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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
One of the best baseball books I have ever read!!!, December 29, 1998
This is one of the best books I have read about baseball in the 1950's and 1960's. I am not old enough to have seen the Milwaukee Braves, but because of Buege's book, I feel like I was there at County Stadium with Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews. I loved it!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A Look at Baseball's "Main Street" in the 1950s, January 25, 2000
Far too many story-tellers of baseball in the 1950s seem to believe that the drama begins and ends with the subway ride between Brooklyn and the Bronx. What this view misses is that some of the very best ball was played some 1,000 miles to the west at the Milwaukee County Stadium.The Fifties was perhaps baseball's last great decade before expansion teams, artificial turf and indoor play changed its shape and parameters. And Milwaukee was the most exciting city to watch the national past time in those days, where the local burghers pushed the Braves to the top of the attendance standings every season from 1953 to 1958. Much larger markets like New York, Philadelphia and Chicago simply could not keep up. Bob Buege captures this remarkable phenomenon in a series of tight, colorful anecdotes capturing the spirit of this team and its city. His emphasis is less on historical analysis and more on giving the reader a "feel" for the era. All that is wanting here is perhaps a bit more detail about the franchise and its player and a better explanation of the circumstances leading to the team's flight to Atlanta. Overall, this book is essential for any fan who wishes to understand some of the greatest baseball of baseball's greatest decade.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Legendary Baseball Team, December 23, 1999
Although I was 10 when the Braves absconded to Atlanta therefore was too young to remember the glory years, this is a wonderful book about another time and place in history. By reading this book, you feel like you were apart of it. The writing is outstanding. Even though I wasn't born when the Braves moved to Milwaukee, you get goose bumps reading about the day the National League approved the move to Milwaukee and the celebration thereafter, the glory years, breaking attendance records, a world championship and all that went with it. You seethe when the rumors of the Atlanta move started and the transfer of the franchise takes place. The book captures the love between the Braves Baseball Club and the Wisconsin fans. It summarizes life in the 50's, a more innocent way of life that will never pass this way again. For those of you who want to read about what pro sports should be about, this book is a must.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Anyone close to sports history in Wisconsin must read this, December 10, 1998
By A Customer
Bob Buege has preserved the essence of one of sport's greatest teams. For those that grew up in the 50's and 60's this text details the phenomenal moments of the Milwaukee Braves. Any National League enthusiast of that era would appreciate the insights into the ballplayers -- both the ups and downs, close calls, historic moments. Just reading anecdotes about the heroes of my boyhood gave me chills. Buege is to be highly commended for capturing the flavor of Milwaukee's favorite team and the unusual competitiveness of the National League game. The Braves never had a losing season in its 13 year tenure. With two National League pennants, a World Series championship, and two end of the season finishes within one game of the Dodgers on either side of those pennants -- one realizes the magnitude of this franchise's caliber of pitching, fielding, and hitting. Pictures from The Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel are dispersed throughout. I recommend that Buege put together a large picture book of those teams with some text. Spahn, Burdette, Aaron, Mathews, Adcock, Schoendinst, Covington, Hazel, Logan, Crandall, Torre, Carty, Bruton, Buhl, McMahon, meant so much to us. Perhaps a video could be made. Each team of that era [The Reds, Cards, Cubs, Pirates, Giants, Dodgers, Phillies] should have its historian -- not just the Yankee teams. Buege has modeled this concept well and recalled the tragic moments leading to the robbery by Atlanta of Milwaukee's team. Many of us are grateful for his research and devotion. This is a must read for all Wisconsinites.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The definitive history of the Milwaukee Braves., January 30, 1998
By A Customer
This is the definitive history of baseball's most amazing and successful, if short-lived, franchise, lovingly and accurately portrayed by a native Milwaukee baseball historian/fan.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Diehard Fans Crushed By Economics, January 21, 2008
This a well crafted lamentation for a beloved sports franchise that was lost primarily due to the profit motive. For thirteen years, the Braves never posted a losing record in Milwaukee and won two consecutive league pennants (the team narrowly missed a third straight pennant) and won a World Series title. The glory years are covered in great detail, but what stayed in my memory long afterwards was the author's description of the heartbroken fans watching their team being wrested away from them.
History repeated itself in New England and in the Midwest. In effect, the Boston Braves relocated to Milwaukee because the National League franchise simply could not compete with the American League Red Sox. Although the Braves won a pennant in 1948, this was not enough to change the team's fortunes in Boston.
The Braves had territorial rights to Milwaukee where their top farm club played to great acclaim. A new ballpark was constructed and waiting: County Stadium had been built to entice a professional team to move to Milwaukee. At the end of Spring training in 1953, the minor league club was shifted to Toledo and the Braves moved to Milwaukee. The new team proved to be an immediate success and County Stadium had to be enlarged within one year to accommodate ticket demands.
Within a decade, Milwaukee was to suffer the same heartbreak that had been felt in Boston. Absentee ownership proved to be the downfall of the successful Braves team which was never owned by locals. When Lou Perini and his two brothers sold a controlling interest the ballclub to another absentee ownership group, headed by Chicagoan Bill Bartolomay, in 1962, the handwriting was on the wall.
Bartolomay has always cited declining attendance as the reason for the shopping the team to other cities, but in reality the front office was doing everything within its power to alienate fans in order to use decreased ticket sales as a justification for moving the team. Milwaukee was and is a small market. Competing pro teams were located in larger regional cities within a few hours of Milwaukee. Even with capacity crowds, Milwaukee lacked the profit potential of other cities. Television and radio rights for Milwaukee games would never equal those that could be obtained in larger markets.
Bartolomay planned to shift the team to Atlanta and secure the entire South as the team's market for television broadcasts. For two seasons, the roster was depleted in anticipation of the move. Bartolomay would have pulled up stakes and left Milwaukee in 1965, but for a court decision which held the team to the final year of its lease on County Stadium. As a result, attendance plummeted further in 1965 as disheartened fans could not bring themselves to attend games being played by a team that had owners who were committed to moving as soon as possible. The final season was a prolonged funeral procession.
The Milwaukee Braves never compiled a losing record at County Stadium. Despite thirteen years of uninterrupted success, Milwaukee was too small to permit a selfish group of absentee owners to realize optimal profits and so the team was moved to satisfy their greed. It is not a sport, it is a business. Don't become too attached.
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0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A Melodramatic Review of the Milwaukee Braves, October 20, 1998
By A Customer
Mr. Buege is heavy on the facts in this detailed overview of the short life of the Milwaukee Braves. He is also heavy the cliches, mixed metaphors and melodrama. He'd be better off sticking with the facts. Today one cannot swing a cat in Milwaukee without striking someone who doesn't claim to have spent their formatives years watching baseballs sail towards Perrini's Woods. Had these romantics actually paid to see a few more games, the Braves would still be where Mr. Buege claims they belong. Mr. Buege ranks among those writers who use baseball as a metaphor to link generations, to conjure images of simpler times, of a more bucolic life, of the Federal Reserve Board, or whatever. The subject deserves better.
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