On This Day - Raise the Roof

It was seventy-five years ago today, on June 15, 1944. The Chicks were on the road, and the Brewers were playing a home game against the Columbus Red Birds, when a wind gust tore loose a section of Borchert Field's roof.

The Brewers game, tied 5-5 in the seventh, was postponed, and the Brewers headed out for a three-week road trip. The Chicks were due to play the Rockford Peaches on Friday the 16th, but their Saturday game was instead turned into a double-header, and the old Orchard would be cleaned up and open for business Saturday morning.

Going to the Wall, 1951

We now have another unique view of Borchert Field, thanks to author Matthew J. Prigge, who posted this amazing photo to Twitter:

From the archives... a snapshot from Opening Day 1951 at Borchert Field, Milwaukee Brewers hosting the Louisville Colonels. Top of the second, with future Big Leaguer Murray Wall firing one in. The Brews would win, 8-7. @BorchertField pic.twitter.com/bhufqBJYkr

— Matthew J. Prigge (@mjpmke) April 23, 2019

Stunning. Let's take a closer look at it.

So much goodness here, starting with the wall itself. Center field wall, not Murray.

It's a remarkably clear shot of the advertising that covered the back wall of the Orchard. There's some perennial companies in there, with Miller, Gimbels, and Roundy's all represented. If you look closely along the right-hand edge of the photo, there's an ad for Philco televisions, which had been associated with the Brews since the first televised game three years earlier.

There's also Ruby Chevrolet, whose radio commercials were annoying listeners thirty-some odd years later with the jingle "Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby Chevrolet! (come in today!)". He's right next to Clark's Gas, which had been advertising on the covers of Brewer scorecards since at least 1942.

Then we have the people themselves.

I love the little cloud of dirt kicked up by his pitching motion. On the mound is right-handed hurler Murray Wall. Wall had come to the attention of Brewers president Jake Flowers two years earlier, when Wall was playing at the University of Texas and the Brews had their training camp in Austin. By this point, the Brewers were a fully-owned affiliate of the Boston Braves, and no doubt Flowers reported his discovery up the chain. When Wall was ready to graduate in 1950, several big-league clubs were ready to sign him, including the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox, but the Braves offered him something that no other would match: a chance to start in the Show.

The plan was for Wall to join the Braves and see a few innings there before being sent to Milwaukee to develop his skills. And so he did; he pitched four innings of relief in a July 4th blowout loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Braves were already down 9-0 when Wall came in to the game at the top of the fifth inning. The rookie promptly gave up another five runs (four of them earned) over the next four innings, walking two, surrendering six hits, and committing an error trying to field a ball hit back to the mound. That might seem a terrible start, but numbers don't tell the story. He was reported to have shown great poise in his first appearance on a major league mound. And considering the hole the regular Braves pitchers gave him to dig out of, the Bostonians were fairly generous in their assessments. Henry McKenna of the Boston Herald wrote:

"Caution is urged in judging a rookie pitcher on his first showing but 24-year-old Murray Wall, just in from the University of Texas, impressed just about everybody in his four-inning debut in the majors today. With no minor league experience behind him and unfamiliar with the batters or even the park, the rangy right-hander did an excellent job."

Wall spent the next few weeks pitching batting practice and working with the Braves' coaching staff before being assigned to Milwaukee on July 19. He saw action in 13 games with the Brewers, finishing 2-5 with a respectable 3.91 ERA. He pitched the next two seasons at Borchert Field, earning records of 15-5 and 16-10 and ERAs of 4.30 and 4.08, respectively.

Murray Wall (front row, second from left)
with the Brewers in 1952

Wall made his way back to the big league club in 1953, just in time to see the Braves relocate to Milwaukee. He spent the next month on the County Stadium bench, unable to get into a game, before being sent to the relocated Brewers, still the Braves' top affiliate but now playing in Toledo as the Glass Sox. He fought his way back to the majors in 1957, that time with the Boston Red Sox.

There's one other thing I'd like to point out in this photo. Let's go back to that second close-up.

That unidentified man crouching on the left side of the frame is a news photographer. Until the 1950s, in the days before telephoto lenses, these shutterbugs would crouch just off the diamond, waiting for a play to unfold for their cameras. So many of the great field-level photos we've seen were taken by men such as this one, crouching and waiting and ready to snap.

Beautiful photo, on so many levels. I couldn't help myself, I had to ask Matthew if he had anything else in his archives. His answer gives us a reason to hope.

Possibly. This was in some random snapshots in a collection.

— Matthew J. Prigge (@mjpmke) April 25, 2019

So many treasures surface this way, in shoeboxes or random collections, just waiting to be found and shared. Can't wait to see the next one.

A Neighborhood Ballpark

This aerial photo of Borchert Field gives us our best sense yet of how the ballpark was integrated into its neighborhood.

There were taverns on the corners, but look at all those houses surrounding it. Block after residential block in every direction. With those short fences to either side, you can bet front windows were broken on 7th and 8th Streets.

I don't know when this photo was taken, except that it was before permanent lights were installed in 1935.

I'm also intrigued by the dirt foul area between the baselines and the grandstand. That's another element that was changed at some point during the ballpark's life.

By the late 1930s there was grass planted there, the vast space filled with bullpens, pitching mounds and catching areas where pitchers would warm up.

Even after the full pitching lanes had been added, there was still plenty of dirt on the warning track between the bullpens and the first row of seats. A huge space where pop flies could go to die. When all that was dirt, I wonder how much was kicked up by an August wind off the lake.

Comparing this photo with a recent Google Maps satellite image, you can see that many of the nearby houses are still standing, even though the site of the ballpark itself was scooped out to make room for the sunken Interstate 43.

Another reminder of how our Brewers were integrated into the community.

Out of Left Field - the Orchard's Ads

Looking at that photo from Borchert Field's last-ever game got me thinking. I was wondering how the outfield ads changed over time, specifically those in the left field corner, since it's featured in our 1952 photo.

We don't have many photos showing the left-field corner, but we have a couple. We can compare them and see how that's changed over time.

First off, there's the giant ad for Snirkles in the left-field corner:

Same basic ad in this photo circa 1948, but all the details are different. Somewhere along the line it seems to have lost its tagline "A really good caramal bar".

And even if the basic advertiser was the same, the ads to its left, along the 8th Street wall, were all different between 1948 and 1952.

On the other hand, we can see to the right pieces of ads for WEMP, John Schroeder lumber yards, and the Miller Brewing Company, all of which feature in this rare color photo of the ballpark.

Going back in time a little bit, that fence was a lot lower in this early 1940s shot:

You can see that the wall was really built up during that decade.

So we know the Snirkles ad came about in the mid-to-late-1940s and remained until the ballpark's final year. And that just about everything around it was in a constant state of change, which may be expected.

There isn't a ton of photographic reference of the old wooden ballpark, but I'll take any opportunity to piece together its history. Hope we get more of this.

"It's All Over Now!", 1952

We've seen this photo before—it was one of the first pictures I ever posted, a decade ago when this site was new—but never quite like this.

It's all over now! Eddie Kretlow, ground keeper at Borchert field took a final look at the deserte field late Sunday afternoon after the champion Brewers had lost to second place Kansas City in the seventh and final game of the American association play-offs, 8-7. The victory qualified the Blues for the little world series against the winner of the International league play-off still in progress.

—Journal Staff

I had certainly seen this picture before, but always devoid of any context. Now we know that it was taken after the final game at Borchert field, with the Brewers scheduled to move into the almost-ready County Stadium the following spring.

Back in 2009, I wrote of this photo:

This photo is one of the more commonly-reproduced Borchert Field pictures. There's something very melancholy about it, with the usher (in his peaked cap and team coveralls!) looking away from us, past all those empty stands towards the field. I guess that's fitting, for a departed ballpark.

You can see the unique angled dugout, and that most of the "good seats" were metal folding chairs. Yikes.

I don't have any context for the photo. The "Brewers" script seems to indicate the 1940s, as they were using a Braves-inspired wordmark by the 1950s. I hope someday we learn when it was taken, and the name of the lonely figure all alone in the Orchard.

I was right about the feeling of melancholy, although I mistook the groundskeeper for an usher. It's interesting to me that they were still using the 1940s logo several years after it had been replaced on the uniforms. Then again, Edward Kretlow had been the Orchard's groundskeeper since at least the 1930s (we previously saw him oiling turnstyles before the 1947 opener), so it's possible he'd been wearing it all that time. And understanding the long connection he had with the ballpark, a sense of melancholy at its final game seems more than reasonable.

So much to love about this picture. And so glad we finally know more about it.

1944 AAGPBL Schedule

This tweet recently caught my eye:

1944 League Schedule. #6gamesaweek #doubleheadersonSunday #norest #DiamondGirls2018 #WomeninBaseballWeek pic.twitter.com/LfFKTvGn1J

— DiamondGirls (@menageriepro) July 24, 2018

"DiamondGirls" is the official account of a "one-act, one-woman show about three Saskatchewan gals in the AAGPBL." And they post amazing AAGPBL-related content. Including this 1944 league schedule. Let's take a closer look at it:

The Milwaukee Schnitts are the second column from the left, just after their expansion sisters, the Minneapolis Orphans.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the large holes in that schedule. The Schnitts had their first series at the end of May, opening their season with three games at Borchert Field against the South Bend Blue Sox. And then they went on the road and didn't return until June 16th. Hard to create local momentum when the Milwaukee fans can't see you. And then again in July, when they went over a month&mdashJuly 5th through August 10th—without a home game. Minneapolis also had large holes in their schedule, leading me to believe that it might have involved sharing their ballparks with American Association club that had preference in booking dates. Perhaps it is not a surprise that the AAGPBL struggled to take off in the larger cities.

Worth also noting that the Minneapolis club lost their home partway through their season, leading that second-half schedule to be played on the road. Which is why the franchise originally called the "Millerettes" is today commonly known as the "Orphans".

The second thing I want to point out is the notation along the bottom: "Week Day Game in all cities are played at night except those marked (D) in Milwaukee, which are played during the day." We know that was due to scheduling conflicts with the Brewers. Of the 48 home dates on this schedule, twelve are listed as double-headers. That leaves 36 single home games, of which fourteen were played during the day (eight of those on weekdays). Permanent lights had been installed at Borchert Field in 1935, so the Brewers were well-equipped for night games.

The Schnitts were forced to play more than half their games in the afternoon. That, coupled with the long stretches without games, show what an uphill battle for fans they were fighting before the season even started.

Vintage Brew: “First Light: Revisited”

---

This article was originally published in 2008 after the death of Bob Koehler, co-author of "The American Association Milwaukee Brewers" with Rex Hamann. I wanted to share this tribute with BorchertField.com readers about one of the pioneers of Borchert Field research.

---

"First Light: Revisited"
by Paul Tenpenny
(Tencentz@aol.com)
Copyright 2018 Tencentzports
Printed with permission of the Author

This past April (2008), a fixture at local Milwaukee, regional and national sports collectible shows, Bob Koehler passed away. He had many friends in the hobby, all of whom have been sharing their fond memories of Bob along with tributes to him written in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sports Collectors Digest and the American Association Almanac.

I would like to add my voice to that group who are sharing their experiences. I first met Bob in the 1980's, he was a source for Milwaukee Braves and Milwaukee Brewer collectibles that I wanted, and I found him always to be a friendly and knowledgeable dealer, ever ready to help you find something and to share information.

When my interest shifted to the Borchert Brewers about 5 years ago, there was nobody in Milwaukee who knew more than him. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, existed in book form until recently. Anybody attempting research in this area of Milwaukee history was pretty much in the dark when approaching this subject. Bob provided the "first light" for me in a dark area of research. True research goes where no one else has gone before. Bob's work compiling team rosters with Rex Hamann and his photos are some of the various sign posts I have used extensively to try to guide my way researching Milwaukee. Even now as I hit the microfilm machines and spend the long hours needed to do the job right at the Milwaukee Public Library and elsewhere, his footprints are all around me. Bob and local SABR members photocopied newspaper clippings and put them into book form to make it easier for interested parties to read about Milwaukee baseball in the 1940's.

*Currently, I am working on researching a bat from a Milwaukee Brewer from 1917. Nothing is available from Baseball Reference online about his Brewer stats from the American Association. Thanks to Bob and Rex, I have them. More on the American Association Almanac later.

Thanks Bob, I will not forget your help and encouragement.

In closing, many times people ask why? What is it about collecting that causes you to devote so much time and resources on something from so long ago? I know Bob was asked why he gave up teaching to pursue his passion for baseball history. A risky change of life for sure, but it worked out well for him and he got to do what he loved. My answer to that question is a resounding NO. Neither Bob nor I live in the past, but we refuse to forget the past. Our past still has value for us today. Baseball history is not "life" but it is representative of the quality of our lives. If not baseball, something else gives us joy, direction and focus for tomorrow. Something in our past always drives us to the future. Our connection with those times, a fondness or nostalgia for the experiences of our youth always has a bearing on where we take our life.

I have great memories of baseball, going with my dad to see Hank Aaron, Ed Mathews and Spahnie at Milwaukee County Stadium. I only wish I still had my favorite T Shirt. I have been looking for one like it for 40 plus years now.

Clutching his McDonalds bag, this 10-year-old Paul proudly wears his Milwaukee Braves T Shirt while his sister Mary enjoys her coke with their mom digging into her lunch. (my sister will never forgive me for sharing it). Cute curlers sis. (Author's photo-Summer of 1963)

The last time I had talked with Bob Koehler was in 2007 at the Milwaukee Public Library where he and Bill Topitzes were giving a short presentation on the American Association Brewers. While telling the group of us about the Brewers, Players and Borchert field, he shared with us family photos which included a shot of him in his "Brewers" T Shirt.

Bob Koehler at Borchert Field, Summer of 1952

What blew me away was that Bob still had his T Shirt pictured in that photo. WoW!!! The only one I have ever seen. It made an immediate connection with me as I know how much my Braves T Shirt meant to me, since mine was lost to the rag bag so long ago. My last words to Bob that day were: "if you ever get rid of it etc" (which I doubted he ever would) at least to make sure it and the photo ended up in a local museum where others could appreciate it. It surly belongs there and I believe this "T" and its memory was an important part of why Bob loved baseball and it guided his life's work. It was the "Torch" that lit the path of his life. I am happy to say that Thanks to Pam Koehler, I now can share this rare piece with readers. And Bob, I promise, this will always be accessible to those who would like to see it.

The Torch (held in trust by the author)

On a final note, I neglected to share a nod to the wonderful book that Rex Hamann and Bob wrote in 2004, THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION BREWERS. It is an absolute gem for getting you started and has been a Godsend for me and "targeting" articles. My first copy is falling apart. The book is still available and you can find it at Barnes and Noble and online.

Please continue to support the research pioneers of the American Association Milwaukee Brewers. Rex Hamann and his American Association Almanac is the best reference on the American Association and Rex covers all the bases, all the team histories. Subscribe to his newsletter too.

Borchert Field at the Milwaukee County Historical Society

One of the fantastic displays in the Milwaukee County Historical Society's recently-closed exhibit "Back Yards to Big Leagues: Milwaukee’s Sports and Recreation History" was devoted to our favorite wooden ballpark.

Simply amazing. That's the preserved section of Borchert Field bleachers off to the right.

The main display has a great series of photos of Borchert's Orchard.

It's worth looking at these much more closely. Click to enlarge, as always.

Much of Milwaukee's sports history can be learned by looking at the history of Athletic Park, later renamed Borchert Field in 1927. It was primarily a baseball field, but as the most significant stadium in the city for more than 60 years it hosted numerous events, athletic and otherwise.

We've seen that photo before; a wall-sized blowup is posted at the entrance to the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Athletic Park was originally built for the minor league Milwaukee Brewers of the Western Association at a cost of $40,000. It was located on a rectangular block bounded by North 7th and North 8th Streets and West Chambers and Burleigh Streets. Because of the layout the field had short foul lines and a deep center field, the dugouts were angled, and the stands were U-shaped meaning fans could not see the entire playing field. The park opened May 20, 1888 with a crowd of 6,000 to see the Brewers play. A semi-pro team, the Cream Citys, also used the park when the Brewers were not in town.

The location of Athletic Park meant that it was completely integrated with the neighborhood. While thousands would sit in the stands at the games, hundreds of others would watch from the porches, balconies and roofs of surrounding houses. There were "employment" opportunities for local children selling concessions in the stands and retrieving calls outside the park. There were two taverns near the ballpark that did great business and sold tickets, and there was a bar behind home plate in the stadium. For many the park was the center of both entertainment and commerce every summer.

I love this photo of the Orchard; it really emphasizes the neighborhood quality, surrounded by houses in all direction. Well, houses and a couple taverns.

That open space at the top of the photo is Clinton Rose Park, where Borchert Field's historical marker stands today.

In 1897 the Brewers moved to the newly built Milwaukee Baseball Park on Lloyd Street between 16th and 18th Streets, which was also known as Lloyd Street Grounds. After serving as a National Guard drill ground for five years, Athletic Park was refitted for baseball when the American Association Milwaukee Brewers formed in 1902.

Lloyd Street Grounds was another neighborhood ballpark; check out the houses just over that right field fence.

Now we get to the man himself, Otto Borchert.

I need to learn more about the "Childrens Fee Day".

In 1919 a group of investors purchased the Brewers and Athletic Field for $87,000, with Otto Borchert becoming the sole owner in 1925, Borchert died of a heart attack while speaking at the Brewers' annual preseason banquet in 1927. His widow, Idabel Borchert, inherited the team and ballpark and appointed herself president, though most baseball decisions were made by Borchert's friend Henry Killilea. In 1928 Kilillea bought the team from Idabel for $280,000, and renamed the park Borchert Field. He allowed Idabel to retain the title to the park with a generous rent agreement.

The ballpark remained in Idabel's hands until she sold it to the city in 1952 so the Brewers could break their lease and move into the then-new County Stadium.

Killilea died of a heart attack in 1927 and his daughter Florence took over as president. Unfortunately, she died in 1931 at age 29 and the team and park passed to new owners. By the 1940s the team and Borchert Field were languishing. Bill Veeck bought the team and park in 1941 and made significant improvements to both, but the park continued to need constant maintenance. By 1950 plans were in place to build a new stadium for the Brewers with public funds (to be named County Stadium) and Borchert Field's days were numbered. The final season was 1952 and the stadium was torn down in 1953.

So much death to strike the club in such a short time.

We end with a rare color photo of the Orchard:

I love the "MILWAUKEE BREWERS" lettering across the top of the park. Those go back at least as far as 1945, and at one point were joined by an image of Owgust, the beer-barrel-chested club mascot who cheers on the Brewers to this day.

The Orchard in 1894

The Digital Archives of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee comes through again with a second set of Sanborn Maps. Previously, those maps showed us how Milwaukee looked in 1910, this time they catalog the Cream City as it appeared sixteen years earlier, in 1894.

This is a particularly fascinating map to peruse; so much of what today defines Milwaukee is absent. Take a look at this section of downtown:

City Hall, then a year from opening, is just a foundation. Virtually all the street names have been changed; what we call State Street is "Martin", Kilbourn Avenue is "Biddle", Wells Street is "Oneida". Interesting - Byron Kilbourn was founder of Kilbourntown, one of the three towns that would eventually combine to become Milwaukee in 1846. Daniel Wells was one of his primary investors. In 1894, the streets had different names on the other side of the river, Kilbourn's side. Sometime after this map was published, Wells Street was extended to include the former Oneida, and Biddle Street was combined with Cedar Street on the west side of the river into one unified Kilbourn Avenue.

"River Street" is now entirely gone between State and Wells. It was first buried under the Performing Arts Center in the 1960s, and then the Milwaukee Center two decades later. What remains north of State Street is now Edison Street, named for the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. power plant that once stood on River street just north of what is now Wells. That same power plant gives name to the Milwaukee Rep's Powerhouse Theater.

Of course, as fascinating as this is, we're really interested in Athletic Park. And here Sanborn comes through again.

Not a lot of development around the park - 7th and 8th Streets had been carved up into residential lots, but only a few houses had been built. The plots across both Burleigh and Chambers (their names unchanged since then) are still large and expansive, not yet subdivided for individual yards.

The ballpark itself was barely worthy of the name; one small grandstand section behind the plate, with "open seats" along the first- and third-base lines. Five small structures—one labeled "Dressing Room, another "Office", the rest undefined—complete the site.

This was only six years after Athletic Park hosted its first baseball games (or should that be "base ball"?) in May of 1988.

Just how much did Athletic Park evolve between this view in 1894 and our earlier look at 1910? Let's overlay and compare the two studies.

As you can see, the basic orientation is the same. But in the sixteen years between 1894 and 1910, several changes were made:

• the grandstand was expanded and moved to the edge of the lot, maximizing the limited playing space in our single city block;
• the grandstand was extended to include the third base bleachers (but not the first base side; I wonder if the setting sun might have had something to do with it, that they wanted to block late-afternoon light from the setting sun in the west?);
• bleachers were built in the outfield; and
• the dressing room was relocated from the southeast corner of the lot (on Chambers) to the northeast (Burleigh). Similarly, the office was moved from the southwest corner to the northwest

So what sort of action did this young Athletic Park see?

In 1894, the ballpark was the home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Not the Brewers who play at Miller Park, obviously, or even our Brews who would prowl the Orchard during the 20th Century. These Brewers were the ones who inspired our Brewers' name.

These Brewers were charter members of a recently-reorganized minor league named the Western League of Professional Baseball Clubs. It was a strictly regional outfit, with clubs in Cleveland‚ Indianapolis‚ Kansas City‚ Omaha, and Toledo in addition to the Cream City. These Brewers played their first season at Athletic Park before moving to the then-new Lloyd Street Grounds. Why the move? Perhaps the Sanborn map of Milwaukee can give us a clue. The park hadn't been built when the 1894 survey was completed, but we can see the large tract of land it would occupy, between Lloyd and North Avenue, bordered by 16th Street on the east:

It's a full city block long, same as Athletic Park, but since 17th Street stopped at North Avenue this parcel of land was almost a half-block wider. That gave the Brewers a little more room to stretch; room they would need, as the Western League declared itself a competing major league and re-named itself the American League.

Again, we are indebted to the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee for making these historic maps available to all online.

AAGPBL Baseball Card - Sylvia Wronski

Today we take a look at one of the very few pieces of Milwaukee Chicks/Schnitts merchandise ever offered for sale. This 1995 trading card depicts right-handed pitcher Sylvia Wronski, and is part of a set of All-American Girls Professional Baseball League cards produced in the mid-nineties by Larry Fritsch Cards, LLC of Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

There she is, in her uniform with the distinctive four-lobed Milwaukee city seal.

On the back of the card, some stats:

As you can see, Wronski had a remarkably short career. Wronski was signed to a league contract following a tryout at Borchert Field in April of 1944, and was sent to the AAGPBL's combined Spring Training in Peru, Illinois. She impressed the coaches there, but not quite enough to land a roster spot with any of the six teams, so she was farmed out to the West Allis team in Milwaukee's suburban amateur leagues. She was called up after a few weeks in West Allis, and made her debut at Borchert Field on June 30, 1944, pitching a scoreless ninth inning in an 8–2 loss to the Racine Belles.

That brief year in the league was also Milwaukee's first (and only) season, and when the team moved to Grand Rapids in 1945 she went with them before being cut early in the season. In 1946 she was offered the opportunity to play for a semi-pro club in Chicago, but chose to stay in her hometown with her fiancé Ed Straka, whom she married the following year. Ed died of cancer in 1954, at the age of 29, and Sylvia went back to work to raise their three children.

Even in that short career, Wronski had moments of distinction. She was the starter in an exhibition game the Chicks played at Wrigley Field against the South Bend Blue Sox, a game attended by 16,000 baseball fans. She was only one of two Milwaukeeans to play for their hometown club, the other being Vivian Anderson at third base. Wronski also pitched the last Chicks game at Borchert field, a complete game 4–2 win over the Kenosha Comets, in which she held the Comets to only six hits.

The Society for American Baseball Research has a great biography of Wronski written by Jim Nitz; I highly recommend it.

If you're interested in these AAGPBL cards, you can order complete sets at the Fritch website.

"Now We Got More Kinds of Bums", 1948

In a few short hours, at 2:10 PM Central Daylight Time, the Milwaukee Brewers will take the field at Miller Park for their 2018 Home Opener of 2018. This is a special day for every fan of the True Blue Brew Crew, myself included, and even though I can't be in the stands this afternoon I still intend to watch.

To put this in context, let's take a look at Opening Day in Milwaukee, seventy years ago. Or rather, one particular aspect of that Opening Day. We'll review the game itself on the actual anniversary in a couple weeks, the coverage was too good not to, but there's something specific I'd like to talk about today. The 1948 home opener was a special one, because for the first time it was televised.

Check out this advertisement for Philco televisions, published on Monday, April 26, 1948, the day before the Brews' home opener:

That central image is something, the "sensational Philco 1001" showing a baseball game on its "full-size television receiver, 24 tubes plus 3 rectifiers, with a big 10-inch picture."

For that 10-inch picture, you'd pay $349.50 (plus $1.75 federal tax, installation extra). That's a staggering $3,656.40 in today's dollars, adjusting for inflation. Not counting the $18.31 tax, installation still extra.

The lowest-price television listed in that ad comes out to $2,087.13 in 2018 greenbacks, the most expensive $4,702.58. There's one additional model, a "B-I-G 20 x 15-INCH" projection television "almost as big as a large-size newspaper page!". The price isn't listed in this ad, but it retailed for $795 ($8,317.14). Guess I'd have to settle for the "big 10-inch picture" of the Philco 1001.

And do you see that across the bottom?

If you can't get to the Brewers' opening game tomorrow, see it on PHILCO TELEVISION at your nearest Philco dealer*

*Consult your classified telephone directory for location

And "see it" they did, not only at their nearest Philco dealer but also at bars, restaurants, department stores, and other gathering places.

This was a novelty that the Milwaukee Journal covered right along with its coverage of the game the next day:

Cleon Walfoort, writing in the Journal, brought the subject to colorful life:

Television May Have Changed Baseball but Fans Are the Same

It stood in the paper, as Otto pointed out in the streetcar on the way to work, that 13,705 baseball fans saw the Brewers play for the first time this season Tuesday afternoon, but that isn't right at all. It must have been three or maybe four times that number, maybe a lot more. No doubt 13,705 is the number who jammed Borchert field for the home opener but countless others say the Brewers, too—on television, and for the first time.

They gathered in large and little groups all over town. At Joe's place (where good fellows meet) and at the Dew Drop Inn (Tables for ladies). At the big downtown stores and appliance shops where they have bigger screens and less opinionated fans. In the dimly lighted cocktail lounges and in homes. In all these places the Brewers opened the baseball season as surely as they opened it at Borchert field.

As John, the bartender who used to play baseball in the minors, was saying: "It ain't exactly like being out at the park but it's a lot better than just radio."

You got to give it a chance to grow up," someone reminded him.

Walfoort highlighted some of the flaws with this new medium, kinks to be worked out, while recognizing its soaring potential.

Sometimes the play was too far away to follow accurately. Once something happened to the camera and the screen blanked out for half an inning. In some places reflections from the sun that streamed through open doors or interior lights distorted the images on the larger screens. Still, a lot—not all, admittedly, but a lot—of the excitement and thrills and suspense of the action on the diamond filtered into places remote from Borchert field through the medium of the recent scientific miracle.

The umpires were far removed from verbal blasts but that didn't mean that they were immune from criticism, any more than was Manager Cullop when he was slow taking the pitcher or when new shortstop Logan, when he made the low peg to first. Television may have changed baseball, but is has had little effect on the fan, except that he now has a double target to which he speedily adjusted himself. The announcer has become as legitimate a target as the umpire, and radio never was quite like that. Like the time the count was 3-2 on (Brewer pitcher Glenn) Elliot and the announcer struck him out on the next pitch.

"That bum!" said the man with the beer in disgust, meaning the umpire. But it had been a fourth ball, and when Elliot trotted to first the man amended it. "Still a bum, only now it's the announcer."

"Yeah," seconded the fellow in the coaching box near the juke box, "now we got more kinds of bums."

Walfoort paints quite a picture. So strange to see Johnny Logan, "Johnny Brewer" himself, described as the "new shortstop" to be booed by fans watching the game all over Milwaukee.

Nor does television cramp the style of the second guessers, although the spectators who drop in for a quick one, or just to see how the game's coming and how baseball televises, probably as not as astute students of the national pastime as are their brethren who inhabit Borchert field.

And the man at Joe's place wasn't so much different than the fan behind first base, even allowing for the fact that he may have had just one too many.

"Never could see that Cullop as a manager," the man said positively when Elliot was knocked out of the box. "Imagine starting a southpaw with all them right handed hitters like Toledo has. Should have used Roy."

But two innings and at least that many beers later the man had changed his mind. It was right after (third baseman Damon) Phillips had hit that jackpot homer and it looked as if the Brewers were in.

"Great hitter, that Phillips," said the man. "Spotted him the first time I ever saw him swing a bat. Them Brewers are first division for sure. Might even win the pennant. That Cullop gets a lot out of his pitchers."

Then maybe you ought to let Cullop run the team," his pal said, but this suggestion was dismissed as unworthy of any real consideration. Television hasn't changed the baseball fan.

It certainly hasn't.

Life is different in 2018. Thanks to the MLB At Bat app, I'm going to stream today's game while sitting in my office in Midtown Manhattan, watching on an iPad with a screen just barely smaller than that "big 10-inch picture" on the Philco 1001.

And while I do, I promise not to call the announcers "bums". At least not too loudly.

The Orchard in 1910

The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee gives us a fascinating look at Athletic Park and its neighborhood as seen in 1910.

This map shows a section in the city bordered by Burleigh on the north, &th Street on the east, 10th Street on the west, and extending one-half block south of Chambers. Which, of course, includes Borchert Field, then known as Athletic Park and identified here as "American Association Milwaukee Club Base Ball Park".

This is part of the University's Digital Collections. This one comes from a series of municipal maps:

The Digital Sanborn Maps of Milwaukee 1894 & 1910 are two fire insurance atlases featuring detailed color maps of Milwaukee. Produced by the Sanborn Map Company, the 1894 atlas includes four volumes, consisting of 450 map sheets and the 1910 atlas includes eight volumes, consisting of 830 map sheets. Sanborn maps were designed to assist fire insurance agents with insuring property. Produced for over 12,000 urbanized areas in the United States, Sanborn maps have been described by the Library of Congress as "the single most important record of urban growth and development in the United States during the past one hundred years." Some features found on Sanborn fire insurance maps include: construction material of dwellings, commercial buildings, and factories, fire walls, windows, doors, style and composition of roofs, wall thickness, cracks in exterior walls, elevator locations, building uses, sidewalk and street widths, layout and ownership names, property boundaries, distance between buildings, house and block numbers, location of water mains, hydrants, piping, wells, cisterns, and fuel storage tanks.

Outstanding. And catnip to a history lover like myself. You can go block by block and see the structures that were once in place, often in exacting detail.

Let's take a closer look at the ballpark itself:

At this point, the grandstand is showing the horseshoe form it would eventually take:

The first base stands, however, weren't yet connected to the main building, and were uncovered. Bleachers with no roof.

I wonder when they were connected?

In 1944, a large section of the first base grandstand roof was torn apart by storm winds. I wonder if not being part of the orginal structure contributed to that collapse? Was it not built to the same standards as the rest of the park?

Moving on to the outfield, we see another set of bleachers, along with two permanent buildings. On the left, a "Ticket Window and Waiting Room", and on the right, "Lockers".

Would be interesting to see if those facilities were retained in the ballpark's later life. Take a look at this arial photograph from the 1930s, after the grandstand was built out but before permanent light standards were added in 1935:

You can see the layout is essentially the same as our 1910 map; small bleacher section roughly in the middle, buildings bordered in outfield fence along each side.

All in all, a wonderful peek into the Orchard's past. We are indebted to the Sanborn Map Company for chronicling this chapter in Milwaukee history, and UWM for preserving it for our use today.