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Jerry Royster of the San Diego Padres watches the ball during the 1989 season.<\/p>\n
Rick Stewart<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Baseball afforded Jerry Royster memories of a lifetime, including some he admits had to be seen to be believed.<\/p>\n
Raised in Oak Park in the heart of Sacramento in the 1960s and one of this region\u2019s greatest multi-sport athletes, Royster logged 16 Major League Baseball seasons. He played against Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, and then with Aaron, who became a lifelong friend.<\/p>\n
Royster was in the Los Angeles Dodgers dugout in 1974 when Aaron of the Atlanta Braves broke Babe Ruth\u2019s career home run mark with a towering shot. Royster was later traded to Atlanta, and he homered in the 1977 Braves home opener in 1977 when the club retired Aaron\u2019s No. 44.<\/p>\n
And Royster knew Ted Turner. Knew him well. Turner died May 6 at 87, leaving a legacy of that of a never-dull visionary who purchased the Braves for $12 million in 1976 and famously managed one game in the 1977 season in an effort to halt a dreadful losing skid.<\/p>\n
Royster said that Turner discovered the best way to showcase his sagging franchise was to put them on TV stations that aired across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely loved Ted Turner,\u201d Royster said by phone, on his way to a round of golf in Southern California. \u201cI loved him. Ted was totally different. He was hands-on. He was a visionary who really lived up to it. He saw things no one else saw. He wanted to put a pool in Atlanta Stadium in 1977, and was told it was a bad idea. Now more teams do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And more: \u201cTed would talk to us players about his ideas. We were on a team flight in 1977, and he said, \u2018Guys, I\u2019m thinking of starting an all-news station, 24 hours a day.\u2019 We all thought, \u2018Who\u2019s going to sit around all day and watch the news?\u2019 Little did we know, a lot of people would.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy 1980, he started CNN. Ted knew it would work before anyone else did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner\u2019s one game managing Braves<\/p>\n
Royster played infield and outfield for the Braves from 1976-1984, and he played his final season with the club in 1988. Royster saw and heard it all from Turner.<\/p>\n
Braves teammate Jeff Burroughs once called the Braves daily saga in the lean years, before they Braves became a National League powerhouse, \u201cThe Edge of Madness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner was so bold and unconventional that he took it upon himself to end a 16-game Braves losing streak nearly 50 years ago, to provide a new voice in the clubhouse and to see what it takes to manage and lead the club. He figured he was best qualified. He owned the team, for one thing, and he was a regular on team flights and in the clubhouse. The experiment lasted one game.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course it was off the wall!\u201d Royster said with laughter. \u201cWhat owner takes over a team? Ted did. Ted told us before the game, \u2018I know very little about how to run a baseball team, but I do know how to run things.\u2019 It became apparent early that he was in over his head. He told us, \u2018Fellas. I see why I don\u2019t manage baseball teams.\u2019 But he was man enough to admit it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Pirates beat Turner and the Braves that day, 2-1. The 38-year-old Turner was informed by Major League Baseball that he could not have an ownership stock in a team and manage it. Also in that 1977 season, Turner won the America\u2019s Cup as the top yachtsman. He invited Braves players to watch him prepare.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly five of us went, but I sure did,\u201d Royster said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
![\"Ted](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/95643773-GI.JPG\" "\\"95643773-GI.JPG\\"")
Ted Turner, owner of the Atlanta Braves, looks at his new National League ring, presented to him and the rest of the Atlanta Braves before the beginning of the first regular season game in the Braves\u2019 new stadium, Turner Field, on April 4, 2010. AFP AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n
Turner never eased up on his Braves passion and he spoke his mind. In 1980, Turner was so irked that the Braves started the season 1-8 that he mandated that food no longer be allowed in the clubhouse, explaining, \u201cThe players are getting fat, and I don\u2019t want them doing it on my time.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 1982, the Braves had arrived, winning their first division title since 1969. Turner did not miss the champagne shower in the clubhouse. Royster was there celebrating, too. Braves star Dale Murphy was the National League MVP and Phil Niekro was 17-4 on the mound.<\/p>\n
The Braves produced just three winning seasons from 1975-1990, so the champagne was a long time coming. The Braves later won a Major League Baseball record 14 consecutive division titles. Turner sold the Braves in 1996.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe only wanted to win,\u201d Royster said. \u201cEverything he did was to make us better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Royster\u2019s remarkable rise<\/p>\n
Royster played 1,428 big league games, driving in 253 runs, stealing 189 bases and scoring 552 times. He played every position in the bigs except pitcher and catcher. He managed the Milwaukee Brewers on an interim basis in 2002, and he managed the Las Vegas Triple-A team (formerly the Stars, then the 51s, now the Aviators) to a club-record 323 victories. He coached and managed teams across the globe.<\/p>\n
Not bad for a guy who did not play baseball his senior season at Sacramento High School in 1970. He was a Sacramento Bee All-Metro performer in football as a 160-pound halfback, and he earned All-Metro honors in basketball as a prolific guard, once scoring 41 in a game. He earned All-Metro baseball honors as a junior infielder for the Dragons and was a preseason All-American before his senior campaign that never materialized.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got cut my senior year in baseball because I would leave practice to compete in a track meet,\u201d Royster said.<\/p>\n
![\"MILWAUKEE,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/615379-GI.JPG\" "\\"615379-GI.JPG\\"")
Manager Jerry Royster and first baseman Richie Sexson of the Milwaukee Brewers argue with home plate umpire Doug Eddings after Eddings threw both of them out of a game in the fourth inning against the Cincinnatti Reds at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 16, 2002. Jonathan Daniel Getty Images <\/p>\n
Royster in spring 1970 was deemed by late, great Bee columnist Don Bloom as the region\u2019s finest prep athlete since the 1950s.<\/p>\n
So how did he land in the bigs?<\/p>\n
Royster caught the right eye. He was a last-minute fill-in to play shortstop for a Sacramento Babe Ruth summer team. Royster fielded a call from his Metro League rival and McClatchy Lions pal Rowland Office, who also logged a long MLB career. In a Babe Ruth double-header in the Bay Area, Royster had seven hits and scored six times.<\/p>\n
A Dodgers scout was in attendance. Within days, Royster was signed as an undrafted rookie free agent. He made his Dodgers MLB debut in 1980, at 20 years old.<\/p>\n
Had it not been for that Dodgers scout, Royster said he would have played football and baseball at Washington State on scholarship, and who knows where life takes him. Royster said his parents were his role models \u2014 Jimmie and Bessie \u2014 and that they \u201ctook care of all of us in Oak Park. My dad was everyone\u2019s coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was with the blessing of his parents that he signed with the Dodgers. They did so in the family\u2019s Oak Park home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was getting out of my spikes, changing my shoes, when the scout asked me if I\u2019d be interested in playing for the Dodgers,\u201d Royster said. \u201cI have to thank Rowland Office, though he didn\u2019t tell me it\u2019d be a double-header.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"BOSTON,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/148450025-GI.JPG\" "\\"148450025-GI.JPG\\"")
Kevin Youkilis, left, of the Chicago White Sox talks with Jerry Royster, third base coach of the Boston Red Sox, before their game July 16, 2012, at Fenway Park in Boston. Jim Rogash Getty Images Royster returns to Sacramento in September<\/p>\n
Royster was a career baseball man who doesn\u2019t miss the grind. He enjoys being a grandfather of three young children, and he embraces his lifelong friendships with other Sacramento-area baseball greats who went on to manage in the big leagues: Dusty Baker of Del Campo roots, Jerry Manuel of Cordova and Buck Martinez of Elk Grove.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so blessed,\u201d Royster said. \u201cI\u2019m 73 years old, in good shape. No limping, no major surgeries. I played 16 years in the Majors, and I coached and managed at the highest level. I take none of it for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September, Royster will host his annual Fairway to the Future Celebrity Golf Tournament<\/a> to raise funds for Sacramento students, and he will be part of the sixth annual Honorary Negro League Game at Sacramento State<\/a> with local teenage Black athletes in which players compete in 1940s-era uniforms.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot to look forward to,\u201d Royster said.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
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