Beloved Atlanta Braves owner becomes manager

Ted Turner is probably best known in Braves history for bringing the Atlanta baseball club to homes across the country. The charismatic media mogul is also responsible for giving his favorite baseball team the iconic brand by which it is still known today, “America’s Team.” But while one might assume that Ted Turner’s journey to becoming one of MLB’s most influential owners was one of constant enlightenment, it began quite tumultuously, as Turner never been a stranger when it came to stirring up controversy.

Shortly after creating a television station to broadcast the Braves throughout the South, he acquired them along with the Atlanta Hawks, beginning his tenure as owner in 1976. On the Braves side, his first goal was to increase audience and increase their meager attendance. with hopes of winning a championship in the next five years.

He started by signing Andy Messersmith, one of the best pitchers of the era, to a multi-year contract. With more ambitious plans to broadcast Braves baseball, Turner developed plans for “superstation” WTBS TV 17 to broadcast via satellite from Atlanta. This station, after Turner acquired WTCG to build its WTBS superstation, would later become known as TBS (Turner Broadcasting System).

However, Turner would draw the ire of MLB officials when he gave Messersmith the uniform number 17 with the nickname “Channel”, so that the back of his jersey read “Channel 17”. The controversies would continue into the offseason when Turner signed Giants outfielder Gary Matthews before his contract with the Giants expired. MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn subsequently fined Turner, stripped the Braves of their first-round selection for the following year (1978), and suspended him for one year, a decision which Turner made successfully appealed to the court to recover the selection and its employment.

This gave Turner the freedom to pull off yet another entertaining stunt. On May 11, 1977, baseball fans at Three Rivers Stadium were treated to a bizarre spectacle when the Braves visited the Pittsburgh Pirates. Turner relieved Dave Bristol as manager for ten days, put on a Braves jersey and appointed himself to the manager’s position.

This came after a sixteen-game losing streak in which the Braves had fallen to 8-21. In Bristol’s absence, Turner believed he would observe and diagnose his team’s problems. Unfortunately, Turner’s innovative idea was not approved by National League President Chub Feeney. Feeney abruptly ordered him out as manager, because anyone with a financial stake in a team cannot run it according to the rules. Turner appealed the decision but was overruled by Kuhn on the grounds that the owners did not know baseball operations well enough to manage their teams. In the words of Ted Turner:

“They must have introduced this rule yesterday. If I’m smart enough to save $11 million to buy the team, I should be smart enough to manage it.”

– Ted Turner

Turner’s short stint in management ended with a 0–1 record. The following year, the Braves hired Bobby Cox in what would be the first of his two tenures as Braves manager (not including his tenure as general manager). Although Ted Turner’s brief management period did not end well, his ownership history was a success. He brought national attention to the Braves through his network, doubling attendance in 1978, even though the Braves still ranked last of the six teams in the NL West (the Braves were in the NL West until 1994 ) and made them part of the 90s team.