Charlie Vaughan

Charles Wayne Vaughan was born the third son of Gene and Judy Vaughan of Weslaco, Texas, on October 6, 1947 in the nearby hospital at Mercedes. Married in 1941, Judy gave birth to their first son, Richard, in 1944 and bore a second son, Eddie, in 1946. Gene was successful in sales for Burton Auto Supply and was promoted and transferred to Brownsville in September 1948 to be the branch manager for that location. 

 The United States of the 1960s found baseball continuing to expand its role as “America’s Game.” While a broadening of television enabled the population to occasionally watch other professional sports, baseball was the leader and growing stronger. The Giants and Dodgers had left the New York City area, placing major-league teams on the West Coast for the first time. In the short span from 1960 to 1962, the number of major-league franchises grew 25 percent, with the creation of another West Coast team, the Angels, as well as the Senators, Colt 45’s, and Mets. Daily newspapers in cities large and small reported detailed information about an area’s favorite major-league team, as well as results of nearby minor leagues and high-school games. So it is not surprising that baseball became an important part of each of the Vaughan brothers’ lives as they grew.

Little League Baseball flourished in Brownsville in the 1950s and ’60s. Richard began playing at age 9.1  Eddie and Charlie followed suit. Gene, their father, had been a quarterback on his high-school football team and received a scholarship his freshman year to play football for Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Texas State University). His athletic talents apparently passed on to his three sons.

As he grew, Richard became increasingly interested in the fundamentals and strategy of baseball. With Dad busy building the business, Richard happily became the informal coach for his two younger brothers, continuously teaching them and practicing with them many aspects of the game. Charlie notes that Richard “really got our juices flowing with excitement over the game of baseball.” With Charlie throwing lefty, Richard guided him to the roles of pitcher and first base.

When he turned 13, Charlie moved up to the local Pony League baseball program and followed that into the related Colt League and American Legion. He recalled pitching successfully for competitive teams at these levels.

The local high school started in 10th grade. Thus, Charlie’s sophomore year was his first time playing at that level. He did some pitching, but mostly played first base as brother Eddie led the pitching rotation. By his junior year, Charlie filled the number-two spot in the rotation. The two brothers picked up the nicknames Big Ace and Little Ace, which had more to do with age than physical size. That season ended when the Border Bandits, as the team was nicknamed, lost a sudden-death playoff game for the South Zone championship.

In 1965, his senior year, Charlie combined with Tony Barbosa as a dominating one-two left-handed pitching combination for the Brownsville Eagles, leading his school to the 1965 District 16-4 A (now 5 A) South Zone championship.2 Vaughan’s regular-season statistics were staggering. With a pitching record of 13-3, he threw 107 innings with 203 strikeouts, an average of 1.89 per inning, He walked 32 batters and allowed only 40 hits for a WHIP of 0.67. He gave up only six earned runs for an ERA of 0.39 and was selected the 4A All-State Tournament left-handed pitcher. With these credentials, Charlie was offered a scholarship to attend and pitch for the University of Texas-Austin.

The Brownsville Eagles won the District championship, taking two games out of three from Corpus Christi Ray. They then swept the Regionals, defeating Waco Richfield and San Antonio Lee two straight each. Charlie pitched the opening game in each series. All three opponents came from much bigger schools than Brownsville. Finishing on top in their region advanced them to the state tournament in Austin. Charlie pitched the semifinal game, eliminating Galena Park (Houston), 7-1. This set up a winner-take-all game for the Texas high-school championship.3

Prior to 1965, amateur baseball players were free to sign a contract with any major-league club they chose. However, in 1965 the major leagues introduced the Rule 4 draft, the first structured methodology for recruiting players from high schools, colleges and other amateur baseball clubs. As a high-school graduate, Charlie was eligible to be selected. He knew that scouts had watched him pitch his senior year, suggesting he could be selected. Deep inside, Charlie had long wanted to be a Yankee.

On June 8, 1965, Charlie was drafted by the Milwaukee Braves in the fourth round with the 64th overall pick. Rick Monday was the first selection in the draft, followed in the first round by other future major leaguers such as Joe Coleman, Billy Conigliaro, Ray Fosse, and Bernie Carbo. Later round selections included Johnny Bench (36th), Larry Hisle (38th), Andy Messersmith (53rd), Ken Holtzman (61st), Ken Boswell (66th), Stan Bahnsen (68th), Graig Nettles (74th), Amos Otis (95th), Sal Bando (119th), and – 190th in the 10th round – Tom Seaver. Nolan Ryan was selected in the 12th round, likely that late because of concern that he would continue his education rather than sign.  

Charlie’s focus on winning the state championship had pushed the draft to the back of his mind.  However, after winning the first game, some uncertainty arose as to whether he would pitch at all in the final game. The subject was never addressed directly with Charlie. Yet, to this day, he has a sense that his being drafted gave Coach Joe Rodriguez and others concerns as to Charlie’s availability. Thus, Brownsville’s number-two starter was on the mound as scheduled. It was a close contest for the first three innings but began to slip away from Brownsville in the fourth. Charlie was called in to get the last two outs of that inning. However, when Brownsville took the field in the fifth, senior Sergio Munzano took the mound. Munzano faltered and was replaced on the mound by sophomore Ruben Delgado. Neither had pitched since March. They could not stop the Dallas Samuel team from taking the championship.

There was an unspoken difference of opinion in the Vaughan family as to what the future held for Charlie. It was impressed on him that pitching with a scholarship would remove the family’s financial burden of going to college while providing him with four more years of solid competition on the diamond. Gene believed this would be Charlie’s direction, to the point that he discouraged a Houston Astros scout from drafting Charlie at all. For Charlie, starting a career in professional baseball, while attending college in the offseason, would be the first step of a dream come true. Two weeks later, and still some three months shy of his 18th birthday, Charlie and his parents met with Milwaukee Braves scout Al La Macchia. Charlie signed a contract. The terms included a $25,000 signing bonus, which was designed to compensate for the college costs the family would now have to bear.

Charlie was sent to Sarasota, Florida, to play for the Braves’ Rookie League team. With Paul Snyder as manager, the Braves finished the 1965 season with 34 wins and 25 losses. Charlie started eight games on the mound, tying him for most starts on the team. He also relieved in six games. His overall record was seven wins and two losses with an ERA of 3.09 in 64 innings pitched. He gave up 42 hits and 37 walks while hitting six batters, resulting in a WHIP of 1.234 and placing him third on the team in this category among the 13 pitchers. When the season finished in late August, Charlie skipped Class A and was promoted to the Austin Braves in the Double-A Texas League. There he pitched in two games, both as the starter. He threw 11 innings, striking out seven while giving up eight earned runs on 15 hits, and seven walks for an ERA of 6.55 and a 2.00 WHIP. He was charged with the loss in one of the games. In early September, he returned home to Brownsville to begin his first semester at Texas Southmost College.

During that offseason, the Milwaukee Braves became the Atlanta Braves. Vaughan was on the 40-man roster. When the Braves broke camp, he returned to the Austin Braves. He was part of the rotation, starting 14 games, fourth most on the roster. He also appeared in relief eight times. In 83 innings he had a surprisingly poor won-lost record of 2-7, despite an ERA of 2.93. While his motion resulted in his occasionally overthrowing, he realized that the fastball that worked so well in Sarasota needed “more” at the Double-A level. So he began to modify his motion and his grips. This experimentation culminated in his allowing 86 hits and 39 walks, for a WHIP of 1.506, along with 11 wild pitches. Despite finishing with a 67-73 won-lost record, Austin made the playoffs and won the Texas League championship. However, by the time that took place Vaughan had been promoted.

Before the Texas League playoffs began, Vaughan was called up to Atlanta. On September 3, barely one month before his 19th birthday, his dream of pitching in the major leagues became a reality. Due to an earlier rainout, doubleheaders against the Astros were scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. Vaughan was named the starting pitcher for the first Saturday game.

The Houston Astros Vaughan was to face struggled through the 1966 season, as they had in recent years. They won only 72 games, finishing in eighth place in the 10-team National League, 23 games out of first. The Braves of the 1960s typically played slightly better than .500 ball. The 1967 season was no exception. They won 85 games and finished in fifth place. Yet, as Vaughan took the mound that day, among others, he saw Joe Torre catching, Eddie Mathews at third base, Felipe Alou at first, and Hank Aaron in right field.

Houston manager Grady Hatton opened with Dave Giusti on the mound. Giusti started 33 games for the Astros that year, picking up 15 victories, tops for the team, despite an ERA of 4.20. With back-to-back doubleheaders, Hatton started only four of his regulars in the game. Vaughan began auspiciously, striking out leadoff batter Ron Davis. Catcher Ron Brand singled. But two force plays ended the top half of the first inning with no score. In the bottom half, the Braves put together two runs on hits by Rico Carty and Torre, a Houston error, and a wild pitch.

In the top of the second, Vaughan gave up only a single to Lee Maye. He struck out big-swinging Dave “Swish” Nicholson and got outs from a fly ball and a grounder. Frank Bolling flied out to open the bottom of the second for the Braves. That brought Vaughan to the plate for his first major-league at-bat. As he recalled, Giusti put a fastball down the middle of the plate. Vaughan jumped on it and drove the pitch out over second base for a single. Felipe Alou bounced into a double play, but the Braves still held the lead at the end of the second inning, 2-0.

Vaughan gave up two hits in the top of the third, but a double play erased any possible scoring. 

The bottom of the inning, the Braves jumped on Giusti for five runs. Mathews opened with a solo home run and Denis Menke hit a three-run shot after an RBI single by Carty to give the Braves a 7-0 lead after three innings.

Vaughan continued to hold the Astros in check in the fourth. When the Braves came to bat, Jim Ray relieved Giusti. Ray walked Alou to open the inning and was promptly pulled for Carroll Sembera. Mathews fouled out but Aaron and Torre singled, scoring Alou. After Carty flied out, Mack Jones hit a three-run shot, giving the Braves an 11-0 lead.

At the start of the fifth inning, Gene Freese was announced as the pinch-hitter for the pitcher. Vaughan recalled no pregame discussion as to whom he might face or how he should pitch to each batter. He basically threw whatever Joe Torre called. But when Freese was announced, Vaughan recalled, he was struck by a sudden dose of reality, saying to himself, “Hey, I’ve got this guy’s baseball card!” Charlie struck him out. In the bottom of the inning, the Braves tacked on one more run from consecutive singles by Geiger, Torre, and Carty, making it 12-0.

Neither team scored in the sixth. In the top of the seventh, the Astros picked up two runs on three singles and a sacrifice fly. As Vaughan came into the dugout, manager Billy Hitchcock asked him if he was tired. He acknowledged that he was. Hitchcock congratulated him for pitching a great game and told him Jay Ritchie would take over on the mound. There was no more scoring in the game. The Braves won, 12-2. Little did anyone suspect that this game not only made Charlie Vaughan, at 18 years and 332 days the youngest “one-win wonder” of major-league baseball, but that he would retain the distinction well over 50 years later.

Atlanta sportswriter Wayne Minshew wrote, “Vaughan, a handsome youngster with a big curve ball, worked several strong innings in the opener, scattered 8 Astro hits, and pitched shutout baseball for the first half-dozen innings. He became tired and departed for more experienced Jay Ritchie after the seventh.”4

He hadn’t had his curve working at its best, though, reported sportswriter Wilt Browning.5 Vaughan told him he wasn’t “as nervous as I thought I was going to be. After I got that first guy out in the first inning, I felt a lot better.” Vaughan added, “I just wish I had my big curve, because that is my strikeout pitch. I guess 70 percent of my pitches tonight were fast balls and they could have been a lot better too.”6

Catcher Joe Torre had come out to the mound several times during the game. Vaughan said, “He kept making me take deep breaths before each pitch before getting too nervous. And he kept telling me not to aim the ball, just throw it.”7

In seven innings Vaughan faced 31 batters. He gave up eight hits and walked three while striking out six. At the plate he was 1-for-4. This was a day he hoped would be the first of many in the years to come. The Braves swept the doubleheader, making it 11 consecutive wins over the Astros and 14 out of 19 games for the season.

Vaughan did not pitch any more that season. However, he returned to Brownsville with high hopes for 1967. Given his performance, he was comfortable that he would again be on the 40-man roster and might have a shot at more major-league experiences in the coming season.  During the fall he met and began to date a young woman from Brownsville, Carol Carnesi.

When the 1967 season started, still only 19 years old, Vaughan was pitching for the Richmond Braves of the Triple-A International League. This is the season, he said, that he looks back on in so many ways as his favorite. The team did not get off to a strong start under manager Lum Harris, sitting in seventh place in the eight-team league. However, when summer arrived, the ball started to bounce the Braves’ way. An 11-game winning streak across June and July moved them up in the standings, aiming toward the first-place Rochester Red Wings. When the season ended, the Braves owned 14 victories in 20 games against the Red Wings and found themselves tied with Rochester for first place. The Braves won the one-game playoff over Rochester but lost the opening round best-three-out-of-five series to third-place Toledo.

Vaughan did not appear in any of the playoff games. However, for the 1967 season his 24 starts were second-most on the roster. He notched 9 wins against 10 losses and threw three complete games, of which two were shutouts. He struck out 81 in 135 innings pitched but gave up 133 hits, walked 67 and hit 9 batters for a WHIP of 1.48. It was a solid season for Vaughan, especially considering his young age and still somewhat limited experience.

Vaughan returned home for the offseason and headed back to college. Being back home allowed him to continue to build his relationship with Carol. His outlook was bright, but he knew he needed to continue to get stronger if he was to be successful, hopefully in Atlanta. The Braves had not provided any offseason training guidance. So when a college friend went to the campus weight room to train, Charlie went along. His first low squat was at the weight level his friend had lifted. It was far too heavy for Charlie. Immediately he could feel a problem in his groin that stayed with him. This was the first of several major injuries that would change the trajectory of Vaughan’s path in baseball.

Upon arrival at 1968 spring training, the initial team physical diagnosed bilateral hernias. Despite that, Vaughan was the starter for the opening spring-training game, against the Washington Senators. He threw three scoreless innings. However, when he went out to warm up for the fourth, his left elbow locked up. He was diagnosed with bone chips – unknown in size or quantity – and put on light duty. When camp broke, Vaughan went to Atlanta to have surgery for the hernia and to rest his elbow. The Braves hoped the elbow chips were small and/or few and might “settle” in a way to allow him to pitch effectively without requiring an operation.

In May the hernia recovery was complete. Vaughan was sent to the Greenwood Braves of the Class-A Carolina League for rehabilitation. However, the elbow problems would not go away. He spent the remainder of the season there, pitching in only seven games, six of which were starts. As a rehab assignment, he threw only 21 innings, with little in the way of effective results. At season’s end he went to Houston for elbow surgery; 13 bone chips were removed. Now 20 years old, Vaughan had two surgeries to go along with issues developing in his pitching shoulder and the middle finger of his left hand, resulting from attempts to alter his arm angle and ball grip to improve the effectiveness of his pitching. From his perspective, Charlie termed the 1968 season as “down the drain.”

Vaughan headed home for the offseason. His relationship with Carol continued to grow. No longer on the 40-man roster, he was assigned out of spring training to the Braves’ new Double-A affiliate at Shreveport, Louisiana, in the Texas League. In late May, Atlanta general manager Paul Richards remarked that Vaughan was “beginning to look like the pitcher the Braves thought he could be.”8 At the beginning of June, Vaughan was called up to Atlanta to fill a weekend roster spot for Ron Reed, who had military duty. On June 1 he entered a game against the Cubs in the bottom of the eighth inning with the Braves trailing, 11-4. He struck out one and gave up one hit, but he walked three, which resulted in two more runs for the Cubs. He spent the entire remainder of the season in Shreveport, starting 21 games, second most on the team. He had 5 wins and 10 losses with 110 innings on the mound but an ERA of 3.27. However, control remained an issue. While he struck out 82, Vaughan allowed 101 hits, walked 55 and hit 5 batters for a WHIP of 1.418. When the season ended, the Braves sent him to two months of winter ball in Phoenix to continue to work his way back. However, Vaughan did not believe he was seeing the improvement he sought in his pitching effectiveness.

Clearly the highlight of 1970 for Charlie was his marriage to Carol on January 30. Together they headed to spring training and then to Shreveport, where he pitched for the Double-A Braves. In the ensuing two months, Vaughan appeared in 13 games, starting eight of those contests. He was 2-4 with an ERA of 4.73 and a WHIP of 1.90. He was told that Kansas City was searching for a left-handed reliever. Thus, he was “loaned” to the Omaha Royals, Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate. While there, Vaughan pitched in five games with little effectiveness. In early August he returned to the Braves at Triple-A Richmond. He pitched only two innings. When September arrived, Vaughan was called up to Atlanta but never made a game appearance. Domestic tranquility aside, 1970 had been yet another disappointing season.

He and Carol returned to Texas, wondering what the coming season might hold for them. Contract negotiations began early in 1971 and soon were at a stalemate. Vaughan requested to be traded to Houston, whose minor-league affiliates were in Texas, closer to Carol and their home. Atlanta declined. Vaughan was offered the major-league minimum salary of $12,000. With offseason jobs difficult to find, economics put him in a stalemate. When training camp opened, he was still in Texas. With a real estate boom underway in the state, he entered the real estate business and experienced immediate success. His baseball days were over.

On November 12, 1971, Carol gave birth to their first child, Scott. As timed passed, they both became more active in the Brownsville community and purchased their first home. Charlie continued to be successful in the real estate business until early 1976, when he joined his father and two brothers in the family-owned Burton Auto Supply business. On June 28, 1976, their second son, Ryan, was born. They joined a new local church, St Pius X Catholic Church, and became further involved in several community organizations associated with the church and their beliefs.

As time moved on, Charlie assumed more responsibilities at Burton Auto Supply. He and Carol became grandparents of Hannah Grace (born in 2002) and Gunnar Scott (born in 2003), while continuing to deepen ties to their community. Charities, such as the growing Rio Grande Valley Hall of Fame – to which Charlie had been elected – as well as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Charlie’s high-school alumni group and several pro-life not-for-profit organizations filled their schedules. 

Charlie continued to play tennis, his favorite sport second to baseball. However, rotator cuff operations and knee replacements in the 10 years from 2010 reduced those activities.

Despite all the physical talents Charlie Vaughan’s body possessed, but which had begun to fail him, Charlie did not quit. He quickly recalled many instances where the concept of “giving back,” a philosophy he learned from his first manager in professional baseball, Paul Snyder, resulted in meaningful, positive experiences for himself and his family. Charlie readily offered that this concept, his faith, his 50-plus years of marriage to Carol, and his interactions with his two sons and their families have provided and continue to provide all with enriching lives.

Photo credit

Charlie Vaughan with the Atlanta Braves, courtesy of Charlie Vaughan.

Notes

1 Author interview with Charlie Vaughan, one of a series of interviews conducted over the second half of 2021. Unless otherwise indicated, any direct quotations come from one or another of these interviews.

2 “Texans, Brownsville Open 14-A Playoff,” Corpus Christi Caller, May 14, 1965: C1.

3 “Texans, Brownsville Open 14-A Playoff.”

4 Wayne Minshew, “Vaughan, Johnson ‘Two-Time’ Astros,” Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution, September 4, 1966: 73, 75.

5 Wilt Browning, “Braves Go Boom for Vaughan,” Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution, September 4, 1966: 77.

6 Browning.

7 Browning. Torre said after the game, “You can expect him to be better, because you know he was nervous and wasn’t free and easy like we know he can be. When he is free and easy, he’ll be a lot more effective.” Pitching coach Whitlow Wyatt said Vaughan’s back tightened up somewhat late in the game.

8 Wayne Minshew, “Jackson’s Homer Tops Braves, 6-2,” Atlanta Constitution, May 24, 1969: 31.