Rodney Joe Gilbreath (born September 24, 1952) is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

from 1972 to 1978 for the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

Early life

Rod Gilbreath attended Watkins High School in

Laurel, Mississippi Laurel is a city in and the second county seat of Jones County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 17,161. Laurel is northeast of Ellisville, the first county seat, which contains the first county ...

. After high school he enrolled in Jones County Junior College.

Professional career

Gilbreath was selected by Atlanta in the third round (69th overall) of the 1970 Major League Baseball Draft. He progressed through the Braves'

farm system In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful pl ...

and entered the Majors, at age 19, after his promotion from the Double-A Savannah Braves during the midseason of . He divided his next two seasons between Atlanta and the Triple-A Richmond Braves, then played the full seasons of 1975–1978 in Atlanta, exceeding the 100-

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Associat ...

mark during his last three seasons. In 1976 he led the National League with 20 sacrifice hits. Gilbreath retired as an active player after the 1980

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

season. He then rejoined the Braves as a

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

, minor league

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

, and player development executive. In , he was still a member of the Braves' organization, working as a member of its professional scouting staff.

References

External links

Baseball Reference (Minor League playing and managing history)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbreath, Rod 1952 births Living people Atlanta Braves players Atlanta Braves scouts Baseball players from Mississippi Cardenales de Lara players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Greenwood Braves players Magic Valley Cowboys players Major League Baseball second basemen Mesa Thunderbirds baseball players Minor league baseball managers Sportspeople from Laurel, Mississippi Portland Beavers players Richmond Braves players Savannah Braves players 20th-century American sportsmen