Moving On: The Former Milwaukee Brewers and Braves We Lost in 2024

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Baseball on the Chalk Line of the Infield

Before we turn the calendar to 2025 it’s time to take a look at the notable figures from Wisconsin’s baseball history who we lost in 2024. Five former Milwaukee Brewers, three Milwaukee Braves and another MLB player with Wisconsin ties are among those who passed away this year. Thank you to Stathead, David Schultz and the sources linked below for their help compiling the names and details on this list, presented chronologically: 

John Pregenzer, age 91, died on January 31 

A native of Burlington, Wisconsin, Pregenzer had moved to Illinois with his family, attended college and served two years in the Army before making his major league debut with the 1963 Giants, becoming the 164th Wisconsin-born player to appear at the MLB level. Pregenzer pitched in 19 games across two seasons with the Giants (including two as a visitor at Milwaukee County Stadium) but was perhaps better remembered as the subject of a satirical fan club started by San Francisco Chronicle writer Novella O’Hara. 

By the time Pregenzer reached the majors he was already working as a teacher during the offseason, and not long after his final MLB game in 1964 he retired to pursue that calling full time. He taught for 30 years in the Tacoma area and coached baseball, basketball and football. Pregenzer has extensive obituaries at both his funeral home’s website and RIP Baseball. 

Jim Hannan, age 85, died on February 8 

Jim Hannan made his major league debut with the Washington Senators in 1962 and pitched at that level for a decade, including brief stops in his final season as both a Detroit Tiger and Milwaukee Brewer. He logged over 800 innings between roles as a starter and reliever and finished his career with a 3.88 ERA, but his largest lasting contribution to the game may have come off the field. 

During his playing career Hannan continued his education, eventually getting a master’s degree in finance and investments. His thesis focused on MLB’s pension plan, which at the time only about 30% of former players qualified for. In 1969 Hannan was part of the negotiation committee that lowered the threshold for inclusion, opening the door for more than half of former players to receive pension payments from the league. Later, he was a founding member of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association and was chairman of the board of that organization from 1996 until his passing in February. MLBPAA COO Geoff Hixon referred to Hannan as “the father of our organization” in a statement after his passing. Hannan also has an extensive SABR Bio written by Len Pasculli and an entry at RIP Baseball.  

Odell Jones, age 71, died on March 20 

A journeyman pitcher, Odell Jones logged 201 MLB appearances during parts of nine seasons across a span of 14 years. One of his most memorable games came as a Brewer, however, on a day when he wasn’t even supposed to appear. 

On May 28, 1988, it was Teddy Higuera’s turn in the rotation for a game in Cleveland but the Brewers’ ace had left his previous start early with back spasms and was unavailable. The spotlight abruptly turned to Jones, who hadn’t started a game in the majors in seven years, and he responded with the game of his life, retiring the first 22 batters he faced before Mel Hall broke up the would-be perfect game with an eighth inning walk. Jones still took a no-hitter into the ninth, however, before Ron Washington broke it up with a single. Despite this exceptional outing, however, Jones started just one more game in the majors and the Brewers were his last stop at that level. 

Matthew Prigge wrote an extended piece on Jones’ flirtation with history back in 2016. His passing also spurred an extended revisiting of the game for the Journal Sentinel, and he has an entry at RIP Baseball.  

Gordy Lund, age 83, died on April 10 

Gordon Thomas Lund, whose Baseball Reference page identifies him as “Gordy” but is cited as “Gordie” in his obituary, is one of just two players from Michigan’s upper peninsula to appear in a game for the Brewers franchise, although both of them played for the Seattle Pilots. Lund was the target of one of the first trades in the organization’s history, joining the expansion Pilots just days before their inaugural opener in 1969. He played in 20 games for the Pilots that season, which turned out to be his last in the majors. 

Lund’s baseball life was far from over, however: He spent eight seasons in the 1970’s and 80’s as a minor league manager, including five seasons across three stints with the Appleton Foxes. He took the Foxes to the Midwest League championship series in 1974 and won the league championship in 1978. In 2000 the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers inducted him into the Appleton Baseball Hall of Fame.  

Hank Allen, age 83, died on May 29 

The oldest of three brothers to play Major League Baseball, the first act of Hank Allen’s career was seven years in the majors as an outfielder, including 28 games with the 1970 Brewers. The second act of his career started about a quarter of a century later in Milwaukee, when the Brewers gave him the first job of his 20-year scouting career. In between, improbably, Allen was a notable trainer of racehorses, a career outlined in this 2019 Paulick Report piece. In 1989 Allen became the first black trainer in nearly four decades to have a horse run in the Kentucky Derby, and as of that 2019 story he was still the only one.  

The elder Allen’s MLB career was greatly overshadowed by his brother Dick, of course, who was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year. None of the nine Allen siblings were alive to see the honor, however, as Allen’s RIP Baseball obituary notes that he was the last surviving member of the family when he passed this spring. 

Mike Ferraro, age 79, died on July 20 

A longtime minor league third baseman, two of Ferraro’s four stints in the majors came with the Brewers organization. A New York native, Ferraro grew up a Yankees fan and got to experience his dream of playing for that organization when he signed his first professional contract on the day after his high school graduation in 1962. The Yankees found room for Ferraro to play just 43 MLB games in two seasons across a span of seven years in the organization, however, and left him unprotected in the 1968 expansion draft. The Seattle Pilots selected him and he was a member of their inaugural roster but was eventually traded to Baltimore after just five appearances. 

Ferraro’s longest stint in the majors came with the 1972 Brewers, where he played in 124 games and was a solid defender but struggled to produce offensively. After eleven seasons as a professional player Ferraro went into coaching, where he won a pair of minor league championships in the Yankees organization, had two partial seasons as an MLB manager and won a World Series ring as a coach with the 1985 Royals.  

Ferraro had an obituary in the Daily Freeman and at RIP Baseball. 

Denny Lemaster, age 85, died on July 24 

As a left-handed pitcher coming up in the same organization that had developed Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, Denny Lemaster had big shoes to fill when he arrived in the majors with the 1962 Milwaukee Braves. During that franchise’s final years in the city, however, he largely lived up to the hype. Lemaster was still only 25 years old when he logged nearly 460 innings across his first two full MLB seasons with the Braves, starting 66 games and pitching 19 more times in relief. In many ways Lemaster was a predecessor of the modern pitcher: In 1963 he led the National League in home runs allowed but also finished sixth in strikeouts, and in 1964 he led all of baseball with 20 wild pitches but also struck out the eighth most batters in his league. 

Lemaster followed the Braves to Atlanta, where he was an All Star for the first and only time of his career in 1967, and finished his career with nearly 1800 innings pitched across eleven MLB seasons. Done with professional baseball at the age of 33, Lemaster later worked as a competitive fisherman, homebuilder and wood carver. Lemaster has a SABR Bio with extensive first-hand stories written by David E. Skelton and an entry at RIP Baseball. 

Joey Jay, age 89, died on September 27 

As both the victim and beneficiary of a longtime baseball roster rule, Joey Jay had an extremely unusual baseball life. In the days before the MLB Draft owners had a rule designed to limit contracts for amateur players that required players to be immediately assigned to the majors if they received a signing bonus of more than $4,000. As such, when the Braves signed the 17-year-old Jay out of a Connecticut high school for $40,000 in 1953 he immediately became an unlikely member of their first team in Milwaukee, becoming the first alum of the Little League system ever to reach the majors. During the three seasons that followed Jay was largely an observer in the Braves’ dugout and bullpen, appearing in just 30 of their 462 games. 

Many of the “bonus baby” players of Jay’s era were unpopular with their veteran teammates and never recovered from the developmental setback of spending years on the bench in the majors, but Jay rebounded to have a nice MLB career. He was still only 22 years old when he became a regular in the Braves’ rotation in 1958 and went on to pitch nine more seasons in the majors, including an All Star appearance and a fifth place finish in the voting for National League MVP with the Reds in 1961.  

Jay was the last surviving member of the 1953 Braves and was one of just six surviving members of their 1957 World Series championship team. His passing was noted in the New York Times and Journal Sentinel, among other places, and he has a SABR Bio written by Joseph Wancho and an entry at RIP Baseball. 

Rico Carty, age 85, died on November 23 

Plenty of stars passed through Milwaukee during the Braves era, but there were not many as colorful as Rico Carty. His New York Times obituary mentions that Carty wasn’t sure if the pro teams who offered him his first contract were serious, so he signed all nine of them before eventually being assigned to the Braves. The first three of Carty’s 15 MLB seasons were also the Braves’ final years in Milwaukee and he was a rare bright spot during that dark time, batting .330 with a .388 on-base percentage and .554 slugging in 1964 and finishing second in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year. He did all of that despite being more weighed down than his teammates: Tim Kurkjian retold a story that Carty was so distrusting of others that he took his wallet onto the field with him. 

Nicknamed “Beeg Boy,” Carty spent eight seasons with the Braves in Milwaukee and Atlanta and represented that franchise in his lone All Star Game in 1970, a year where he also won the batting title. He ended his career just two hits shy of a .300 batting average and connected for 204 home runs.  

Carty’s passing leaves just 35 surviving players who appeared in the major leagues with the Milwaukee Braves. In addition to the New York Times piece linked above, Carty also has a SABR Bio written by Wynn Montgomery and an entry at RIP Baseball. 

Gary Sutherland, age 80, passed away on December 16 

A 13-year MLB infielder, Gary Sutherland was a light hitter who nonetheless found a place with seven different franchises largely due to his defensive reputation. His Baseball Reference Bullpen page quotes a former Tigers scout as saying he “makes the double play as good as anyone who ever played.” In 1969 Sutherland turned more of them (110) than any other second baseman in the National League. That was the inaugural season for the Montreal Expos, and Sutherland scored the first run in that franchise’s history in the top of tbeen with the Phillies, Expos, Astros and Tigers by the time the Brewers acquired him during the 1976 season for another light-hitting infielder, former Rookie of the Year candidate Pedro Garcia. Sutherland batted just .217 with a .268 on-base and .261 slugging across 59 games for Milwaukee and was released the following spring but went on to play parts of the next two seasons in the majors for the Padres and Cardinals. Following his playing career, he remained in the game as a scout and worked in the Angels’ front office. His passing was noted in Newsweek and at MLB Trade Rumors.