DATE: 1956 ORIGINAL or REPRINT: Original - Printed from the original negative in the time period in which it was shot TEAM: Pittsburgh Pirates SUBJECTS: Bob Friend, Red Munger, Bobby Bragan, Frank J Thomas APPROXIMATE SIZE: 8-1/8"x9-7/8" NUMBER OF PHOTOS: 1 COMMENTS / CONDITION: This is one of a large accumulation of vintage sports photographs, slides and negatives that we will be listing over the coming months. Wear on these, if any, is mostly confined to minor corner and edge wear, but see scans for further details including condition. We do not deal in stock images or modern reprints, and all scans shown are of the actual vintage photograph, slide or negative being sold. If you have any questions about a particular piece, please ask before the auction ends. BIO: Robert Bartmess Friend (Warrior) was born in 1930 in Lafayette, IN and died in 2019 in Pittsburgh, PA. He went to college at Purdue University. He played major league baseball from 1951 to 1966 as pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and a partial season with the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, appeared in the 1960 World Series, and was selected 3 times as an All-Star. He attended Purdue University, and became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Purdue, the Pirates became interested in Friend, signing him in 1950. Friend was considered one of the most consistent and solid pitchers in the game, even considering the time he played in. Some remarked that he would not miss a start if he was dying. Friend's final complete season, and final season with the Pirates came in 1965. He went 8-12 with a 3.24 ERA in 34 starts before being traded to the Yankees for Pete Mikkelsen after the season. After being moved again, Friend played his final game with the Mets on September 24, 1966. Friend remains the only pitcher to lose more than 200 (230), while winning less than 200 (197), mostly due to playing with 5 last place Pirate teams. George David Munger was born in 1918 in Houston, TX and died in 1996 in Houston, TX. He played major league baseball from 1943 to 1956 as pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates, appeared in the 1946 World Series, and was selected 3 times as an All-Star. After baseball Munger returned to his native Houston, TX, and worked as a salesman for a brewery before becoming an inspector for the Department of Health. Robert Randall Bragan (Nig) was born in 1917 in Birmingham, AL and died in 2010 in Fort Worth, TX. He played major league baseball from 1940 to 1948 as infielder and catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Brooklyn Dodgers, and appeared in the 1947 World Series. He managed the Pittsburgh Pirates (1956-57), Cleveland Indians (1958) and Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1963-66), each time getting fired in the mid-season of his final campaign. But Bragan was highly respected as a minor league pilot, winning championships in 1948-49 at Fort Worth of the AA Texas League during a successful five-year run, and with the 1953 Hollywood Stars of the Open-Classification Pacific Coast League. A photograph of Bragan lying at the feet of an umpire who had ejected him, still arguing, was published in LIFE Magazine at the time. Bragan also was a major league coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Colt .45s. Bragan was a protégé of Branch Rickey, the Hall of Fame front office executive, who hired him as an unproven young manager at Fort Worth when both were with the Brooklyn Dodgers and then brought Bragan to Hollywood and the Pittsburgh organization, where Rickey was general manager from 1951-55. Bragan started the 1948 season with Brooklyn, but Rickey wanted to bring up Roy Campanella from the minors. Rickey offered Bragan the managerial job with the Fort Worth Cats and he took over in July of ’48, remaining with the Cats for five years. Ironically, Bragan had clashed with Rickey in 1947 over the Dodgers' breaking of the baseball color line after the major-league debut of Jackie Robinson. Bragan — the Dodgers' second-string catcher at the time — was one of a group of white players, largely from the American South, who signed a petition against Robinson's presence. He even asked Rickey to trade him. But Bragan quickly relented. "After just one road trip, I saw the quality of Jackie the man and the player," Bragan told mlb.com in 2005. "I told Mr. Rickey I had changed my mind and I was honored to be a teammate of Jackie Robinson." And as a manager, Bragan earned a reputation for fairness and "color-blindedness." When he was the skipper of the Dodgers' Spokane Indians PCL farm club in 1959, Bragan played an influential role in helping Maury Wills, a speedy shortstop whose baseball career had stalled until he learned to switch hit under Bragan. He also was an influential executive in minor league baseball. In 1969, Bragan, a Fort Worth resident, began a new career chapter when he became president of the Texas League. He was so successful, in 1975 he was elected president of the minor leagues' governing body, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. On August 16, 2005, Bragan came out of retirement 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). Always known as an innovator with a sense of humor — and a world-class 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 enjoyed the rest of the Cats' 11-10 victory from a more comfortable vantage point. Bragan comes from a baseball family. Five of the six Bragan boys played baseball professionally. His late brother Jimmy was a minor league player and longtime coach and scout in major league baseball who himself was president of the AA Southern League during the 1980s, and the younger generations of the Bragan family have owned and operated numerous minor league teams. Frank Joseph Thomas was born in 1929 in Pittsburgh, PA and died in 2023 in Pittsburgh, PA. He played major league baseball from 1951 to 1966 as outfielder and infielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Braves, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros, and was selected 3 times as an All-Star. People tend to call him "the first Frank Thomas" or "the white Frank Thomas" to distinguish him from the other player of the same name. He was nicknamed "the donkey" by fellow players for his less-than-stellar people skills. SKU: L15168
Item: L15168
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