All-Star and Gold Glove second baseman for the Atlanta Braves in the late sixties/early seventies. Then he went to play for some NY Yankee minor league team....the Mets I think. Felix “Nacho” (as a kid) or "Cat" (in the majors) Millán.
Using a bit of an opposite approach to the game as compared with today, in 6,325 plate appearances, the 172-pound right-handed batter whiffed only 242 times, establishing himself as the National League’s toughest hitter to strike out in four of his 12 major-league seasons. Fans also remember the funny way Millán held his bat, choking up so high it looked as if he’d punch himself in the stomach when he swung at a pitch. He obviously did not choke the bat to produce home runs because he hit only 22 in his major-league career. He choked the bat to get hits and move up runners. In 1,480 games, he had 1,617 hits and a batting average of .279.
Millán joined the Braves in the spring of 1966, the club’s first season in Atlanta after moving from Milwaukee. What he remembered most about his first day in Atlanta was meeting his future roommate, Hank Aaron. Approaching the new kid on the team, Aaron invited Millán to stay in his home rather than a hotel his first night in Atlanta. The next morning Aaron handed him a set of car keys. “Take my Camaro,” Hank said. Not only did Aaron loan Millán his car, he asked to room with the Puerto Rican (the 27th to make a Major League roster) when they played on the road. The two were roommates throughout Millán’s years with the Braves.
He was up and down in the minors for a few years. Back in Richmond in 1967, he teamed up with third baseman Bobby Cox and, as Laurence Leonard reported, the pair created a lot of interest in minor-league baseball, drawing huge crowds and leading their team to the International League pennant in 1967. With a .310 batting average, he won the minor-league Player of the Year award. The best thing that happened to Millán in Richmond was manager Lum Harris. Probably nobody in his baseball career believed in Millán more than Harris, who later claimed Millán to be the best second baseman in the National League.
Here you go Greg. Jim Gantner who played all his career in Milwaukeeeeeeee. Can't tell...is that Rose Gantner is using as a foot rest?
Baseball is a slow, boring, complex, cerebral game that doesn't lend itself to histrionics. You 'take in' a baseball game, something odd to say about a football or basketball game, with the clock running and the bodies flying.
Charles Krauthammer
before listening.....
