After giving Curt Flood a chance at the center field job, the Cardinals decided they needed an upgrade at the position. The player they wanted was Bill Bruton.
A left-handed batter, Bruton became the Braves’ center fielder in 1953 and helped transform them into National League champions in 1957 and 1958.
In December 1960, the Cardinals made multiple offers for Bruton, including one that likely involved trading Bob Gibson.
Impact player
Bruton got his start in pro baseball when his father-in-law, future Hall of Fame third baseman Judy Johnson, put out the word about him, The Sporting News reported. Bruton was 24 when Braves scout Johnny Ogden signed him in 1950.
Bruton made an impact his first season in the minors, swiping 66 bases for Eau Claire. The next year, he had 27 triples for Denver.
“I’ve seen no player in baseball today who is as fast as Bruton,” Braves scout Walter Gautreau told The Sporting News.
With Class AAA Milwaukee in 1952, Bruton totaled 211 hits and scored 130 runs.
Before the 1953 season, the Braves relocated from Boston to Milwaukee and Bruton was named their Opening Day center fielder.
Splendid start
The Braves began the 1953 season at Cincinnati. Bruton, 27, had a dazzling debut. Batting leadoff, he had two hits, a stolen base and scored a run.
Described by the Cincinnati Enquirer as a “mercury-footed” outfielder who covered center “like the morning dew,” Bruton made six putouts, “two of them only short of sensational.”
“In the third inning, he leaped high in front of the center field seats to take what looked like a surefire double away from Willard Marshall,” the Enquirer reported. “He repeated the performance at the expense of Bobby Adams in the ninth.” Boxscore
The Braves took a flight to Milwaukee after the game and were greeted at the airport by 1,500 admirers, according to United Press.
Heroics at home
The next day, in their first regular-season home game since moving from Boston, the Braves played the Cardinals, and Bruton again was sensational.
In the eighth inning, with the score tied at 1-1, the Cardinals had two on and two outs when Stan Musial drove a Warren Spahn pitch into left-center. Bruton made a running catch, depriving Musial of a two-run double.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Braves had two outs and none on when Bruton, described by The Sporting News as the “Jesse Owens of the baselines,” hit an inside fastball from Gerry Staley over the head of right fielder Enos Slaughter for a triple. Sid Gordon’s single scored Bruton, giving the Braves a 2-1 lead.
The Cardinals tied the score in the ninth.
Batting with one out and none on in the 10th, Bruton got a knuckleball from Staley. “Man, it just hung there,” Bruton told the Associated Press.
Bruton drilled the pitch to deep right. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slaughter “ran back to the waist-high wire fence, reached up and almost made the catch, but as his fingers began to close on the ball, his elbow struck sharp prongs protruding from the wire barrier.”
The impact jarred the ball loose and it dropped over the fence for a home run, Bruton’s first in the majors. It also turned out to be his only home run of the season and his only walkoff home run in 12 years in the big leagues. Boxscore
As Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch noted, Bruton’s dramatics made him “as popular in Milwaukee as beer and cheese.”
Multiple talents
Bruton was the Braves’ center fielder for eight years (1953-60). Hank Aaron, who joined the Braves in 1954, was his outfield teammate for seven of those seasons.
The Braves won the pennant in 1957 but Bruton sat out the World Series because of a knee injury. The next year, when the Braves repeated as National League champions, Bruton had a .545 on-base percentage in the World Series, reaching base 12 times (seven hits and five walks) in 22 plate appearances.
Bruton led the National League in stolen bases three times: 1953 (26), 1954 (34) and 1955 (25).
In 1960, Bruton, 34, had one of his best seasons, leading the league in runs scored (112), triples (13) and assists by a center fielder (11). He also ranked fourth in hits (180).
The Braves, though, had been searching for a second baseman ever since Red Schoendienst came down with tuberculosis, and general manager John McHale decided Bruton’s trade value would bring an experienced infielder.
Determined to deal
The Cardinals preferred Bruton to Flood.
In three seasons as Cardinals center fielder, Flood’s batting average and on-base percentage decreased every year: 1958 (.261 batting average, .317 on-base percentage), 1959 (.255 and .305) and 1960 (.237 and .303). He also had a mere two stolen bases in both 1958 and 1959, and none in 1960.
“We’ve been interested in Bruton for some time,” Cardinals general manager Bing Devine told the Post-Dispatch.
According to The Sporting News, the Cardinals offered their shortstop, Daryl Spencer, for Bruton. Spencer had been a second baseman with the Giants.
When the Braves reacted unenthusiastically, the Cardinals approached the Phillies about making a three-way trade with the Braves.
According to the Associated Press, the Braves were interested in Phillies second baseman Tony Taylor and reliever Turk Farrell. In exchange, the Phillies wanted outfielder Wes Covington from the Braves, and first baseman Joe Cunningham and pitcher Bob Gibson from the Cardinals, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. Bruton would go to the Cardinals.
(Later that month, the Cardinals offered Gibson to the Senators for Bobby Shantz.)
According to The Sporting News, the three-way deal “went down the drain” when the Phillies “stepped up their demands.”
“We wanted to make a deal,” Cardinals manager Solly Hemus said, “but it wound up with the Phillies wanting too many of our established players. We would have had to give up four or five, and would have gotten one or two.”
The Cardinals tried again to interest the Braves in a swap of Spencer for Bruton. “The Braves began to warm up to his possibilities,” The Sporting News reported, but then the Tigers entered the picture.
Flood is the answer
When the Tigers proposed dealing second baseman Frank Bolling to the Braves for Bruton, talks with the Cardinals ceased. Braves general manager John McHale had been general manager of the Tigers and he was an admirer of Bolling.
“When I was at Detroit, I thought Bolling was just as valuable to the club as Harvey Kuenn or Al Kaline,” McHale told The Sporting News.
To ensure the Tigers didn’t waver, McHale sweetened the deal. On Dec. 7, 1960, the Braves traded Bruton, catcher Dick Brown, infielder Chuck Cottier and pitcher Terry Fox for Bolling and a player to be named, outfielder Neil Chrisley.
According to the Sporting News, Hemus contacted Tigers manager Bob Scheffing and asked whether the Tigers would flip Bruton to the Cardinals, but was told no.
Don Landrum, acquired from the Phillies in September 1960, opened the 1961 season as the Cardinals’ center fielder. The Cardinals also tried Don Taussig and Carl Warwick there.
In July, Hemus was fired and replaced by Johnny Keane, who committed to Flood in center. Flood rewarded Keane’s confidence by hitting .324 in July, .330 in August and .355 in September. He went on to be the center fielder on Cardinals clubs that won three league championships and two World Series titles.
RetroSimba 
Any time I see the name Solly Hemus I just shake my head. Good thing Keane saw the true potential in Flood.
What’s more head scratching…Bing offering Gibson. Gibbie just a prospect at the time, I get it. But, man just imagine. No Gibbie, no Flood…maybe no 60’s run…maybe no Brock trade…maybe, maybe, maybe. I’m sure Hemus was giving Bing his “opinion” on talent.
I’m not sure which former Cardinals manager I dislike more, Solly Hemus or Vern Rapp.
Thank you for the story! Always a great read about Cardinals history.
Thanks, Tim. You are spot-on about Solly Hemus. He nearly ruined Curt Flood and Bob Gibson.
Johnny Keane was much better at knowing how to develop young players and instill confidence in them. I think part of that is because Keane spent many years managing in the minors and Hemus had no experience as a manager until getting the Cardinals job.
I have no doubt that Hemus was influencing Bing Devine. I think Gussie Busch was, too. Busch was impatient for a championship (the Cardinals hadn’t won one since Busch bought the team) and Devine may have felt pressure to try to “win now” with veterans.
After the 1961 season, a possible trade of Julian Javier for Woodie Held was in the Post-Dispatch headlines. It almost sounded like the early-1960s Cardinals were nostalgic for their 1950s blueprint for success.
Yes, thanks, that interest in Woodie Held surprised me when I saw it while researching a story on Julio Gotay: https://retrosimba.com/2022/01/28/how-cardinals-became-intrigued-by-julio-gotay/
Today’s game could use a few players like Bill Bruton. He is also one of the forgotten heros who fought for the full integration of MLB. Good post.
Well-stated, Phillip. Bill Bruton was a classy ballplayer in every way.
Aw c’mon, don’t leave us in suspense. Who was the Senators exec who wouldn’t give up Shantz for Gibson? Was it this guy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Doherty_(baseball_executive)
Thanks, Marty. Yes, indeed, you got it.
As Tim noted up above, how far-sighted Keane turned out to be, keeping Flood and Gibson on the Cardinals. How things mighta been different, to the extreme of the Cards not winning those two WS. I’m amazed that the leader in stolen bases – Bruton, stole so few between 1953 and 1955. I guess the steal was less of a weapon in the 50’s….maybe the SB changes like fashions? like Cobb stealing so many in the early part of the 20th century and Brock and Henderson so many…..so many years later.
Perhaps part of the reason for low stolen base numbers between 1953 and 1955 is that baseball still was pathetically slow to integrate. Only 5 big-league clubs _ Dodgers, Indians, Browns, Braves, White Sox _ integrated before 1953. It was 1955 or later that 4 others _ Yankees, Phillies, Tigers, Red Sox _ ended their segregation by having a dark-skinned player on the team.
That’s a good point Mark. I’ve read a few articles that suggest the bigger bases might revive the stolen base. I’m not sure if they are already bigger or if that’s in the works for next season?