Heading South: The Braves Leave Milwaukee for Atlanta

On the evening of September 22, 1965, more than 12,000 fans at Milwaukee County Stadium were treated to an exciting baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Braves.  The hometown faithful witnessed the removal of Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax from the game in the third inning, followed by an inside-the-park four-base blow by lumbering catcher/first baseman Gene Oliver off reliever Howie Reed.  However, after trailing 6-1, the Dodgers rallied to take a 7-6 victory.  The Dodger win was their sixth in a row, while the Braves defeat marked their fifth straight and ninth loss in the last 11 games, knocking the Milwaukee franchise from contention for the National League pennant.

While the game that evening was entertaining, the real story was off the field as the Braves, playing the 1965 season in Milwaukee under a court injunction, were hosting their last contest at County Stadium before departing for the greener pastures of Atlanta and the 1966 baseball campaign. For a while the game seemed to evoke the memory of Milwaukee’s enthusiastic embrace of the Braves, as stars Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Joe Torre were greeted with standing ovations.  Yet, when the game ended and the players departed, the fans appeared somewhat lost and reluctant to leave.  While the organist played “Auld Lang Syne” and “Till We Meet Again,” some members of the crowd broke onto the field, taking turf and bases for souvenirs.  Eventually, the Milwaukee faithful filtered out of the park, leaving Robert Wells of the Milwaukee Journal to comment, “It was all over.  There was nothing left to do but just put aside the pleasant illusion that baseball matters, and go home.”1

A much different mood was apparent on April 12, 1966, in Atlanta Stadium (later called Atlanta Fulton County Stadium) when 50,671 fans turned out to see the Braves host the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Even with enthusiastic support, the Braves could not muster a win as the Pirates prevailed over Braves pitching star Tony Cloninger 3-2 in 13 innings.  Atlanta sportswriter Furman Bisher praised the city of Atlanta and Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. for the vision to build an $18 million stadium to attract the Braves, ushering in “a grand and glorious explosion in sports in the whole South, an explosion that had studiously disassociated itself from such medieval south-of-the Mason Dixon clichés as ‘cotton-picking,’ ‘pickaninny,’ ‘you-all,’ ‘hoecake,’ and ‘salate greens.’ ”2

While Atlanta celebrated the Braves with banquets, fireworks, parades, and the dismissal of public schools for Opening Day, the commencement of the 1966 baseball season found Milwaukee in a state of depression, well exemplified by a University of Wisconsin student who told the Milwaukee Journal, “I loved those Braves, and I grew up with them.  I even learned to read with baseball cards.  I saw many a wonderful game with my dad, and Opening Day was a ritual with us.  Today, I don’t know.  I can’t even bear the thought of having to listen to the Atlanta Braves on the radio.”3 Meanwhile, Milwaukee County Stadium was renovated, swept, and garnished, just in case some last-minute miracle in the courts returned the Braves to the jilted lovers in Wisconsin.  In the fantasy world of Field of Dreams, it may hold that “if you build it, they will come.”  However, in the real world of American business (of which professional baseball has always been part), it may depend on one’s market share.  Thus, the real story of the mid-1960s in Atlanta and Milwaukee was the changing patterns of demographics and economic power in American society.

The transfer of the Braves from Milwaukee to Atlanta was reflective of what journalist Kirkpatrick Sale described as an economic, political, and cultural power shift from the Midwest and East to the Sunbelt after the Second World War.  According to Sale, the rise of the Sunbelt in the South and West was based upon a foundation of agribusiness, defense spending, technological development, energy sources such as oil, booming real-estate values, leisure opportunities, and a population growth of from about 40 million people to nearly 80 million inhabitants between 1940 and 1975.4 This was a potentially lucrative market for baseball to tap, although a sense of vision and an orderly plan of expansion were missing among baseball moguls.

However, this tale of two cities must first consider a third urban center, Boston, the original home of the Braves.  The 1952 season marked the end of the Braves’ 82-year history in Boston.  Just four years after a franchise attendance record of more than 1.45 million, the 1952 Braves drew only 281,278, finishing in seventh place, a dismal 32 games out of first place.5 In March 1953, only a month before the start of the season, Braves owner Lou Perini asked his National League colleagues to approve moving the club to Milwaukee.  While baseball owners blocked the efforts of maverick Bill Veeck to relocate his St. Louis Browns in Milwaukee, approval for Perini, who owned the minor-league territorial rights in Milwaukee, was unanimous.  The Braves’ move was the first franchise shift for major-league baseball in more than 50 years and was closely monitored by baseball magnates.

Baseball historian David Voigt suggests that Perini’s fellow owners “waxed green-eyed with envy” as the Braves settled into a new $5 million county-financed stadium, drawing 1.8 million fans in 1953.6 A full-blown romance between Milwaukee and its new major-league franchise was evident when a crowd of 12,000 people showed up to welcome the team at the train station, followed by a parade witnessed by 60,000 fans.  Braves players were showered with attention, including free services and merchandise, ranging from dry cleaning to automobiles.  Johnny Logan, the Braves shortstop during their glory days of the 1950s, continued to live in Milwaukee after his retirement and recalled, “Everywhere you went, people wanted to talk baseball.  They gave us free cars, milk, bread, dry cleaning, gas.  Cops stopped us to talk baseball, not to give us tickets. Some of the teachers taught the alphabet by using our names.”7

After this whirlwind courtship, the relationship between the Braves and the city of Milwaukee cooled by the early 1960s.  But during the 1950s, Milwaukee was the toast of the baseball world.  After the 1953 campaign, which drew 1.8 million fans through the turnstiles, the Braves topped 2 million fans annually for the next four years, culminating in the figure of 2,215,404 in the World Series championship season of 1957.  The Braves lost the 1958 Series to the Yankees and dropped a playoff series to the Dodgers in 1959; by the early 1960s attendance was beginning to wane.  In 1961 the Milwaukee Braves attracted only 1.1 million faithful to County Stadium (the last time the team would draw a million in Milwaukee). After the 1962 season, in which attendance plummeted to 766,921, Perini sold the team to a syndicate of seven Chicago businessmen.  During the latter stages of the 1963 season, press speculation arose that the Braves might be headed to Atlanta, and despite a 1964 campaign in which the Braves finished only five games out of first, the rejuvenated team still fell short of a million, bringing in 910,911 fans.8

There was considerable speculation as to the roots of Milwaukee’s deteriorating relationship with the Braves.  After the 1958 season, popular general manager John Quinn was lured to the Philadelphia Phillies with a lucrative salary and the title of vice president to go along with his general-manager duties.  Field boss Fred Haney left Milwaukee after the 1959 season to return home and assume the position of general manager for the expansion Los Angeles Angels.  The new management of the Braves proceeded to trade some of the aging Brave stars such as Joe Adcock and Lew Burdette, and make controversial transactions such as dispatching young pitching prospects Joey Jay and Juan Pizarro to the Cincinnati Reds for the good-field, no-hit shortstop Roy McMillan.

Another management issue was the decision of Braves president Joseph F. Cairnes to discontinue, after the 1958 season, the practice of allowing fans to bring beer into Milwaukee County Stadium.  For the Braves clientele, who were working-class and could obtain beer at cost in the breweries where many of them were employed, the high price of stadium beer was a major issue.  Although the beer ban was dropped midway through the 1962 season, the damage was already done.

Perhaps the disenchantment of Braves fans was best summed up in a column by Red Smith in which the journalist quoted a Milwaukee cab driver as complaining, “Where’s Joe Adcock?  Where’s Johnny Logan?  Where’s Lew Burdette? They got rid of all the players the fans knew and then expected people to come out to see a lot of bushers they never even heard of.  If Fred Haney and John Quinn were still here, they’d never even have gone below two million.”9

Although the Chicago group, led by chairman Bill Bartholomay, maintained that its intention was to keep the Braves in Milwaukee, by July 1963 they were engaging in exploratory discussions with Atlanta officials, culminating in a February 1964 Chicago meeting between Atlanta Mayor Allen and Bartholomay in which the Braves agreed to move to Atlanta for the 1965 season.  In exchange, Atlanta committed to the construction of a municipally financed stadium.  And indeed, Atlanta, with a metropolitan population exceeding a million, and the South offered a lucrative market for Northern business investment.10

One of the chief beneficiaries of Southern economic growth was Atlanta, the city that billed itself as “too busy to hate.”  The self-proclaimed capital of the new South hailed itself as a center of transportation, wholesale and retail transactions, business-services income, bank clearings, corporate branch offices, and light industry based around aircraft and automobile assembly plants.  According to the candid memoirs of Mayor Allen, the economic and political elite of Atlanta were “white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, Atlantan, business-oriented, nonpolitical, moderate, well-bred, well educated, pragmatic, and dedicated to the betterment of Atlanta.”11

The secret shuttle diplomacy between Chicago and Atlanta was made public in July 1964.  According to The Sporting News, the Braves were ready to make the shift to Atlanta after that season.  When confronted with the newspaper accounts of an imminent move to Atlanta, Bartholomay and Braves president John McHale hedged their comments, pointing out that the Braves encountered a $40,000 deficit in 1963, and that with reduced television revenues in Milwaukee the club would require an attendance mark of over one million to break even in 1964. McHale concluded, “It is only right that from an economic standpoint we be permitted to assess our position at the end of the season.”12

Club officials citing the corporate bottom line enraged Milwaukee County Executive John Doyne, who threatened legal action against the Braves if the team failed to honor the remaining year on its contract with Milwaukee County Stadium.  Doyne blasted the power structure of professional baseball, asserting, “If the Braves pull up stakes for Atlanta, it could be the worst mark against baseball since the Black Sox scandal.  . . .  How a ball club is permitted to come into a city like this, milk it for a dozen years and then jump elsewhere, I can’t understand.” Meanwhile, Wisconsin Congressman Henry S. Reuss threatened the baseball establishment with congressional action removing the sport’s antitrust exemption.  While National League President Warren Giles gave no encouragement to Milwaukee, Commissioner Ford Frick sought to downplay passions by promising that if the Braves did move to Atlanta, Milwaukee would be considered for major-league expansion.13

While the pennant race heated up, the issue of the Braves franchise transfer was placed on the back burner.  However, at an October 21, 1964, meeting in Chicago, the Braves board of directors voted to ask National League owners to approve the move of the Braves to Atlanta for the 1965 season.  The next day National League owners meeting in New York appeared ready to support the action of Braves management, until served with a restraining order that would force the Braves to adhere with the provisions of their 1965 contract with Milwaukee County Stadium.  Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution described the legal actions of the Milwaukee officials, especially County Board Chairman Eugene Grobschmidt, as spiteful, observing, “We had a stadium eagerly waiting for a team, really lusting for it.  Milwaukee had a team that didn’t want Milwaukee.  Milwaukee, in truth, by this time viewed the team with scorn, but would hold it to its legal truth just for pure damned spite, if nothing else.”14

At a November 7, 1964, meeting of National League owners in Phoenix, the lords of baseball decided to obey the restraining order and dictated that the Braves fulfill their lease with Milwaukee, but approved the transfer of the club to Atlanta for the 1966 season.  This ruling by the baseball establishment called for a lame-duck season for the Braves in 1965 and created an acrimonious season for team officials, players, and the citizens of both Atlanta and Milwaukee.

The Sporting News took a strong position against the Braves transfer, citing the hypocrisy of team management.  For example, the paper chastised Bartholomay for his April 11, 1964, comment, “We are positively not moving.  We’re playing in Milwaukee, whether you’re talking of 1964, 1965, or 1975.  I hope this is the last time anyone tries to link us with Atlanta or any other city.”  The report went on to observe that the Braves chairman uttered these comments one month after making a verbal commitment to Mayor Allen and Atlanta. The Sporting News was concerned that the situation in Milwaukee might endanger the sport’s antitrust exemption.15

Such fears seemed justified when Congressman Emanuel Celler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, agreed to appear on Congressman Reuss’s weekly radio show.  Calling baseball a business rather than a sport, Celler suggested that Organized Baseball “no longer be immunized under the antitrust laws.”16  Concerned about Celler’s remarks, The Sporting News was quite critical of baseball ownership and legal maneuvers that marred the 1965 season in Milwaukee.  The paper’s editorial position was that Milwaukee should support the Braves in 1965 and that their good-faith efforts should be rewarded with an expansion franchise in 1966 or as soon as possible. After the 1965 campaign, The Sporting News editorialized that under the circumstances the Braves’ season attendance mark of 555,584 fans was decent, and that baseball should make expansion its number-one agenda item, with Milwaukee the number-one city on the expansion list. The paper asserted, “Milwaukee wants major league baseball.  It wants a major league club under Milwaukee ownership.  If it gets this, there will be no question whatsoever about support for the club.  It will be there.”17

Accordingly, Teams Inc. of Milwaukee, along with representatives from Oakland and San Diego, made an expansion presentation at baseball’s annual winter meeting.  These efforts were rebuffed by the major-league establishment, who maintained that the talent pool was insufficient to support expansion.  Editorial reaction by The Sporting News was spirited: “This is the greatest nation on the face of the globe. There is no dearth of baseball talent here.  There is only a dearth of desire to encourage and nurture it.  Baseball is not suffering from a shortage of anything.  It’s burdened by a surplus – of can’t do men in a can do age.”18

The paper continued to push the expansion issue throughout the early months of 1966, even going so far as to suggest the Braves stay in Milwaukee if a new franchise was unavailable for the beer city.  The consistent editorial support for the Milwaukee position led one Atlanta partisan, Lester Wallace of Social Circle, Georgia, to complain that The Sporting News was a “snotty” Yankee magazine.  Wallace wrote, “Well, in the eyes of God-fearing Southerners, we compare your magazine with LBJ – Nuff said.”19

Meanwhile, the Braves and the cities of Milwaukee and Atlanta spent the months after the 1965 season wrangling in court. A perusal of the legal depositions by the leading participants, and a sampling of editorial opinion in the Milwaukee Journal and Atlanta Journal and Constitution, indicates a degree of bitterness that made any type of compromise next to impossible.  In December 1965 Judge Sam McKenzie of Fulton County (Atlanta) Superior Court granted an injunction at the request of the Atlanta Stadium Authority, mandating the Braves to honor their 25-year contract to use Atlanta Stadium.  In support of Judge McKenzie’s ruling, the National League ordered the Braves to fulfill their obligations to Atlanta, and in February 1966 the city of Atlanta went into federal court in Houston and was granted a decision requiring that the Braves observe their contractual agreement with the Atlanta Stadium Authority.  All that was left for Milwaukee was for the state of Wisconsin to pursue its allegation that the Braves had violated state antitrust law.  During the fall and winter of 1965-1966, Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Elmer Roller processed numerous depositions from officials representing Milwaukee and the Braves baseball club.20

Milwaukee city attorney John T. Fleming agreed to petition the court, pointing out that the taxpayers of Milwaukee had contributed millions toward the construction of a ballpark and related expenses so the National League could conduct professional baseball games.  Fleming concluded that the Braves afforded the city entertainment, relaxation, and education.  Accordingly, the attorney argued, “The denial of major league baseball and with it a denial of a major league baseball franchise to persons who are genuinely interested in providing baseball for Milwaukee, constitutes a denial of a substantial and significant right to the city.” The lawsuit mirrored the popular indignation displayed by the Milwaukee Journal, whose editorial and sports pages satirized the Chicago ownership of the Braves as the “Rover Boys,” while characterizing them as practicing “greed, ingratitude, deception, and betrayal.”21

There was, indeed, considerable animosity in Milwaukee as many citizens participated in a boycott of Coca-Cola products as the corporate headquarters of the soft-drink company were housed in Atlanta.  It was also the contention of Milwaukee officials that the Braves had done little to promote the team in 1965, seeking to induce artificially low attendance figures in support of the club’s abandonment of the city.  In fact, County Board Chairman Grobschmidt, who had quarreled with Braves manager Bobby Bragan during the course of the 1965 baseball campaign, continued to assert that the Braves had not played “the baseball they were capable of.”  According to Grobschmidt, Bragan told him that there was nothing dumber than a dumb politician, to which the county executive retorted, “There is nothing dumber than a dumb baseball manager.”22

Milwaukee’s suit questioning baseball’s antitrust exemption also enjoyed support from another victim of the baseball establishment.  Bill Veeck, whose efforts to move his St. Louis Browns franchise to Milwaukee or Baltimore was blocked by his fellow owners, retained bitter feelings toward baseball ownership.  After issuing a public statement deploring the duplicity and greed of Braves ownership, the baseball maverick was asked whether he was considering getting back in baseball.  Veeck quipped, “When I go back to work, I’ll probably go into something more legitimate than baseball – like running dope or something.”23

Despite Veeck’s criticism, and the fact that baseball enjoyed a privileged legal position, Braves management and their supporters continued to cloak their rhetoric in the fabric of free enterprise and laissez-faire capitalism.  Thus, in the Atlanta Constitution, sports editor Jesse Outlar wrote, “So what’s wrong with an owner seeking a profit?  The U.S. is supposed to be the land of free enterprise.  It has always been the opinion here that a baseball owner has as much right to move as a football or basketball owner, or a brewery or soft drink owner.”

Outlar maintained that the Milwaukee lawsuit was spiteful and sought to interfere with the economic development of the South. The Atlanta paper was also generous in its support of Bartholomay, who, according to Outlar, was branded by Wisconsin residents as the “vilest villain since Genghis Khan.”24 Instead, Outlar maintained the Braves chairman was simply a good businessman who reflected the progressive economic interests of the New South championed by Mayor Allen in Atlanta.  There was simply too much competition in the Midwest with the two Chicago clubs and the 1961 addition of the Minnesota Twins, while there was no major-league competition in the virgin baseball market of the booming Southeast.

Bartholomay insisted that Milwaukee citizen promises to promote the club with season-ticket sales and public purchase of stock were not forthcoming, indicating a lack of interest in the club.  He concluded his deposition by observing that he reluctantly voted to move the club due to the “terrible disappointment and disbelief that the commitment had not been carried out.”25

No such reluctance was expressed by the volatile Braves manager Bragan, who was the focal point of fan resentment in Milwaukee. The irrepressible skipper asserted that he would not return as manager for three times $45,000 salary if it meant going to work in Milwaukee again.  He labeled the Wisconsin city as a “bad baseball town,” although Milwaukee would get the last laugh when the Atlanta Braves let Bragan go during the course of the 1966 season.26

National League President Warren Giles was given the final word, once again placing the issue within the parameter of free-enterprise rhetoric. Giles insisted, “Frankly, it would appear that under the American system of free enterprise only one reason is needed.  In the last three years, the Braves suffered some three million dollars in losses.  That seems sufficient reason to transfer any business.” The case for the National League was presented by its attorney, Bowie Kuhn (later to serve as commissioner of baseball), who in his memoirs maintained that his heart and responsibilities were not in the same place, for he opposed franchise transfers.  Nevertheless, Kuhn and the National League successfully pursued the case through the courts.27

On April 13, 1966, Judge Roller rendered his decision in the Milwaukee antitrust case, ruling against Major League Baseball and ordering the National League to file a 1967 expansion plan, to include Milwaukee, by May 16.  If the League failed to provide such a plan, the Braves would be dispatched back to Milwaukee.  In addition, Roller levied fines and court costs against Braves management, the National League, and each club within the league.  National League attorney Kuhn announced that the decision would be appealed.

In August the Wisconsin State Supreme Court overturned Roller’s decision, agreeing with him in principle but concluding that interstate commerce regulation of Major League Baseball franchise transfers was national policy and a job for the Congress.  The US Supreme Court refused to review the Milwaukee case, letting the judgment of the Wisconsin Supreme Court stand, reaffirming that if baseball was to be brought under the umbrella of antimonopoly legislation it would have to be through congressional action.28

However, the inactivity of both the courts and Congress allowed baseball owners to continue their unbridled quest for profits with no countervailing responsibility to their communities.  The irony of this situation is that in 1970 Milwaukee welcomed the transfer of the Seattle Pilots, renaming them the Brewers, leading Seattle to pursue antitrust litigation until it was granted an expansion franchise, the Seattle Mariners. For most of their history, the Brewers and Mariners have struggled as small-market franchises, while after a difficult time in Atlanta during the 1970s and ’80s, the Braves emerged as the team of the 1990s with a sound scouting system, Ted Turner’s money, and the visibility of a television cable station.

A version of this piece was originally published in Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Policy Perspectives, 6:1 (1997), 29-47.

 

Notes

1 For accounts of the Braves’ last game in Milwaukee, see Milwaukee Journal, September 23, 1965, and The Sporting News, October 9, 1965.

2 For Opening Day in Atlanta, see Atlanta Journal and Constitution, April 13, 1966; The Sporting News, April 30, 1966; and Furman Bisher, Miracle in Atlanta: The Atlanta Braves Story (Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1965), 2.

3 Milwaukee Journal, April 13, 1965.

4 Kirkpatrick Sale, Power Shift: The Rise of the Southern Rim and Its Challenge to the Eastern Establishment (New York: Vintage Books, 1976), 18-53.

5 For an overview of the Braves in Boston, see Gary Caruso, The Braves Encyclopedia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995).

6 David Q. Voigt, American Baseball, Volume III: From Postwar Expansion to the Electronic Age (University Park:  Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983), xxiv-xxv.

7 For the initial reaction of Milwaukee to the Braves, see W.C. Heinz, “Baseball Players’ Dream Town: Milwaukee and Her Braves,” Cosmopolitan, 136 (May 1954),  88-93; Gilbert Millstein, “More Brooklyn Than Brooklyn: Milwaukee and Its New Ball Team,” New York Times Magazine, July 5,1953, 10-11; and “Sausages, Sauerbraten, and Sympathy for the Milwaukee Braves,” Life, 35 (July 6, 1953), 39-42.  Johnny Logan is quoted in the Milwaukee Journal, September 22, 1965.  For a profile of Logan, see Red Gleason, “Johnny Logan’s a Fighter,” Sport, 21 (June 1956), 42-45.

8 For a discussion of attendance figures in Milwaukee, see Caruso, Braves Encyclopedia, 345-348.

9 For explanations regarding the loss of enthusiasm in Milwaukee for the Braves, see Charles Dexter, “Milwaukee’s Fight for Baseball,” Baseball Digest, 25 (December,1964), 6-7; William Furlong, “Milwaukee’s Troubles:  Too Many Stars Are Hard to Handle,” Sport, 29 (February, 1960), 12-15; Frank Graham Jr., “The Inside Story of the Braves Dissension,” Sport, 33 (February, 1962), 36-37; Caruso, Braves Encyclopedia, 324-325; and Milwaukee Journal, September 22, 1965.

10 For the negotiations between Atlanta and the Braves ownership, see Bisher, Miracle in Atlanta; and Ivan Allen Jr., Mayor: Notes on the Sixties (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971).

11 For the development of Atlanta, see Tojman A. Hartshorn, Metropolis in Georgia: Atlanta’s Price as a Major Transaction Center (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976); Bradley R. Rice, “If  Dixie Were Atlanta,” in Richard M. Bernard and Bradley R. Rice, eds., Sunbelt Cities:  Politics and Growth Since World War II (Austin:  University of Texas Press, 1983), 31 -57; and Allen, Mayor, 30-31.

12 The Sporting News, July 11, 1964.

13 The Sporting News, July 18 and August 1, 1964.

14 Bisher, Miracle in Atlanta, 107.

15 For The Sporting News’s reaction to the Braves transfer, see November 7, 1964, and January 23, 1965.

16 For Celler’s remarks, see Milwaukee Journal, February 6, 1965, and The Sporting News, February 20, 1965.

17 The Sporting News, October 9, 1965.

18 The Sporting News, January 29, 1965.

19 The Sporting News, April 2, 23, and 30, 1965, and May 21, 1965.

20 For a summary of legal actions regarding Milwaukee, Atlanta, and the Braves, see Bisher, Miracle in Atlanta, 178-179.

21 Milwaukee Journal, September 16 and 22, 1965.

22 For the Coca-Cola boycott, see Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler, I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 114-115; and Bisher, Miracle in Atlanta, 69-71. For Grobschmidt’s testimony, see Milwaukee Journal, September 28, 1965.

23 For the views of Bill Veeck on the Braves franchise shift from Milwaukee to Atlanta and the baseball establishment, see Bill Veeck, The Hustler’s Handbook (New York G.P. Putnam, 1963), and The Sporting News, March 5, 1966.

24 Atlanta Constitution, February 3, 1966.

25 Atlanta Constitution, January 14, 1966.

26 Atlanta Constitution, January 28, 1966.  For additional background information on Bragan, see Milton Gross, “Bobby Bragan Comes of Age,” Baseball Digest, 27 (June 1963), 59-61; and Donald Honig, The Man in the Dugout (Chicago:  Follett Publishing Co., 1977), 7-30.

27 Atlanta  Constitution, February 26, 1966, and Bowie Kuhn, Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner (New York:  Times Books, 1987),  20-22.

28 For Judge Roller’s decision, see Milwaukee Journal, April 14, 1966.  For the appeal process see The Sporting News, April 23, 1966, August 13, 1966, and December 24, 1966.