Franco, however, is ejected from the game after he ran out of the bullpen to participate in a benches-clearing brawl in the fifth inning. Turner wanted the team to stay in Atlanta… Bob Hope tells Bill Shanks the story behind the threat Ted Turner once made to rename the Braves the Atlanta Eagles. SBJ: "Do you watch the team now?" Feeney also nixed Turner’s plan to pay his players bonuses for victories, and officially discouraged him from playing poker with team personnel.). This week in 1976, the maverick broadcasting entrepreneur took over as owner. The club had promised Mays they’d never trade him — and promised him a post-retirement income — but they acknowledged that they could not afford him. But he still needed the approval of Major League Baseball, which was no given. Because he’s ejected, the Mets use three other relievers in the ninth inning who combine to blow the save and allow the tying runs. In fact, it was a pretty shabby year all around, with Turner’s game as manager as the clear highlight. Turner: "A little bit, on TV, but not much. The Giants would, of course, eventually bring the Say Hey Kid back into the fold. For the rest of his career, fans will call him “Joey” at games. Atlanta icon Tom Cousins owned the National Hockey League’s Atlanta Flames from 1971 to 1980, brought the National Basketball Association’s Hawks from St. Louis in 1968, and purchased the North American Soccer League’s Atlanta Chiefs from the Atlanta Braves in 1973. Cable was a nascent industry then and, given that Turner was programming a lot of old movies, sitcom reruns, cartoons, and now sports, it filled a niche that a lot of existing network affiliate and UHF channels couldn’t provide. Turner seemed to almost immediately regret the decision. ATLANTA, Jan. 6 (AP)—Ted Turner, a millionaire communications executive and internationally known yachtsman, bought the Atlanta Braves today. “Some think him absolutely bananas,” columnist Ron Hudspeth wrote in the Atlanta Constitution. With Turner at the helm, the Braves lost 2-1 to the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium that night, their 17th straight loss. Belle will be fined and suspended for one week. The idea of buying the entire team came to Turner during a conversation at a game late in the 1975 season with club president Dan Donahue, who broke the news that the Braves were for sale. On this day in 1977, Turner was suspended by Major League Baseball for tampering with Gary Matthews during free agency.. Kuhn and Turner both testified before Congress, and Kuhn asked Braves chairman Bill Bartholomay (part of the original Atlanta ownership group, who had agreed to stay on under Turner’s stewardship) for a letter ensuring them that Turner’s intentions were pure. And because, well, Turner was just kinda impulsive. The Braves fell to 67-94 in 1975, finishing fifth in the six-team National League West. Email him at [email protected]. With traffic in Atlanta becoming unbearable in the best of circumstances, the team resorted to selling $1 general admission tickets for most games; still fans did not flock to the park as the team languished near the bottom of the standings. Turner put a uniform on and took over his team for one game. When Ted Turner entered the broadcasting business in 1970, there was no cable television as we know it. The Braves began the 1977 season in, um, let's just say less than ideal fashion. While Turner continued to thrive in his new arrangement, the Braves did not. STALLINGS AS MANAGER James E. Gaffney Surprises Sporting Circles by … He’ll toss four in all before he retires. His suiting up as manager and going into the dugout was not, as commonly reported, a matter of him thinking he could do a better job. Which wasn’t terribly hard because, as it’d be reported later and as is usually left out of accounts of Turner’s tenure as manager, he left the decisions to his coaches. He revealed in a 2018 interview with veteran journalist Ted Koppel on CBS Sunday Morning that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive illness that affects memory and other cognitive functions. Turner was likewise not doing a good job of keeping his head about him as the losses mounted. “Others consider him a genius. Atlanta managed just one hit in Sunday’s doubleheader. Turner wasn’t exactly broken-hearted about the suspension, given that he planned to captain the U.S. team in that year’s America’s Cup yacht race (Turner’s boat, Courageous, did win the Cup in September, sweeping all four races against Team Australia. It puts a man in a strange position. The 1979 Braves posted a record of 66-94, their fifth straight last-place finish. 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