#s57/47/11/17 FELIX MILLAN
Second Base
What came before: The Braves' solution to their revolving door at second base was there all along. It just took three managers to figure it out.
After plucking “The Kitten” out of the Kansas City system in 1964, he hit over .300 in both 1965 and 66 while making all the stops in the Braves' farm system. His defense was also above reproach.
That 1966 season: Getting the call the first of June, Millan was not overmatched. He hung in for 37 games, batting a very satisfactory .275 with only six strikeouts in 91 at-bats. The stage was set for Millan to take over the position.
What happened next: An ill-timed ankle injury that he had great difficulty recovering from, left him hitting barely over .200, and he was bumped back to Triple-A, where he batted .310 (seventh in the league) and earning a September recall. His red-hot hitting including his first two MLB homers, and the second base job was his for keep.
In fact, Millan missed only a small handful of games until his late 1972 trade to the Mets. In between, he was a three-time all-star and two-time Gold Glove winner. He batted over .300 only once (.310 in 1970), but his extreme batting stance did not begin to draw notice until he arrived in New York along with George Stone in exchange for Gary Gentry and Danny Frisella.
Until his career came to a crashing halt in 1977, Millan was a reliable fixture in the lineup who played in the 1972 World Series against Oakland. But his most memorable moment as a Mets was also his most forgettable: playing for former teammate Joe Torre, Millan was in the wrong place at the wrong time in an August doubleheader against the Pirates. Playing second, he was in the process of turning a routine 6-4-3 double play when the baserunner coming down from first, hard-nosed catcher Ed Ott, went in hard and prevented Millan from throwing. Millan, obviously temporarily insane, took a swing at the big catcher with the baseball still in his hand. Ott lifted him up, flipped him over and drilled him into the ground like a tent spike. Millan's shoulder was crushed, his collarbone was broken, every tendon was torn or stretched, and his Major League career was over.
His shoulder recovered sufficiently for Millan to put in three seasons in the Japanese League, winning the batting title in 1979 but calling it quits there after the 1980 season. Living agains in his native Puerto Rico, he is a regular at most Mets alumni events, including the demolition of Shea Stadium.
