Reactions to billionaire Ted Turner’s death at 87 weren’t limited to the cable news universe he once revolutionized with CNN.
Turner had a near-equal impact on the sports world as owner of TNT, which aired Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, LeBron James and the rest of the NBA from 1989 through the 2024-25 season.
Even now, after TNT lost domestic media rights, the network’s popular ‘Inside the NBA’ studio show continues to be licensed to ESPN so fans can still see beloved hosts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal.
‘Ted was an architect of impact across the globe: broadcasting, journalism, philanthropy and sports,’ Johnson told ESPN’s audience during Inside the NBA’s tribute to Turner on Wednesday.
Sports fans may be less familiar with his yachting success, which includes an America’s Cup win in 1977. However, Turner’s impact on baseball is unquestioned, as many Atlanta Braves fans were quick to remember after his death on Wednesday.
‘Ted Turner used to have wet t-shirt contests on college night at Braves games,’ Outkick.com’s Clay Travis remembered on X.
But it was a bizarre stunt in 1977, when he managed the Braves for a single game, that fans seemed to remember most following his death.
Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner celebrates following Game Six of the World Series against the Cleveland Indians on October 28, 1995 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium
Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner smiles during his single game as the team’s manager
‘RIP to Ted Turner. The last owner to manage a game’ cllct Media’s Darren Rovell remembered on X, before adding his own reference to that ‘wet T-shirt contest.’
Turner actually began the 1977 season by getting suspended by commissioner Bowie Kuhn over his pursuit of free-agent outfielder Gary Matthews. But with the team mired in a 16-game losing streak, Turner sent manager Dave Bristol on a scouting assignment and named himself interim skipper.
‘I have found out all I can from the stands,’ Turner told the Atlanta Journal at the time. ‘Now I want to learn first hand what is going on, what is wrong. It can’t hurt us. Not now. Not the way we’re going.’
As legend has it, Turner offered the leadoff spot in the batting order to pitching great Phil Niekro, who thought better of it and ultimately hit in the No. 9 spot.
Baseball great Hank Aaron sits alongside Ted Turner at Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta
Regardless, the Braves would fall, 2-1, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for their 17th straight defeat.
‘If I’m smart enough to buy the team, I ought to be smart enough to manage it,’ Turner told reporters after the loss in Pittsburgh. ‘This is like a game to me. This is just a big Little League team.’
Before the following game, National League president Chub Feeney intervened and ordered Turner out of the dugout. And as luck would have it, the Braves would win that game en route to a last-place finish in the NL East.
Even now, Turner is still credited with an 0-1 record as Braves manager on BaseballReference.com.
‘He was definitely a character, but the type of character I was a fan of,’ one fan remarked on X.
‘That actually is awesome,’ another added.
Turner removed as Braves manager after just one game and died with a lifetime 0-1 record
Turner holds a bottle and an admirer as he and his crew celebrated their America’s Cup win
Turner would later sell the team in 2007, but not until after the Braves won their first World Series in Atlanta in 1995. The club had been champions in previous stops in Milwaukee and Boston but had yet to win the Fall Classic since moving to Atlanta in 1966.
Turner stepped away from baseball operations in the late 1980s and the team went from worst to first in 1991, winning the NL pennant and losing a dramatic seven-game World Series to the Minnesota Twins.
The next year, Turner bankrolled the $28 million acquisition of Cy Young winner Greg Maddux, who would join John Smoltz and Tom Glavine to form the most feared pitching trio in recent baseball history.
The Braves would beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1995 World Series and remained the National League’s preeminent team for the remainder of the decade.
Of course, it helped that fans across the country could watch Turner’s Braves on another of his cable channels, TBS.
‘I Loved watching The Braves on TBS growing up in Bama just like a lot of people,’ one fan wrote on X.
Turner was also remembered by Dale Murphy, the legendary Braves outfielder who was an All-Star fixture in the 1980s.
‘Nancy and I, and the whole Murphy family, along with the Braves family and TBS kids everywhere, were sad to hear of Ted’s passing,’ Murphy wrote on X. ‘Hard to put into words the impact he had on us. We are grateful for the chance to play for Ted. He changed so much in this world with tenacity and courage. Thank you, Ted. Rest in peace.’
