# 1976 Atlanta Braves season

The 1976 Atlanta Braves season was the 11th season in Atlanta along with the franchise's 106th consecutive year of existence in American professional baseball. The Braves finished in sixth and last place in the National League West Division, compiling a 70–92 (.432) win–loss record; although the 70 victories represented a three-game improvement over the fifth-place 1975 edition, the last-place finish would be the first of four straight years in the NL West divisional basement. The club drew 818,179 fans to Atlanta Stadium, a 53 percent increase over its dismal 1975 attendance of less than 535,000 fans.

## Offseason

* November 17, 1975: Dusty Baker and Ed Goodson were traded by the Braves to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Jerry Royster, Lee Lacy, Tom Paciorek, and Jimmy Wynn.
* December 12, 1975: Larvell Blanks and Ralph Garr were traded by the Braves to the Chicago White Sox for Ken Henderson, Ozzie Osborn and Dick Ruthven.

## Ownership and management: the Ted Turner era begins

On January 7, 1976, the modern era of the Braves franchise effectively began when Atlanta broadcast executive and world-class yachtsman Ted Turner bought 100 percent of the team from the Atlanta LaSalle Corp. for $10 million. The previous ownership group, the LaSalle Corp., had owned the team since October 1962 and spearheaded its move from Milwaukee to Atlanta in time for the 1966 season; its chairman, William Bartholomay, retained his association with the Turner-owned Braves as chairman of the board. Early reports speculated that Turner bought the Braves to provide local programming content for his television station, then WTCG-TV, Channel 17. But Turner would become a highly successful baseball executive and turn WTCG into the WTBS Superstation and a cornerstone of the Turner Broadcasting System.
Turner wasted no time in making headlines and major changes in the Braves' front office. On April 11, 1976, he signed one of baseball's first free agents, starting pitcher Andy Messersmith, who had successfully sued baseball and brought about the end of the reserve clause, for a contract valued at more than $1 million. Messersmith, a 19-game-winner for the 1975 Dodgers, was initially issued a uniform bearing the numeral 17 but the word "Channel" instead of his nameplate above it, promoting Turner's WTCG outlet. (The Commissioner immediately ordered Turner to remove "channel," due to the rule against putting ads on baseball uniforms.) He made the NL All-Star team that season, his most successful as a Brave, and was one of the few bright spots in a 92-loss, last-place season. The team's field manager, Dave Bristol, hired by the previous owners three months before the sale, survived the 1976 season—but he would be involved in a bizarre firing-and-rehiring by Turner during the 1977 campaign.
Turner also employed three general_managers in 1976. In May, he replaced veteran baseball man Eddie Robinson, inherited from the previous regime and in office for almost four full years, with former Boston Red Sox executive John Alevizos. But Alevizos lasted only four months before he was removed in favor of Braves' farm system director Bill Lucas, who became the first African-American general manager in Major League history on September 17. Lucas, the former brother-in-law of Braves' legend Henry Aaron, would begin the rebuilding of the franchise into a competitor, but he died suddenly at age 43 from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1979, the year before the Braves finally cracked the .500 mark.
Led by stars such as Dale Murphy and Bob Horner, the early 1980s Braves featured a succession of successful teams, and won the 1982 National League West Division championship. But they declined precipitously in 1985, and after some very lean years in the late 1980s, Turner, working with a talented team of senior executives such as Bobby Cox, Stan Kasten and John Schuerholz, would turn the Braves into a perennial contender during the 1990s, and a nationally popular franchise on WTBS, where they styled themselves as "America's Team." They won consecutive division titles from 1991–1993 and 1995–1996, NL pennants in 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1996, and the 1995 World Series, before Turner sold the team and all of his Turner Broadcasting holdings to Time Warner in 1996.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteNL West :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| Cincinnati Reds | 102 | 60 | .630 | — | 49‍–‍32 | 53‍–‍28 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 92 | 70 | .568 | 10 | 49‍–‍32 | 43‍–‍38 |
| Houston Astros | 80 | 82 | .494 | 22 | 46‍–‍36 | 34‍–‍46 |
| San Francisco Giants | 74 | 88 | .457 | 28 | 40‍–‍41 | 34‍–‍47 |
| San Diego Padres | 73 | 89 | .451 | 29 | 42‍–‍38 | 31‍–‍51 |
| Atlanta Braves | 70 | 92 | .432 | 32 | 34‍–‍47 | 36‍–‍45 |

### Record vs. opponents

1976 National League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | ATL | CHC | CIN | HOU | LAD | MON | NYM | PHI | PIT | SD | SF | STL |
| Atlanta | — | 6–6 | 6–12 | 7–11 | 8–10 | 8–4 | 4–8 | 5–7 | 3–9 | 10–8 | 9–9 | 4–8 |
| Chicago | 6–6 | — | 3–9 | 5–7 | 3–9 | 11–7 | 5–13 | 8–10 | 8–10 | 6–6 | 8–4 | 12–6 |
| Cincinnati | 12–6 | 9–3 | — | 12–6 | 13–5 | 9–3 | 6–6 | 5–7 | 8–4 | 13–5 | 9–9 | 6–6 |
| Houston | 11–7 | 7–5 | 6–12 | — | 5–13 | 10–2 | 6–6 | 4–8 | 2–10 | 10–8 | 10–8 | 9–3 |
| Los Angeles | 10–8 | 9–3 | 5–13 | 13–5 | — | 10–2 | 7–5 | 5–7 | 9–3 | 6–12 | 8–10 | 10–2 |
| Montreal | 4–8 | 7–11 | 3–9 | 2–10 | 2–10 | — | 8–10 | 3–15 | 8–10 | 4–8 | 7–5 | 7–11 |
| New York | 8–4 | 13–5 | 6–6 | 6–6 | 5–7 | 10–8 | — | 5–13 | 10–8 | 7–5 | 7–5 | 9–9 |
| Philadelphia | 7-5 | 10–8 | 7–5 | 8–4 | 7–5 | 15–3 | 13–5 | — | 8–10 | 8–4 | 6–6 | 12–6 |
| Pittsburgh | 9–3 | 10–8 | 4–8 | 10–2 | 3–9 | 10–8 | 8–10 | 10–8 | — | 7–5 | 9–3 | 12–6 |
| San Diego | 8–10 | 6–6 | 5–13 | 8–10 | 12–6 | 8–4 | 5–7 | 4–8 | 5–7 | — | 8–10 | 4–8 |
| San Francisco | 9–9 | 4–8 | 9–9 | 8–10 | 10–8 | 5–7 | 5–7 | 6–6 | 3–9 | 10–8 | — | 5–7 |
| St. Louis | 8–4 | 6–12 | 6–6 | 3–9 | 2–10 | 11–7 | 9–9 | 6–12 | 6–12 | 8–4 | 7–5 | — |

### Notable transactions

* June 8, 1976: 1976 Major League Baseball draft
** Ricky Jones was drafted by the Braves in the 18th round, but did not sign.
** John Butcher was drafted by the Braves in the 3rd round of the secondary phase, but did not sign.
* June 13, 1976: Darrell Evans and Marty Perez were traded by the Braves to the San Francisco Giants for Willie Montañez, Craig Robinson, Mike Eden, and Jake Brown.
* June 15, 1976: Blue Moon Odom was traded by the Braves to the Chicago White Sox for Pete Varney.
* June 23, 1976: Elías Sosa and Lee Lacy were traded by the Braves to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Mike Marshall.

### Roster
## 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 | Vic Correll | 65 | 200 | 45 | .225 | 5 | 16 |
| 1B | Willie Montañez | 103 | 420 | 135 | .321 | 9 | 64 |
| 2B | Rod Gilbreath | 116 | 383 | 96 | .251 | 1 | 32 |
| SS | Darrel Chaney | 153 | 496 | 125 | .252 | 1 | 50 |
| 3B | Jerry Royster | 149 | 533 | 132 | .248 | 5 | 45 |
| LF | Jimmy Wynn | 148 | 449 | 93 | .207 | 17 | 66 |
| CF | Rowland Office | 99 | 359 | 101 | .281 | 4 | 34 |
| RF | Ken Henderson | 133 | 435 | 114 | .262 | 13 | 61 |

#### 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 |
| Tom Paciorek | 111 | 324 | 94 | .290 | 4 | 36 |
| Dave May | 105 | 214 | 46 | .215 | 3 | 23 |
| Earl Williams | 61 | 184 | 39 | .212 | 9 | 26 |
| Lee Lacy | 50 | 180 | 49 | .272 | 3 | 20 |
| Biff Pocoroba | 54 | 174 | 42 | .241 | 0 | 14 |
| Darrell Evans | 44 | 139 | 24 | .173 | 1 | 10 |
| Cito Gaston | 69 | 134 | 39 | .291 | 4 | 25 |
| Marty Perez | 31 | 96 | 24 | .250 | 1 | 6 |
| Dale Murphy | 19 | 65 | 17 | .262 | 0 | 9 |
| Rob Belloir | 30 | 60 | 12 | .200 | 0 | 4 |
| Brian Asselstine | 11 | 33 | 7 | .212 | 1 | 3 |
| Junior Moore | 20 | 26 | 7 | .269 | 0 | 2 |
| Craig Robinson | 15 | 17 | 4 | .235 | 0 | 3 |
| Pete Varney | 5 | 10 | 1 | .100 | 0 | 0 |
| Mike Eden | 5 | 8 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 1 |
| Terry Crowley | 7 | 6 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 1 |
| Pat Rockett | 4 | 5 | 1 | .200 | 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 | 270.2 | 17 | 11 | 3.29 | 173 |
| Dick Ruthven | 36 | 240.1 | 14 | 17 | 4.19 | 142 |
| Andy Messersmith | 29 | 207.1 | 11 | 11 | 3.04 | 135 |
| Carl Morton | 26 | 140.1 | 4 | 9 | 4.17 | 42 |
| Frank LaCorte | 19 | 105.1 | 3 | 12 | 4.70 | 79 |
| Jamie Easterly | 4 | 22.0 | 1 | 1 | 4.91 | 11 |
| Al Autry | 1 | 5.0 | 1 | 0 | 5.40 | 3 |

#### 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 |
| Roger Moret | 27 | 77.1 | 3 | 5 | 5.00 | 30 |
| Rick Camp | 5 | 11.1 | 0 | 1 | 6.35 | 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 |
| Adrian Devine | 48 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 3.21 | 48 |
| Bruce Dal Canton | 42 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3.56 | 36 |
| Pablo Torrealba | 36 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3.57 | 33 |
| Max León | 30 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2.75 | 16 |
| Mike Beard | 30 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4.28 | 8 |
| Mike Marshall | 24 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3.19 | 17 |
| Elías Sosa | 21 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5.35 | 32 |
| Buzz Capra | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8.68 | 4 |
| Preston Hanna | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.50 | 3 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Richmond Braves | International League | Jack McKeon |
| AA | Savannah Braves | Southern League | Tommie Aaron |
| A | Greenwood Braves | Western Carolinas League | Gene Hassell |
| Rookie | Kingsport Braves | Appalachian League | Bobby Dews |
| Rookie | GCL Braves | Gulf Coast League | Chuck Goggin and Pedro González |
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Greenwood