Mathews |
Local television | WSB-TV |
Local radio | WSB (Ernie Johnson, Milo Hamilton) |
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The 1972 Atlanta Braves season was the seventh season in Atlanta along with the 102nd season as a franchise overall.
Offseason[]
- December 2, 1971: Hal King was traded by the Braves to the Texas Rangers for Paul Casanova.[1]
Regular season[]
Notable transactions[]
- May 11, 1972: Steve Barber was released by the Braves.[2]
- June 6, 1972: Preston Hanna was drafted by the Braves in the 1st round (11th pick) of the 1972 Major League Baseball Draft.[3]
- June 15, 1972: Jim Nash and Gary Neibauer were traded by the Braves to the Philadelphia Phillies for Andre Thornton and Joe Hoerner.[4]
- June 29, 1972: Orlando Cepeda was traded by the Braves to the Oakland Athletics for Denny McLain.[5]
Front-office and managerial turnover[]
The 1972 Braves' 70–84 season, following on the heels of a hopeful, 82–80 mark in 1971, resulted in the in-season firings of both general manager Paul Richards, on the job since January 1967, and field manager Luman Harris, who was in the midst of his fifth season as the team's skipper. Richards and Harris were a management team that had worked in tandem for 15 years with the Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros before coming to the Braves.
Atlanta was 18–22 on June 1 when Richards was demoted from GM to special assignment scout; his replacement was another longtime associate, Eddie Robinson, 51, the director of the club's farm system.[6] Harris was fired August 6, with the Braves standing at 47–57 (.452), in fourth place in the NL West Division and 16 games behind the Cincinnati Reds. His successor was another internal hire, Eddie Mathews, 40, the team's first-base coach and perennial All-Star third baseman from its glory days in Milwaukee during the 1950s.[7]
Season standings[]
NL West | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati Reds | 95 | 59 | 0.617 | — | 42–34 | 53–25 |
Houston Astros | 84 | 69 | 0.549 | 10½ | 41–36 | 43–33 |
Los Angeles Dodgers | 85 | 70 | 0.548 | 10½ | 41–34 | 44–36 |
Atlanta Braves | 70 | 84 | 0.455 | 25 | 36–41 | 34–43 |
San Francisco Giants | 69 | 86 | 0.445 | 26½ | 34–43 | 35–43 |
San Diego Padres | 58 | 95 | 0.379 | 36½ | 26–54 | 32–41 |
Record vs. opponents[]
Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | ATL | CHC | CIN | HOU | LAD | MON | NYM | PHI | PIT | SD | SF | STL | |||||
Atlanta | — | 5–7–1 | 9–9 | 7–7 | 7–8 | 4–8 | 7–5 | 6–6 | 6–6 | 6–11 | 7–11 | 6–6 | |||||
Chicago | 7–5–1 | — | 8–4 | 3–9 | 8–4 | 10–5 | 10–8 | 10–7 | 3–12 | 9–3 | 7–5 | 10–8 | |||||
Cincinnati | 9–9 | 4–8 | — | 11–6 | 9–5 | 8–4 | 8–4 | 10–2 | 8–4 | 8–10 | 10–5 | 10–2 | |||||
Houston | 7–7 | 9–3 | 6–11 | — | 7–11 | 8–4 | 6–6 | 9–3 | 3–9 | 12–2 | 13–5 | 4–8 | |||||
Los Angeles | 8–7 | 4–8 | 5–9 | 11–7 | — | 6–6 | 7–5 | 7–5 | 7–5 | 13–5 | 9–9 | 8–4 | |||||
Montreal | 8–4 | 5–10 | 4–8 | 4–8 | 6–6 | — | 6–12 | 10–6 | 6–12 | 6–6 | 6–6 | 9–8 | |||||
New York | 5–7 | 8–10 | 4–8 | 6–6 | 5–7 | 12–6 | — | 13–5 | 8–6 | 7–5 | 8–4 | 7–9 | |||||
Philadelphia | 6-6 | 7–10 | 2–10 | 3–9 | 5–7 | 6–10 | 5–13 | — | 5–13 | 6–6 | 6–6 | 8–7 | |||||
Pittsburgh | 6–6 | 12–3 | 4–8 | 9–3 | 5–7 | 12–6 | 6–8 | 13–5 | — | 10–2 | 9–3 | 10–8 | |||||
San Diego | 11–6 | 3–9 | 10–8 | 2–12 | 5–13 | 6–6 | 5–7 | 6–6 | 2–10 | — | 4–10 | 4–8 | |||||
San Francisco | 11–7 | 5–7 | 5–10 | 5–13 | 9–9 | 6–6 | 4–8 | 6–6 | 3–9 | 10–4 | — | 5–7 | |||||
St. Louis | 6–6 | 8–10 | 2–10 | 8–4 | 4–8 | 8–9 | 9–7 | 7–8 | 8–10 | 8–4 | 7–5 | — |
Roster[]
1972 Atlanta Braves | |||||||||
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Roster | |||||||||
Pitchers
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Catchers
Infielders
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Outfielders
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Manager
Coaches
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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 | Earl Williams | 151 | 565 | 146 | .258 | 28 | 87 |
1B | Hank Aaron | 129 | 449 | 119 | .265 | 34 | 77 |
2B | Félix Millán | 125 | 498 | 128 | .257 | 1 | 38 |
SS | Marty Perez | 141 | 479 | 109 | .228 | 1 | 28 |
3B | Darrell Evans | 125 | 418 | 106 | .254 | 19 | 71 |
LF | Rico Carty | 86 | 271 | 75 | .277 | 6 | 29 |
CF | Dusty Baker | 127 | 446 | 143 | .321 | 17 | 76 |
RF | Mike Lum | 123 | 369 | 84 | .228 | 9 | 38 |
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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ralph Garr | 134 | 554 | 180 | .325 | 12 | 53 |
Oscar Brown | 76 | 164 | 37 | .226 | 3 | 16 |
Paul Casanova | 49 | 136 | 28 | .206 | 2 | 10 |
Sonny Jackson | 60 | 126 | 30 | .238 | 0 | 8 |
Larvell Blanks | 33 | 85 | 28 | .329 | 1 | 7 |
Jim Breazeale | 52 | 85 | 21 | .247 | 5 | 17 |
Orlando Cepeda | 28 | 84 | 25 | .298 | 4 | 9 |
Gil Garrido | 40 | 75 | 20 | .267 | 0 | 7 |
Bob Didier | 13 | 40 | 12 | .300 | 0 | 5 |
Rod Gilbreath | 18 | 38 | 9 | .237 | 0 | 1 |
Rowland Office | 2 | 5 | 2 | .400 | 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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phil Niekro | 38 | 282.1 | 16 | 12 | 3.06 | 164 |
Ron Reed | 31 | 213 | 11 | 15 | 3.93 | 111 |
Jimmy Freeman | 6 | 36 | 2 | 2 | 6.00 | 18 |
Other 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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ron Schueler | 37 | 144.2 | 5 | 8 | 3.67 | 96 |
Tom Kelley | 27 | 116.1 | 5 | 7 | 4.56 | 59 |
George Stone | 31 | 111 | 6 | 11 | 5.51 | 63 |
Pat Jarvis | 37 | 98.2 | 11 | 7 | 4.10 | 56 |
Jim Hardin | 26 | 79.2 | 5 | 2 | 4.41 | 25 |
Mike McQueen | 23 | 78.1 | 0 | 5 | 4.60 | 40 |
Denny McLain | 15 | 54 | 3 | 5 | 6.50 | 21 |
Jim Nash | 11 | 31.1 | 1 | 1 | 5.46 | 10 |
Larry Jaster | 5 | 12.1 | 1 | 1 | 5.11 | 6 |
Relief pitchers[]
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cecil Upshaw | 42 | 3 | 5 | 13 | 3.69 | 23 |
Joe Hoerner | 25 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6.56 | 19 |
Gary Neibauer | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.27 | 8 |
Tom House | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2.89 | 7 |
Steve Barber | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.74 | 6 |
Farm system[]
Level | Team | League | Manager |
---|---|---|---|
AAA | Richmond Braves | International League | Clyde King |
AA | Savannah Braves | Southern League | Clint Courtney |
A | Greenwood Braves | Western Carolinas League | Paul Snyder |
Rookie | Wytheville Braves | Appalachian League | Eddie Haas |
Notes[]
- ^ Paul Casanova page at Baseball Reference
- ^ Steve Barber page at Baseball Reference
- ^ Preston Hanna page at Baseball Reference
- ^ Andre Thornton page at Baseball Reference
- ^ Orlando Cepeda page at Baseball Reference
- ^ Caruso, Gary, The Braves Encylclopedia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995, page 330
- ^ Newspaper article, The Associated Press, August 7, 1972
References[]
- Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.
- 1972 Atlanta Braves season at Baseball Reference
- Atlanta Braves seasons
- 1972 Major League Baseball season
- 1972 in sports in Georgia (U.S. state)