Former Atlanta Braves Pitcher Dies in Aircraft Crash
By Fred Owens
Former Braves minor league pitcher Joe Johnson died in an aircraft crash this week :Please Credit Graphic created by Fred Owens for Tomahawk Take
According to Avianne Tan of ABC 7 News one of the victims of the midair collision between an F-16 from Shaw AFB and a Cessna 150 was former Atlanta Braves minor league pitcher Joseph E (Joe) Johnson.
The Braves selected the Charleston, South Carolina native out of Louisburg Junior College (NC) in the 13th round of the 2006 Rule 4 draft, he was the 400th player taken in the draft. After Signing he was sent to the Gulf Coast League Braves where he was teammates with Neftali Feliz, Jeff Locke, Cory Rasmus and Diory Hernandez among others.
That season he appeared in six games and threw 36 innings record three saves and earned a promotion to Danville where he pitched alongside future major leaguers Kris Medlen, Tommy Hanson, Jaye Chapman and Michael Broadway. He appeared in just 3 games for Danville throwing 3 1/3 innings of relief.
In 2007 he moved up to Rome where he appeared in 17 games throwing 20 1/3 innings of relief and posting a 1-1 record. His complete statistics are below.
| Year | Tm | W | L | ERA | G | SV | IP | BB | SO |
| 2006 | Braves | 2 | 2 | 3.54 | 15 | 3 | 20.33 | 9 | 20 |
| 2006 | Danville | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 0 | 3.67 | 2 | 6 |
| Totals | 3 | 2 | 3.00 | 18 | 3 | 24 | 11 | 26 | |
| 2007 | Rome | 1 | 1 | 4.87 | 17 | 0 | 20.33 | 15 | 20 |
| Year | Tm | BF | WHIP | H9 | HR9 | BB9 | SO9 | SO/W |
| 2006 | Braves | 94 | 1.525 | 9.7 | 0 | 4 | 8.9 | 2.22 |
| 2006 | Danville | 13 | 0.818 | 2.5 | 0 | 4.9 | 14.7 | 3 |
| Totals | 107 | 1.417 | 8.6 | 0 | 4.1 | 9.8 | 2.36 | |
| 2007 | Rome | 98 | 1.918 | 10.6 | 0.4 | 6.6 | 8.9 | 1.33 |
I couldn’t find a record of TJ surgery or injury for Johnson so I can only assume he didn’t think baseball was going to be his life and retired.
Johnson was also a candidate for Cosmopolitan‘s “Bachelor of the Year” in 2012 and a successful real estate agent who worked part time for Delta Airlines. He flew regularly and was working towards becoming a full time pilot for Delta.
He is survived by one child from a former marriage currently living in Greenville SC.
The thoughts and prayers of those of us here at the Take go out to his family and friends. Once a Braves, always a Brave.