THE 1966 BRAVES:#59 William Hancock

#59 BILL HANCOCK
Catcher

What came before: A Shreveport native, Hancock earned All-American honors in 1964 as a member of Texas A&M’s College World Series team. He won the SWC batting title in 1964 with a .447 batting average and was the consensus All-SWC choice at catcher.
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Signed by the Braves in the final wave of pre-draft free-for-alls, he began his career by swatting .325 for Greenville, earning the collegian a quick promotion to Austin in the Texas League.

But a pattern was established for his brief career. Start out hot at a lower level, then strruggle with a promotion. In was even more pronounced in 1965, when he produced a .359 average for Yakima and only .240 at Austin, where the position was a three-way timeshare. He even had a brief stint with the final edition of the Crackers, but went 0-for-11 in Atlanta.

That 1966 season: Hancock was a non-roster invitee to camp, but on a team with a healthy Joe Torre, catching jobs are scarce. He was returned to Austin (.277-3-26), where he was again sharing time, then struggled when moved to Richmond (2-for-11). That would prove to be the end of his playing career at the age of 24, even though he had value as a left-handed hitter.

What happened next: The William Hancock Agency is a thriving agency in Shreveport still today.

I just found Bill Hancock's number he wore in spring training of 1966! I'm as proud of that as any research I've done all year. His was the only number I was missing.

Hell yeah! Yay me!