Hawk Taylor  Robert Dale "Hawk" Taylor (April 3, 1939 – June 9, 2012) was an American professional baseball player who appeared in 394 games over all or part of 11 Major League Baseball (MLB) seasons as a catcher and outfielder for the Milwaukee Braves (1957–58 and 1961–63), New York Mets (1964–67), California Angels (1967) and Kansas City Royals (1969–70). Born in Metropolis, Illinois, he threw and batted right-handed, and was listed as tall and . A nephew of former major league first baseman Ben Taylor, Hawk Taylor was a schoolboy sensation at Metropolis Community High School, where he batted .650 in 1957, his senior season. The Braves signed him to a $119,000 bonus contract, the highest in MLB history at the time. The bonus rules then in force in baseball mandated that Taylor spend his first two pro seasons on the Braves' big-league roster, and he made his major league debut in June at the age of 18, appearing in seven games—almost exclusively as a pinch runner or pinch hitter: he was given only one at bat by the future pennant- and World Series-winning Braves, and caught only one inning on defense. By his second season, , the bonus rule had been amended and the Braves were permitted to option Taylor to the Class B Three-I League to gain valuable playing time. Recalled by Milwaukee after September 1 when rosters expanded, he appeared in four games, starting two as a left fielder, and notched his first MLB hit. He then spent all of 1959 and 1960 sharpening his skills in the upper levels of the Braves' farm system, and was selected to the 1960 All-Star team as a catcher by the Triple-A American Association. Taylor then was a member of the Braves' official major league roster for the full seasons of –63. However, because of injury and service in the United States Army, he appeared in only 56 total games over those three campaigns. Eclipsed by hard-hitting Joe Torre as the Braves' catcher of the future, Taylor moved to the outfield, where he started 22 games and played all three outfield positions. He hit his first MLB home run on the final day of the 1961 season, a ninth-inning, pinch-hit blow off Mike McCormick that enabled Milwaukee to even the score at 2–2 against the San Francisco Giants at County Stadium, and paved the way to an eventual 3–2 Brave triumph in extra innings.