Bragan played eight seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s, before going on to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves in the late 1950s and 1960s.

[4] In his only World Series appearance, in 1947 against the New York Yankees, he appeared in Game 6 as a pinch hitter; batting for Ralph Branca in the sixth inning with the game tied at five all, he doubled off Yankee relief pitcher Joe Page to drive home Carl Furillo with the eventual winning run.

He managed the Pittsburgh Pirates (1956–57), Cleveland Indians (1958),[6] and Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves (1963–66),[7] each time getting fired in the mid-season of his final campaign.

In Cleveland, he lasted a total of only 67 games of his maiden season before his dismissal—at the time of his firing, his was the shortest managerial stint in team history.

"[10] Bragan was a protégé of Branch Rickey, the Hall of Fame front-office executive, who hired him as an unproven young manager at Fort Worth in 1948.

When Rickey wanted to make room for Roy Campanella, who was starring in the minors, he offered Bragan the Fort Worth managerial job; he took over in July 1948, and remained with the Cats through 1952.

Bragan—the Dodgers' second-string catcher at the time—was one of a group of white players, largely from the American South, who signed a petition against Robinson's presence.

When he was the skipper of the Dodgers' Triple-A Spokane Indians PCL farm club in 1959, he played a pivotal role in helping Maury Wills, a speedy African-American shortstop, rise to Major League stardom.

Said the Dodgers' then-general manager, Buzzie Bavasi, "Bobby would call six times a day and tell me over again how Wills had learned to switch-hit and how he was a great team leader, off and on the field, and how I was absolutely nuts if I didn't bring him up right away.

He would fashion a 14-year MLB career, play on three world champions, make seven NL All-Star teams, and in 1962 win the National League Most Valuable Player Award and set a new record for stolen bases in a season, with 104 thefts, breaking Ty Cobb's 47-year-old mark.

[13] Bragan scouted for the newborn Montreal Expos expansion franchise in 1968, and that October he agreed to return to uniform as a coach on Gene Mauch's staff for the team's maiden National League season in 1969.

He spent three full years as president of the minor leagues before he and his wife Gwenn returned to Fort Worth, where he joined the Texas Rangers' front office in 1979.

Honorees have included Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, Larry King, Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Valentine, Bud Selig, Willie Mays, Lou Brock and Brooks Robinson.