James Allan Britton (born March 25, 1944) is a retired

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who played from 1967 to 1971 with the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

and

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. He was tall and weighed 225 pounds.

Career

Britton was born in

North Tonawanda, New York North Tonawanda is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 31,568 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is named after Tonawanda Creek, its south b ...

and attended Tonawanda High School. In 1961, Britton refused a football scholarship to Penn State University and signed as an amateur

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with the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

. On November 26, 1962, the Braves drafted him in the first-year draft. On September 20, 1967, at the age of 23, Britton made his Major League debut with the Braves. During this game he gave up a three-run

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

to Johnny Bench, the first of Bench's career. Perhaps his best season in the Major Leagues was his second: in 34 games, he had an

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of 3.10. On December 2, 1969, Britton was traded with Don Johnson, a minor leaguer, to the Montreal Expos for pitcher Larry Jaster. Expected to be a spot starter the following season, he missed that season due to arm trouble. On September 25, 1971, Britton played his final major league game. As a batter, Britton hit .127. The highlight of his hitting career would be the double he hit in 1969. Defensively, Britton committed two errors in his career for a .952 fielding percentage. During his career, he wore three numbers: 27 in 1967, 42 in 1968 and 1969, and 27 in 1971. After his baseball career ended, Britton served as a special agent with the FBI.

Personal life

Britton's father suffered a fatal

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

while watching Britton bat for the Richmond Braves during the ninth inning of 1967 game in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

. Braves manager Lum Harris told Britton only that his father had fainted and sent him out to pitch the bottom of the ninth inning.

References

External links

Baseball-Almanac.comBaseball GaugeVenezuelan Professional Baseball League
{{DEFAULTSORT:Britton, Jim 1944 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Canada Atlanta Braves players Austin Braves players Baseball players from New York (state) Bluefield Orioles players Boise Braves players Greenville Braves players Leones del Caracas players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Major League Baseball pitchers Montreal Expos players Peninsula Whips players Penn State Nittany Lions baseball players Pennsylvania State University alumni People from North Tonawanda, New York Richmond Braves players University at Buffalo alumni University of Tennessee alumni Yakima Braves players