Boston Braves
Unlike the Browns, the Braves were contenders all the way to the end of the 1948 season. In a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on 3 September, and with the Braves tied for the NL lead, Heath hit a two-run home run and the Braves went on to win the game, 3–1, and stayed in first place for the remainder of the regular season. With the Braves up five games in the NL standings and four games remaining on their regular season schedule, the Braves had a match-up with the Brooklyn Dodgers on 29 September but according to teammate Clint Conatser, Heath asked Braves manager Billy Southworth for the night off but his request was denied. During the game, Heath attempted to score from second base and slid towards home plate to try and beat the tag by Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella. As he slid, his foot got caught in the dirt which caused his ankle to twist. "I began to slide about five feet from the plate. Funny thing, I generally get my spikes up off the ground, but this time I didn't. I looked at my foot, which was twisted all the way around, and honestly I thought it would come right off," Heath said the next day from a local hospital. After playing in the majors for parts of 12 years, he would be forced to miss the World Series as it was later diagnosed he fractured his ankle. He called the broken ankle "the biggest disappointment of my life." A widely published newspaper photograph of the play showed Heath sliding toward the plate, mouth open in shock, with his leg bent mid-ankle with the lower ankle rotated ninety degrees to the upper ankle. He was quoted asking himself "Why did I slide?" when he was carried off the field on a stretcher and later put in an ambulance. In 1964, Heath said:
- "I guess I didn't tuck my leg while sliding. Carl Furillo (Dodger rightfielder) made the throw. He had a great arm and I was out a mile. They (sportswriters) said it was an unnecessary slide in a game that didn't mean anything. The hell it was, you always slide. Besides Johnny Sain (Braves pitcher) was after his 23rd win and we wanted to shove Brooklyn into third place."
Heath's regular season came to an end, as he batted .319 with 20 home runs on the season. The Braves' season came to an end after six games in the World Series as they lost to the Indians, four games to two.
Heath played in the minors the following season before eventually rejoining the Braves during the 1949 season. In a game on 28 August, Heath helped tie the Cincinnati Reds with a home run in the ninth inning and helped win the game for the Braves with another in the 10th inning. He ended his final major league season after 36 games into the 1949 season. He batted .306 with nine homers and 23 RBIs. In October 1949, the Braves placed Heath on waivers and general manager John Quinn offered him a managing position with a team in the Braves farm system, but he never accepted Quinn's offer to manage. Baseball historian Bill James when summarizing the 1940s listed Heath as the recipient for his designation of "A Better Ballplayer Than a Human Being." Southworth said, "They told me when I got him from the American League that Heath was a troublemaker. If he is, I'd sure like to have either other troublemakers like him."
Read more about this topic: Jeff Heath
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