In March 1953 the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee with not even any rumors saying the move was coming.
The AL owners could not agree on much except they all hated Bill Veeck. Veeck wanted to move the St. Louis Browns to Milwaukee and was blocked which then opened the door for Lou Perini to leave Boston which came with NO warning during spring training.
The AL then allowed the Browns to go to Baltimore BUT Veeck had to sell.
10 years ago the PBS station in Milwaukee did a one-hour special on franchise moves.
Curiously the demise of the Milwaukee Braves could be traced from the decision that fans had to buy beer from concession stands instead of BYOB - BTW who ran the concessions in Milwaukee? Some guy named Louis Jacobs from Buffalo.
The Braves move and sudden success at the gate was the catalyst for O'Malley to leave Brooklyn if he could not get a ballpark in NYC. Robert Moses decided the Dodgers could get their new park but in QUEENS where Shea Stadium was built. O'Malley convinced the Giants to move to San Francisco instead of them moving to Queens. If the Giants had stayed in NY the backup plan was for either the Pirates, Reds OR the Cubs to go west.
The worst move was Washington moving to Minnesota and then giving Washington an expansion team in 1961. The Senators owner was quite blunt on why he wanted to move to Minnesota saying the demographics were better.
The AL owners could not agree on much except they all hated Bill Veeck. Veeck wanted to move the St. Louis Browns to Milwaukee and was blocked which then opened the door for Lou Perini to leave Boston which came with NO warning during spring training.
The AL then allowed the Browns to go to Baltimore BUT Veeck had to sell.
10 years ago the PBS station in Milwaukee did a one-hour special on franchise moves.
Curiously the demise of the Milwaukee Braves could be traced from the decision that fans had to buy beer from concession stands instead of BYOB - BTW who ran the concessions in Milwaukee? Some guy named Louis Jacobs from Buffalo.
The Braves move and sudden success at the gate was the catalyst for O'Malley to leave Brooklyn if he could not get a ballpark in NYC. Robert Moses decided the Dodgers could get their new park but in QUEENS where Shea Stadium was built. O'Malley convinced the Giants to move to San Francisco instead of them moving to Queens. If the Giants had stayed in NY the backup plan was for either the Pirates, Reds OR the Cubs to go west.
The worst move was Washington moving to Minnesota and then giving Washington an expansion team in 1961. The Senators owner was quite blunt on why he wanted to move to Minnesota saying the demographics were better.
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