Braves - The Milwaukee Era (1953-1965)  
   
 

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        Yr P W L   Yr P W L   Yr P W L               1960  
        1953 2 92 62   1957 1 95 59   1962 5 86 76               Decade  
        1954 3 89 65   1958 1 92 62   1963 6 84 78               Click  
        1955 2 85 69   1959 2 86 70   1964 5 88 74               on Logo  
        1956 2 92 62   1960 2 88 66   1965 5 86 76                  
                          1961 4 83 71                            
                                                       
   
  Titles:  Top Braves Players of the Milwaukee Era  
  1957 World Champs (Beat Yankees)  
  1958 National league Champs (Lost to Yankees) Pitchers:  
    Warren Spahn (52.02) -   163  
  BallPark: Lew Burdette (23.66) -   116  
  County Stadium (1953-1965) Bob Buhl (19.64) -   70  
    Tony Cloninger (3.55) -   38  
  Team Name: Gene Conley (6.12) -   27  
  Braves    Denver LeMaster (4.77) -   18  
    Bob Shaw (7.39) -   15  
  Owners:  Bob Hendley (2.61) -   14  
  Lou Perini (bought out partners Guido Rugo and Joe Maney) (1953-1962) Carlton Willey (3.48) -   11  
  Bill Bartholomay (1963-1965) Don McMahon (2.81) -   11  
    Ray Crone (2.64) -   11  
  General Managers: Wade Blasingame (1.4) -   11  
  John Quinn (1953-1958) Johnny Antonelli -(1.54)    8  
  John McHale (1959-1965) Joey Jay (3.91) -   7  
    Dave Jolly (3.58) -   7  
  Managers: Bob Rush (3.09) -   7  
  Charlie Grimm (1953-1956) Max Surkont (2.1) -   7  
  Fred Haney (1956-1959) Chet Nichols (-0.06) -   7  
  Chuck Dressen (1960-1961) Juan Pizarro (1.09) -   6  
  Birdie Tebbetts (1961-1962) Ernie Johnson (4.77) -   5  
  Bpbby Bragam (1963-1965) Jim Wilson (2.66) -   5  
    Bob Sadowski (2.35) -   5  
  Hall of Famers: Billy O'Dell (2.5) -   4  
  Warren Spahn Don Liddle (2.0) -   2  
  Joe Torre Bobby Tiefenauer (1.31) -   2  
  Red Schoendienst Taylor Phillips (1.1) -   1  
  Ed Mathews Humberto Robinson (1.67) -   0  
  Henry Aaron Bob Giggie (0.21) -   0  
  Enos Slaughter Lou Sleator (0.14) -   0  
    Vic Rehm (0) -   0  
  Rookie of the Year:  Don Kaiser (0) -   0  
  None Dick Littlefield (-0.17) -   0  
    Dave Cole (-0.2) -   0  
    MVP:  Moe Drabowski (-0.24) -    0  
  Hank Aaron (1957) Red Murff (-0.24) -   0  
    Roberto Vargas (-1.4) -   0  
  Cy Young Ron Piche (-1.48) -    0  
  Warren Spahn (1957)    
    Catchers:  
  No Hitters: Del Crandall (27.58) -   90  
  Jim Wilson (1954) Joe Torre (19.51) -   39  
  Lew Burdette (1960) Ed Bailey (1.36) -    2  
  Warren Spahn  (1960) Del Rice (-0.75) - 1  
  Warren Spahn  (1961) Carl Sawatski (0.68) -   0  
    Charlie Lau (0.34) - 0  
  Notable Events: Sam Calderone (0.28) -   0  
    Bob Roselli (0.2) -    0  
  1952 - The Braves last year in Boston. Their attendance has been  Toby Atwell (0.19) -   0  
  plummeting from their pennant season of 1948 where they had a million and Charlie White (0.13) -   0  
  a half fans down to 1952 where only slightly under three hundred thousand  Jack Parks (0) -   0  
  showed up. And it was only going to get worse in 1953. The team lost $700K Ron Henry (0) -   0  
  in 1952 which was a fortune in those days. However, there was no inkliing  Merritt Ranew (-0.03) -    0  
  that the team was going to leave Boston as the season ended. Jesse Gonder (-0.11) -    0  
  Ebba St. Claire (-0.48) -   0  
  1953 - The Milwaukee Brewers were a Braves farm club and, as such, Milwaukee Hawk Taylor (-0.91) -   0  
  was Braves territory. Bill Veeck of the Browns  also losing $, wanted to move his Stan Lopata (-0.94) -   0  
   team,to Milwaukee with the newly constructed, major league worthy, County Stadium.    
   Braves owner Perini blocked the Browns move and then quickly moved the Braves First Basemen:  
   to Milwaukee after getting unanimous approval from NL owners. It was the first Joe Adcock (26.46) -   61  
    major league franchise shift in fifty years. The move occurring so late in the off Frank Torre (2.16) -   12  
    season looked like something of a panic move. I'm sure there weren't many  George Crowe (2.16) -   6  
  season tickets that had to be refunded. Between the Braves attendance dropping Mickey Vernon (0.07) -   0  
   by half each of the two previous seasons and with most likely close to zero  Bob Boyd (-0.15) -    0  
  season tickets being sold for the coming season, Lou Perini was in desperation    
  mode. Not only that, but owners could not block Bill Veeck from moving his  Second Basemen:  
  franchise forever - there would be a huge lawsuit waiting to happen if they started Frank Bolling (7.28) -   13  
   letting other franchises relocate while leaving Veeck to rot in St.Louis Red Schoendienst (5.67) -   11  
   - i.e. Perini would have to move fast to beat Veeck to Milwaukee. Danny O'Connell (6.98) -   10  
    Felix Mantilla (-0.64) -    1  
  1953 - The elephant in the room here, of course, is why Boston fans suddenly Harry Hanebrink (0.41) -   0  
  completely stopped going to Braves games. In a period of four years, their Mel Roach (0.3) -   0  
  attendence precipitously fell by 80%. The team got worse in the standings Joe Koppe (0.15) -   0  
  but that, in no way, can explain why Boston fans totally turned their backs Johnny O'Brien (-0.01) -   0  
  on the team. There has never been anything remotely close to this in the Jack Dittmer (-0.02) -   0  
  history of major league baseball. Let's put a couple of facts out on the table: Billy Martin (-0.13) -   0  
   □ Boston has traditionally been a racist city - to this day Joe Morgan (-0.18) -   0  
  There's a littany of black players who said that they were treated like Bob Malkmus (-0.24) -   0  
  second class citizens by the fans in Boston such as Reggie Smiith,  Chuck Cottier (-0.35) -   0  
  Cecil Cooper and Jim Rice. Not to mention (but I will) that the Sox  Dick Cole (-0.51) -   0  
  had no problem dumping young, black superstar Mookie Betts in 2020. Casey Wise (-1.03) -   0  
  Some things don't change. Lou Klimchock (-1.3) -    0  
  □  The Braves started playing blacks in 1950 with Sam Jethroe    
  installed in center field. ShortStop:  
  □ The National League was getting blacker by the minute as the Dodgers  Johnny Logan (30.59) -   66  
  and Giants, in particular, were all in. Dennis Menke (10.9) -   22  
  □ Without deploying black players, and lots of them, you were not going  Roy McMillan (7.08) -   17  
  to be able to compete with the Dodgers and Giants in the National League Alvin Dark (0.33) -   0  
  moving forward. Andre Rodgers (0) -   0  
  □ The 1952 AAA Milwaukee Brewers had four black players (Bill Bruton,   Roy Smalley (-0.04) -   0  
  George Crowe, Buzz Clarkson and Luis Marquez) and attendence was good.    
  □ The crosstown Red Sox, despite being at a competitive disadvantage,  Third Base:  
  did not bring a black player onto their roster until 1958. They were the  Ed Mathews (89.64) -   132  
  last team in baseball to integrate. And they did so by dipping their toe  Frank Thomas (2.63) -   7  
  in the water bringing up utility infielder Pumpsie Green who was buried  Ray Boone (0.56) -   0  
  somewhere at the end of their bench. Didn't want to tempt fate.    
  □ Connect the dots.   Outfield:  
    Hank Aaron (88.42) -   158  
  1953 - Despite their poor showing in 1952, the Braves were definitely a team Bill Bruton (17.78) -   87  
  on the rise, with lots of potential. The 1953 roster included: Lee Maye (11.51) -   26  
  Warren Spahn, 32, Hall of Fame Lefthander - in mid career at this advanced age Wes Covington (5.57) -   14  
  Johnny Antonelli, 23, later traded to Giants for Bobby Thomson Andy Pafko (4.53) -   14  
  Bob Buhl, 24, mainstay in rotation for the rest of the decade and beyond  Felipe Alou (7.57) -   13  
  Lew Burdette, 26, righty was stolen from the Yankees for aging Johnny Sain  Rico Carty (7.02) -   12  
  Del Crandall, 23, backstop would go on to play a dozen stellar seasons for Braves Mack Jones (6.58) -   12  
  Joe Adcock, 25, slugging 1B stolen from Reds for Earl Torgeson Bobby Thomson (2.47) -    9  
  Johnny Logan, 27, shortstop would go on to play 10 more seasons with the Braves  Sid Gordon (3.02) -   8  
  Ed Mathews, 21, slugging 3B would go on to Hall of Fame career with Braves Jim Pendleton (-0.41) -   4  
  Bill Bruton, 27, speedy CF would go on to play for Braves thru end of decade Bob Hazle (1.61) -   3  
  Joey Jay, 17, bonus baby would have his big years with the Reds in the Sixties Al Spangler (2.02) -   1  
    Gus Bell (0.52) -    0  
  1953 - The Braves turn it around, finishing second with a 92-62 mark in their first  Eddie Haas (0.07) -    0  
  year in Milwaukee. Attendence is close to two million and Perini makes most of the Ray Shearer (0.03) -   0  
  money back that he lost the previous two years in Boston. Neil Chrisley (-0.01) -    0  
  Chuck Tanner (-0.04) -   0  
  1954 - Future Hall of Famer and a player in the discussion as the best ever,  Jim Pisoni (-0.13) -   0  
  Hank Aaron, comes up as a twenty year old rookie. Hank is the last piece of the Enos Slaughter (-0.27) -    0  
  future championship puzzle for the Braves. He had been purchased from Bob Thorpe (-0.58) -   0  
  Indianapolis of the Negro League and brought up from farm club Jacksonville. John DeMerit (-0.94) -   0  
     
  1957 - After knocking on the pennant door the previous four seasons, Notable Events:  
   the Braves finally break it down, winning the World Series from the Yankees.    
   Ironically, its Lew Burdette, ex-Yankee, who does the most damage,  1963 - Lou Perini sells the Braves to a group headed by Bill  
  winning three World Series games as Milwaukee overcame a 3-1 deficit. Bartholomay that includes team President and General Manager  
    John McHale. Bartholomay wants to move the club to Atlanta  
  1958 - The Braves win another pennant, but this time the Yankees come back despite the tremendous fan support in Milwaukee. This all stems  
   from a 3-1 deficit to win the title. back to the disastrous decision of allowing the Dodgers move to  
    LA. The "thinking" at the time was that if the Dodgers can move   
  1959 - Milwaukee comes close to making it three pennants in a row, finishing  out of Brooklyn, then anyone can move out of anywhere. This   
   in a tie with L.A. They lose two straight playoff games to the Dodgers  was a short sighted approach, but prevalent at the time. It led to a  
  and they're out. whole chain reaction of events that reached into the year 1998  
    when Bud Selig moved his Milwaukee Brewers to their "rightful"  
  1960 - Milwaukee enters the decade as a powerhouse.  place in the National League thus creating an absurd situation  
  The previous three seasons yielded two pennants and loss  of unbalancing the two major leagues.  
  of the pennant to the Dodgers in a playoff in '59.    
   However, the team was now starting to get old. The  1964 - OF Rico Carty, 23, is a rookie. He was signed in '59  
  mainstays who were beginning to age out:    
  □  C - Del Crandall, 30, getting up there for a catcher 1964- RHP Clay Carroll, 20, is a rookie. He was signed in 61  
  □  1B - Joe Adcock, 32    
  □  2B - Red Schoendienst, 37 1964 - RHP Pat Jarvis, 23, is acquired in a steal of a trade with  
  □  SS - Johnny Logan, 34 Detroit for Bruce Brubaker. Pat is brought up to the Braves in '66  
  □  CF - Bill Bruton, 34    
  □  RHP - Lew Burdette, 33 1964 - RHP Phil Niekro, 25, is a rookie. He was signed in '58  
  □  LHP - Warren Spahn, 39    
  □  RHP - Bob Buhl, 31 1964 - OF Felipe Alou, 29, is acquired in a seven player trade with  
  There was some young talent around to keep the Braves the Giants  
  above .500 moving forward, but not enough to be a contender:    
  □  C - Joe Torre, 19 1964 - RHP Cecil Upshaw, 21, is signed. He is a rookie in '66  
  □  3B - Ed Mathews, 28    
  □  RF - Hank Aaron, 26 1965 - RHP Ron Reed, 22, is signed. He is a rookie in '66  
  □  LF - Lee Maye, 25    
  □  RHP - Joey Jay, 24, mistakenly traded to Reds in '61 1965 - Bartholomay makes a deal with Atlanta,   
  □  LHP - Juan Pizarro, 23, mistakenly traded to Reds in '61 but Milwaukee's town fathers (Bud Selig one of them)  goes  
     to court to block the move thus causing a lame duck  
  1961 - In a horrific trade, both Joey Jay and Juan Pizarro are 1965 season for the Braves in Milwaukee.  
  dealt to the Reds for aging shortstop Roy McMillan    
    1965 - In an amazing thirteen year run, the Braves   
  1961 - Warren Spahn, at 40, records his three hundredth win never finish below .500 while in Milwaukee.   
  and second no hitter in two years. The run included four ninety win seasons and the worst  
     while in Milwaukee was an 84-78 record in 1963  
  1961 - CF Mack Jones, 22, is a rookie. He was signed in '58    
    1966 - The Braves finally move to Atlanta, .  
  1961 - RHP Tony Cloninger, 20, is a rookie. He was signed in '58 Bartholomay's promised land of riches. It didn't work out  
      that way for Bartholomay - once in a while there actually is   
  1962 - LHP Denny Lemaster, 23, is a rookie. He was signed in '58 justice in this world.  
     Bartholomay's initial short term windfall was tempered by  
  1962 - SS Dennis Menke, 21, is a rookie. He was signed in '58 the fact that Milwaukee's fans supported the Braves much  
    more than Atlanta's fans would do. Karma.