Introduction: From the Braves to the Brewers: Milwaukee’s County Stadium

Milwaukee did not yet have a big-league baseball team when construction on County Stadium began in October 1950 on the site of an old stone quarry about eight miles west of downtown. The ballpark was designed to replace Borchert Field, a dilapidated structure built in 1888 that served as the longtime home of the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. But big-league baseball was not foreign to Beer City. In 1901 a different incarnation of the Milwaukee Brewers was a charter member of the American League, but relocated to St. Louis after just one season, and became the Browns.

The construction of County Stadium reflected wide cultural, economic, and demographic shifts under way in postwar America. It was the first stadium built entirely from public funds, as well as the first to be constructed with lights. Soon after the construction of the steel and concrete multi-use stadium began, both the St. Louis Browns and the National League Boston Braves expressed interest in relocating to Milwaukee to play in a stadium and city that club officials thought would solve their financial woes. Both the Browns and the Braves had struggled with attendance, and had long played second fiddle to their far more popular intercity counterparts, the Cardinals and Red Sox respectively.  Just weeks before the 1953 season opened, the Braves applied for and were granted permission to relocate to Milwaukee.

Boston’s move to Milwaukee marked the end of 50 years of franchise stability in major-league baseball, and a bold move west of the Mississippi River and into the upper Midwest. Not since the Orioles left Baltimore in favor of New York, where they became the Highlanders and eventually the Yankees, had a big-league club moved. America in the 1950s was changing. Suburbia grew as automobiles and a federal highway system made transportation quick and easy. The enormous parking lots around County Stadium attested to these changes.

Milwaukee greeted its new big-league team with outstretched arms. For six consecutive seasons, from 1953 to 1958, the Braves led the majors in attendance; they drew in excess of 2 million every year from 1954 to 1957, and set a major-league record with more than 2.2 million in 1957. The Braves’ financial success helped spur additional franchise shifts, including the aforementioned Browns to Baltimore in 1954, the Philadelphia A’s to Kansas City in 1955, and the New York Giants to San Francisco and Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1958.

The Braves posted winning records for 13 consecutive seasons (1953-1965), captured consecutive pennants, and won the World Series in 1957, yet their success could not save them from absentee ownership, falling attendance, and legal wrangling that led to the club’s relocation to Atlanta for the 1966 season.

With its primary tenants gone, County Stadium’s future as a baseball venue seemed bleak. The ballpark continued to house special events, like concerts, festivals, and amateur baseball tournaments, and also served as the alternative home field for Green Bay Packers football games for typically two games per season.

Bud Selig, a local businessman and former minority stakeholder in the Braves, was instrumental in reviving Milwaukee’s reputation as a big-league market. He helped organize an exhibition game between the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins in 1967. The following season, the White Sox played nine “home” games in County Stadium and averaged more than 29,000 spectators per game, compared with just over 7,400 at Comiskey Park in the Windy City. Selig’s experiments proved successful in drawing baseball fans to County Stadium; however, Milwaukee was not awarded a team when baseball expanded from 20 to 24 teams for the 1969 season. San Diego and Montreal in the NL and Kansas City and Seattle in the AL were the lucky recipients. Undeterred, Selig persuaded the White Sox to return to County Stadium, where they played 11 “home” games, one against each AL team, in 1969.

County Stadium was not without baseball for long. Selig purchased the Seattle Pilots, who had gone bankrupt after just one season. In an episode that recalled the Braves relocation to Milwaukee just weeks before the regular season opened in 1953, Selig transferred the Pilots to Milwaukee during spring training in 1970, and renamed them the Brewers.

For the next 31 seasons, from 1970 to 2000, the Brewers called County Stadium home. Unlike the former tenants of County Stadium, the Brewers did not have immediate success on the field. After eight consecutive losing seasons, the Brewers enjoyed six consecutive winning seasons (1978-1983), still a franchise record as of 2015. They reached the postseason for the first time in the strike-shortened 1981 season, and lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 World Series. The Brewers notched only four more winning seasons (1987, 1988, 1991, 1992) and one .500 season (1989) during their remaining years in County Stadium, and did not appear again in the postseason.

By the early 1990s, the 40-year-old County Stadium seemed like a relic of the past. It lacked many modern amenities, most notably luxury boxes to generate much-needed income in one of the major leagues’ smallest markets.  In November 1996 groundbreaking ceremonies took place on the construction of a new ballpark with a retractable roof. Over the course of the next four baseball seasons, fans inside County Stadium could witness the progress of Miller Park, which was located in a parking lot beyond the outfield. The Brewers played their last game at County Stadium on September 28, 2000. Five months later, in February 2001, County Stadium was demolished, bringing an era to a close.

This SABR Digital Library book rekindles memories of Milwaukee’s County Stadium through detailed summaries of 72 games played there, and insightful feature essays about the history of the ballpark. The process to select games was agonizing, yet deliberate; the book could have easily been filled with memorable games by just Hank Aaron or Warren Spahn. About half of the games are dedicated to the Braves; the other half to the Brewers.

Some of the summaries chronicle games that were memorable and historic when they occurred, such as Jim Wilson tossing the first no-hitter in County Stadium in 1954, the 1955 All-Star Game, the World Series contests of 1957, 1958, and 1982, and Robin Yount collecting his 3,000th hit in 1992; other summaries recall great performances long forgotten, such as Bob Buhl’s 14-inning complete-game victory in 1953 and the Brewers’ two grand slams in one inning in an 18-1 rout of the Boston Red Sox in 1980. Furthermore, the games highlight the accomplishments and heroics of not just readily recognizable stars, like Aaron, Spahn, Eddie Mathews, Cecil Cooper, Paul Molitor, and Yount, but also revive memories of players like Gene Conley, Del Crandall, and Wade Blasingame of the Braves and Bob Coluccio, Dale Sveum, and Steve Woodard of the Brewers.

Also included are great performances by the Braves’ and Brewers’ opponents, like Willie Mays’ four homers in 1961 and Nolan Ryan’s 300th victory in 1990. Twelve feature essays round out the volume and provide context for the stadium’s history. Topics include the stadium’s construction, the Braves’ move to and departure from Milwaukee, the Chicago White Sox’ home games at County Stadium, the Seattle Pilots’ relocation to Milwaukee, and the stadium’s demolition.

Members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) researched and wrote all of the essays in this volume. These uncompensated volunteers are united by their shared interest in baseball history and resolute commitment to preserving its history. Without their unwavering dedication this volume would not have been possible.

We invite you to sit back, relax for a few minutes, and enjoy reading about the great games and the exciting history of County Stadium.

A lifelong Pirates fan, GREGORY H. WOLF was born in Pittsburgh, but now resides in the Chicagoland area with his wife, Margaret, and daughter, Gabriela. A professor of German studies and holder of the Dennis and Jean Bauman Endowed Chair in the Humanities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, he edited the SABR books “Thar’s Joy in Braveland!” The 1957 Milwaukee Braves (2014), Winning on the North Side. The 1929 Chicago Cubs (2015), and A Pennant for the Twin Cities: The 1965 Minnesota Twins (2015). He is currently working on a project about the Houston Astrodome and co-editing a book with Bill Nowlin on the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.