Bill Bruton


William Havon Bruton was a Major League Baseball center fielder who played for the Milwaukee Braves and Detroit Tigers. Bruton batted left-handed and threw right-handed.

Career

Bruton started his major league career in 1953, as the Braves franchise moved from Boston to Milwaukee. On April 14, 1953, his 10th-inning home run gave the Braves a 3–2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Milwaukee's first major league game.
Bruton played in Milwaukee for eight seasons; he was a member of the 1957 Braves and 1958 Braves, who both played World Series against the New York Yankees. Bruton did not play in the 1957 World Series, which the Braves won in seven games, due to a knee injury sustained earlier in the season. In the 1958 World Series, which the Braves lost in seven games, Bruton hit a game-winning single in the tenth inning of Game 1. He played in all seven games of the Series, batting 7-for-17 with a home run and two RBIs. On August 2, 1959, Bruton hit two bases-loaded triples in one game. The feat had only been accomplished once before and has only been accomplished once since.
In December 1960, Bruton was traded to the Detroit Tigers, where he spent four seasons before retiring after the 1964 season.

Statistics

In his twelve-year major league career, Bruton posted an overall.273 batting average with 94 home runs and 545 run batted in in 1,610 games. He finished his career with a.981 fielding percentage. A line-drive hitter and a fleet-footed runner, Bruton led the National League in stolen bases for three consecutive seasons, twice in triples, and once in runs scored. He led off a game with a home run twelve times.
Bruton's minor league milestones include;
Bruton was a graduate of Parker High School in Birmingham, Alabama, and served in the Army from 1944 through 1947.
He was a spokesman for Tareyton cigarettes in the 1960s.
In 1991, Bruton was inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame.
According to a Delaware State Police report, Bruton suffered a heart attack while driving his car in Marshallton, Delaware, near his home in Wilmington on December 5, 1995. Apparently, Bruton's car veered off the road and hit a pole; after which he was pronounced dead at a local hospital. He was 70.