The history of the Milwaukee Braves is usually one told with a heavy dose of nostalgia and sepia-toned reverence for a lost and innocent era. Milwaukee took the Braves in, loved them dearly as they become world-beaters, and was left heartbroken when the team abandoned the city and its loyal fanbase. It’s not an untrue account of what happened, but one that is certainly lacking. Patrick W. Steele’s Home of the Braves: The Battle for Baseball in Milwaukee (University of Wisconsin Press) gets behind the box score on the history of the Braves and recounts how the Milwaukee Braves both came to be and came to leave.
Steele’s book deals almost exclusively with the business and political aspects of the Braves’ time in the city. Digging into the county archives, he reveals the tensions between the team and the county surrounding revenues of the stadium that the taxpayers built, but that the team filled. The county wanted the ballpark to be the asset that it was promised to be when millions were spent to build it before Milwaukee even had a big league team. The Braves were happy to contribute, even reworking their lease to pay more each season, but when the initial attendance boom that came with the move and the 1957-1958 World Series appearances faded, the club found itself in a precarious financial situation. Team owner Lou Perini unloaded the team in 1962 to a cadre of Chicago-based investors. Almost immediately, there were rumors of the team’s relocation and the rest of the Braves’ time in the city was strained by the prospect of their departure.
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The bulk of the book is dedicated to the painful and drawn-out loss of the team to Atlanta, with the county and state fighting a legal battle to retain a team that was actively trying to flee Milwaukee. It was a sad and nasty split, a saga that caused the once-loyal Milwaukee fans to abandon the Braves and hope only that a new team might take their place.
Home of the Braves tells a history that is worth reading and remembering. It gets beyond the myths and nostalgia about the Braves and Milwaukee and reveals a rocky relationship between team and town that saw a shotgun wedding give way to a messy divorce.
Join author Patrick W. Steele at Zimmerman Architectural Studios, 2122 W. Mt. Vernon Drive, at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28 for the publication party of Home of the Braves. The event is co-sponsored by the Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear, Boswell Book Company and the University of Wisconsin Press. Admission is $5, refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase.
Book Happening
Warriors on the Streets of Milwaukee
The literature of Vietnam veterans has been largely tapped out, but stories dealing with veterans of more recent foreign wars are coming to the fore. Many have to do with adjusting to civilian life. In his novel Nico’s Warriors, Wisconsin author Mitchell Nevin gets inside the heads of veterans who meet at a VA-sponsored group therapy session in Milwaukee. Afterward, they swap their problems of finding work over cheap tappers. And then comes a moment of destiny and the decisions it demands. Will they play vigilante in the drug wars? Nico’s Warriors is a page-turner set on the familiar streets of Milwaukee. Nevin will sign books 2-4 p.m., Thursday, March 22, at Mama D’s, 104 W. Main St., Wales.
