Ollie Brantley

Ollie O. Brantley

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 178 lb.

• School Arkansas State University

• Born September 16, 1931 in Marianna, AR USA
• Died April 5, 2020 in Dallas, TX USA

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ollie Brantley won over 150 games in the minors, reaching AAA, but did not get to the majors.

Brantley was with the Memphis Red Sox from 1950-1953. He was then signed by the Chicago White Sox. He was 7-11 with a 3.89 ERA for the Wisconsin Rapids White Sox in '53. He spent most of 1954 with the Dubuque Packers (13-7, 4.25) and also pitched for the Waterloo White Hawks (1-1). He tied Sherman Jones for 7th in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League in wins. In the high-flying Arizona-Mexico League in '55, he was 10-11 with a 6.02 ERA and hitting .349 for the Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings.

The right-hander was 7-9 with a 3.87 ERA for the 1956 Evansville Braves, batting .297. In 1957, he set his high for wins, going 22-15 with a 3.65 ERA for the Eugene Emeralds. He was among the Northwest League in wins (1st, 5 ahead of Berlyn Hodges and Vern Kindsfather), losses (tied for 2nd), ERA (9th, between Tom Gibson and Andrew George), innings (264, 1st), hits allowed (243, 1st), strikeouts (166, 2nd, 20 behind Gibson) and complete games (22, 3rd after Kindsfather and Thornton Kipper).

Ollie was 15-6 with a 3.40 ERA for the 1958 Colorado Springs Sky Sox, finishing 6th in the Western League in victories; 3 of the 5 hurlers with more wound up in the majors during their careers. He led White Sox farmhands in wins. With the Charleston ChaSox the next summer, he went 12-11, 3.91. He tied Ralph Lumenti for 9th in the South Atlantic League in wins and tied Alan Brice for 5th in the Chicago chain in that category.

He split 1960 between the Charleston White Sox (7-9, 3.66) and the San Diego Padres, allowing just one run in five innings in his only three games at AAA. In 1961, he moved to the Cincinnati Reds system, appearing for the Columbia Reds (4-5, 3.84) and Topeka Reds (2-1, 3.86).

He spent his final eight seasons in the Minnesota Twins chain. In '62, he was 7-2 with a 3.81 ERA for the Bismarck-Mandan Pards. He pitched 38 games, tying Silvano Quezada for 8th in the Northern League. He had a 7-6, 4.03 record for the 1963 Pards, 3rd in the loop with 43 appearances on the mound. In his third season with Bismarck-Mandan, he was 6-3 with a 1.50 ERA and was 8th in the league with 30 games pitched.

Moving to the Orlando Twins in 1965, he was dominant at 15-8, 1.63 with a 0.93 WHIP. Despite pitching mostly in relief, he still tied Creighton Burns and Thomas Rowe for 4th in the Florida State League in wins and was 4th in ERA (between Don Wilson and Gary Schlieve). He also tied for the most games pitched (61). He tied Burns for 4th in the Twins chain in wins, was second in games pitched (7 behind Chuck Nieson) and had the 2nd-best ERA among pitchers with 100+ innings.

Ollie was 5-6 with a 2.67 ERA for the 1966 Wisconsin Rapids Twins. He pitched 56 games, 2nd in the Midwest League, 3 behind Eric Spelman. Only Garland Shifflett pitched more games for the Twins farm system. In '67, the 35-year-old relief ace was 8-2 with a 2.81 ERA, walking only 9 in 48 innings. He was 2-3 with a 3.30 ERA for the 1968 Wilson Tobs and even was 4 for 12 at the plate at his age. In 1969, he finally wound down his two-decade career, going 3-1 with four saves and a 4.88 ERA for Orlando.

He was 155-117 in 440 minor league games.

After baseball, he became the first black deputy in the Lee County Sherriff's Department, was active in his church, helped coach youth baseball, worked in the school system and officiate high school basketball games. He worked to make sure minority children in the small town had a field for Little League.