Ethan Blackaby
Ethan Allen Blackaby is a retired American professional baseball player and former Major League Baseball outfielder who appeared in 15 games for the Milwaukee Braves during the and seasons. He threw and batted left-handed, stood tall and weighed.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Blackaby attended Canton, Illinois, High School, where he was a multi-sport standout athlete. He played baseball and football at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign before signing with the Braves in 1961. His nine-year professional career included 1,073 games in minor league baseball, punctuated by his two trials with the Braves in the closing weeks of the 1962 and 1964 campaigns, when MLB rosters expanded to 40 players. In his debut on September 6, 1962, he doubled in his first MLB at bat against Ernie Broglio of the St. Louis Cardinals. He had entered the game as a pinch hitter for Braves' catcher Bob Uecker, who later became both a film and television actor and Baseball Hall of Fame games broadcaster. Blackaby collected only two other hits in the majors, both singles, in 25 at bats over his two brief trials.
After his playing days were over, Blackaby served as general manager of the Phoenix Giants of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in the 1970s and early 1980s.
