Do you want to know the major league baseball of Milwaukee County Stadium? If your answer is yes then this blog provides you all information regarding this.
Milwaukee County Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that served as a home for the Milwaukee Brewers. It was built in 1953 as a baseball stadium for the Milwaukee Braves and later the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball. Green Bay Packers football games, ice skating, religious sessions, concerts, and other significant events were all held there. It was decommissioned in 2000 and replaced by Miller Park across the street (now American Family Field).
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league
The Milwaukee Braves (1953–1965) were a baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The new “Milwaukee County Municipal Stadium” piqued the interest of big-league clubs even before it was finished. The St. Louis Browns, who had played in Milwaukee during the American League’s debut season in 1901, sought permission to return to the city they had abandoned half a century previously. The Brewers’ parent club, the Boston Braves, vetoed the intended move. The Braves had been struggling at the gate in Boston for some time, and rumors of a move had been circulating. Many people assumed that the Braves will relocate to Milwaukee as a result of the decision to keep Milwaukee accessible as a new home.
September 1960, County Stadium
The Braves made it official three weeks before the start of the 1953 season, right before the new stadium was set to open when they applied for permission to relocate. The franchise was renamed the Milwaukee Braves when the other National League owners agreed. On April 14, the Braves hosted their first regular-season home game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Bill Bruton hit a stunning 10th-inning home run to win the game (3-2). The Braves set a National League attendance record of 1.8 million in their debut season in Milwaukee.
On August 16, 1954, the first issue of Sports Illustrated featured County Stadium on the cover, with Braves batter Eddie Mathews, New York Giants catcher Wes Westrum, and home plate umpire Augie Donatelli.
The 22nd All-Star Game was held at County Stadium on July 12, 1955. Stan Musial’s 12th-inning home run gave the National League a 6–5 victory. In 1957 and 1958, the Braves hosted back-to-back World Series, both against the New York Yankees. In 1957, the Braves won seven games against the Yankees, but the Yankees repaid the favor the following year.
The Braves held the top spot in the National League until 1959, when the Dodgers, who had relocated to Los Angeles two years before, overcame them (both in the stands and on the field). Due to an unsettled ownership scenario in the early 1960s, attendance and the Braves’ standings both declined. The Milwaukee Braves played there until the 1965 season when new owners moved the team to Atlanta in search of a larger television market.
White Sox of Chicago (1968–1969)
After the Braves left, local businessman and minority Braves owner Bud Selig brought other teams to County Stadium, starting with a 1967 exhibition game between the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins, in an effort to bring Major League Baseball back to Milwaukee. Selig’s organization signed a contract with Sox owner Arthur Allyn to host nine Chicago White Sox home games at County Stadium in 1968 after the exhibition game drew more than 51,000 fans.
Selig’s experiment was a huge success, with 264,297 spectators attending those nine games. These games were played on May 15 vs. the California Angels,[14] May 28 vs. the Baltimore Orioles,[15] June 17 vs. the Cleveland Indians,[16] June 24 vs. the Minnesota Twins,[17] July 11 vs. the New York Yankees, July 22 vs. the Oakland Athletics, August 2 vs. Washington Senators,[20] August 8 vs. the Boston Red Sox, and August The Sox drew 539,478 fans to their remaining 72 home games in Chicago that season. Milwaukee fans accounted for roughly one-third of total attendance at White Sox games in only a few games. Selig and Allyn agreed that County Stadium would host Sox home games again the following season as a result of their success.
The Sox’s Milwaukee schedule was increased to include 11 home games in 1969. (one against every other franchise in the American League at the time). Despite the fact that those games drew somewhat fewer fans (198,211, for an average of 18,019), they accounted for a higher percentage of overall White Sox attendance than the previous year – almost one-third of all White Sox fans watched games at County Stadium in 1969. (in the remaining 70 home dates in Chicago, the Sox drew 391,335 for an average of 5,591 per game). The games against the California Angels took held on April 23. May 22 vs. Detroit Tigers, May 28 vs. New York Yankees, June 11 vs. Cleveland Indians, June 16 vs. Seattle Pilots (who would later become the Brewers the following season), July 2 vs. Minnesota Twins, July 7 vs. Oakland Athletics, August 6 vs. Washington Senators The Royals play the Boston Red Sox on August 13, the Baltimore Orioles on September 1, and the Kansas City Royals on September 26.
Despite the White Sox’s success in terms of attendance, Selig was unable to get an expansion team for the 1969 season. One of the teams formed as part of that expansion, though, would subsequently work in Selig’s favor.
The Milwaukee Brewers (1970–2000) were a baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
County Stadium was built in the year 2000.
Selig, undeterred by the defeat, instead of purchasing the struggling Seattle Pilots from the bankruptcy court. The Pilots were an expansion team in 1969. The Seattle franchise faced major stadium and financial concerns. Milwaukee had baseball again in the spring of 1970, and County Stadium had a new tenant.
From 1970 to 2000, the new Milwaukee Brewers, named after the American Association team for whom County Stadium was built almost 20 years earlier, called it home. The transaction took place during spring training in 1970, and it happened so quickly that Selig was unable to order new jerseys. Instead, they ripped the Pilots’ insignia off the pre-existing uniforms, and the Brewers adopted the Pilots’ blue, white, and yellow instead of the red and navy blue (the Braves’ colours) that Selig had originally desired; these colours have remained the team colors to this day, despite shade changes over the years (and the brief addition of green as a tertiary color from 1994–96).
County Stadium held its second All-Star Game on July 15, 1975. The National League once again defeated the American League, this time by a score of 6–3. It was the stadium’s largest crowd at the time, with 51,480 people in attendance. George Scott and Hank Aaron, who had recently returned to Milwaukee after a trade with the Braves, represented the Brewers.
Aaron played the final two years of his career in Milwaukee and the American League (where the Brewers were at the time; they would switch to the National League in 1998), where the designated hitter role allowed him to extend his career. Aaron hit his final home run at County Stadium, giving him a career total of 755, breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 755 set in 1974. On July 20, 1976, Aaron hit his final home run, a single shot off California Angels right-hander Dick Drago in the 7th inning of a game that the Brewers won 6–2.
Thieves stole gloves and outfits belonging to Kansas City Royals players before a game versus the Milwaukee Brewers at Milwaukee County Stadium on June 12, 1977. As a result, all Royals players but seven were required to wear Milwaukee road uniforms for the game that day.
In 1982, the Brewers defeated the California Angels in five games for their first and only American League Championship, and they hosted Games 3, 4, and 5 of the 1982 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
If you like this type of blog, then you must visit our Blogking.