He pitched in only one MLB game, but Al Autry is forever a big leaguer
For a moment, think about how extraordinary you have to be to play Major League Baseball.
Each year, an estimated that 2.2 million children play Tee-ball across the world. Like a candle slowly burning, that number gradually gets smaller and smaller as kids get older. In the 2019–20 school year, there were 484,024 high school baseball players, meaning less than a quarter of those kids who populate Tee-ball leagues play baseball at a competitive level barely a decade later. College baseball slices that number even further, with approximately 36,000 student-athletes each year. And while we don’t yet have the exact roster size for each of the 120 teams that make up Minor League Baseball, a generous estimate of 28 leaves just 3,360 available spots for players. From there, only about 10 percent of Minor League Baseball players will ever make it to the major leagues. It’s extraordinary math and remarkably daunting odds.
Now, imagine pouring every ounce of work and effort for years into beating those minuscule odds. Imagine the feeling of seeing your name on a jersey in a major league clubhouse, putting that on, your cleats clacking through the tunnel towards the dugout. You step on the greenest grass you’ve seen in your life, your cleats moving towards the soft, golden dirt ahead. You’ve made it. Finally, you’re a major leaguer.
But what would it mean to you if, after the decades you poured into making that euphoric moment happened, it was over? What if you never had the opportunity to do it ever again?
In the history of Major League Baseball, which dates back to 1871, 19,576 people have experienced this euphoric moment they spent decades pursuing. For 1,019 of those 19,576 players, that moment they played in The Show was so fleeting that they never experienced it ever again. They played in a Major League Baseball game one time and one time only.
This is the story of Al Autry, a member of both the 1972 and 1974 Jacksonville Suns and one of those 1,019 who made it all the way to the big leagues, appeared in one game and never again made it back onto an MLB diamond.
On September 14, 1976, Autry started the backend of a doubleheader for the Atlanta Braves against the Houston Astros. Nothing truly about the game was remarkable; it was over in two hours and 14 minutes and only 970 people were listed in attendance.
Autry was the winning pitcher in Atlanta’s 4–3 victory. He pitched fairly well, yielding three runs on four hits in 5.0 innings, fanning three Astros and issuing three walks. It was by no means an outstanding debut, but certainly a serviceable one for a team on its way to a last-place finish in the NL West (the Braves finished 32.0 games behind the Cincinnati Reds that season). Nonetheless, Autry was not called upon to throw even one pitch over the season’s final two and a half weeks.
According to Autry’s SABR bio, Autry may have been a victim of Braves manager Dave Bristol’s extreme vitriol and spite. After an incident in which Autry playfully needled his friend and teammate Rick Camp, Bristol refused to pitch Autry, even after he was listed by the Atlanta newspapers as the starting pitcher for September 19, 1976.
Though the Braves gave Autry a contract above the major league minimum in the winter of 1976, Bristol still refused to use Autry in Spring Training 1977. After three weeks without taking the mound, Braves teammates Phil Niekro and Andy Messersmith counseled Autry to seek out Bristol privately and address the situation. It did not go well; after knocking on the door to Bristol’s office and saying he should have a chance to make the team, Autry was berated by Bristol. Autry finally received a chance to pitch a few weeks later in a B-squad game against Texas, but was taken out after retiring nine consecutive hitters. He was sent to the minors weeks later, never to return.
Autry retired following the 1978 season, a campaign he spent with Triple-A Springfield in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization. In all, he totaled 1,297.0 innings in the minor leagues, including an 11–13 record and 3.33 ERA with Jacksonville in 1972 and a 10–5 mark and 2.89 ERA with the 1974 Suns.
He registered just those aforementioned 5.0 innings in the big leagues, and he is one of only 29 pitchers in baseball history to win the only game they pitched in. Moreso than that, he beat the odds to get there in the first place.
It certainly seems like he should have been able to accumulate more chances in The Show, Al Autry is forever a major leaguer. That’s something quite spectacular to be proud of.
