Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Looking Mighty Brave

In 1946, the Brewers were purchased by the Boston Braves, ending their run as an independent club (with the exception of two seasons, 1934 and 1935, in which they were owned by the St. Louis Browns).

The Braves' influence on Milwaukee baseball was tremendous (and well-covered elsewhere) but the influence would be expressed in a particularly subtle fashion - on the uniforms.

The Brewers had worn blue and red for decades, but during the period in which the Braves owned the club their uniforms would come to resemble the parent club's look more and more.

A block "M" over the heart was the standard Brewers home jersey dating back to at least 1913, in both pinstripe form and with the piping seen here:

Starting in 1942 under Bill Veeck, the Brewers began wearing a second home jersey in rotation, with simple neck and cuff soutache and an elegant "Brewers" script across their chests:

After the Braves purchased the club, the modifications began. The soutache was replaced with the Braves' signature navy/red/navy piping on the cuffs and the placket. The red M on the caps was replaced by a white block M, the very same caps that the Milwaukee Braves would soon make famous:

Note the old cap on the batboy, front and center.

By the time this photo of Johnny Logan and Jack Dittmer was taken in 1952, the Brewers' last year of existence:

That wordmark made its debut on 1950's Opening Day. Note the style of "B" and the Greek "e" on the script, which originated in the Boston Braves wordmark. Even the "w" is just two Braves' "v"s run together:

Other than the actual team name itself, the only differences between these uniforms and those of the Boston Braves are the lack of tomahawk under the team name (replaced by a tail) and the lack of piping on the belt loops. That one is particularly interesting to me, as it was customary to send old major league uniforms as "hand-me-downs" to the minor league clubs. The Brewers had uniforms which were nearly identical to those of the Braves, but just different enough so they couldn't advantage of the cost-saving measure of recycling the big club's uniforms.

No comments:

Post a Comment