President Truman at the Orchard, 1948

Tonight, Milwaukee is the center of the country's political world—the Republican half of it at least—as the would-be GOP candidates for President gather for a debate at the historic Milwaukee Theatre.

Nearly seventy years ago, on October 14, 1948, the Cream City was visited by another important political figure, as President Harry S. Truman came through on a campaign stop, part of a quick swing through Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Sentinel characterized Truman's trip as a "determined, eleventh-hour bid for the state's 12 electoral votes." The state Democratic Party chose an outdoor venue for his speech: our very own Borchert Field.

When the President and his family arrived at the downtown train station at 7:27 p.m., they were met by a motorcade that drove them to the Orchard. An estimated 75,000 Milwaukeeans lined the streets to watch the First Family drive by, and they were met at the ballpark by a huge political rally with 11,000 cheering fans.

Getting an early start in his political life, partisan James Mondry, 9, of 534 W. Chambers st., marched in front of the crowd at the President Truman rally at Borchert field Thursday night with this homemade sign.

The Milwaukee Journal had excellent coverage of the festivities:

This amazing photo was taken inside Borchert Field itself, showing how they set up the platform and chairs in the infield.

Milwaukee was host to President Truman Thursday night and a crowd estimated at more than 11,000 heard him make a major campaign talk at Borchert field. The arrow points to the president on the speakers' stand. Democratic officeholders and candidates occupied most of the seats on the stand. Note how police faced toward the crowd. —All Journal Staff

The second shows the President preparing to leave.

An untold number of flashlight bulbs were shot off by photographers. Some of them are shown near the president's car as it started a swing around the field after the speech.

Drove his car around the field? Good thing the Brewers' season was over.

Not to be outdone, the Sentinel's cameras also captured the action:

Their photos haven't been preserved so well in the archives, but you can they're looking at the crowd from a different angle:

That was taken from atop the grandstand roof behind home plate. The police officer is standing in front of the Brewers' dugout, on the third base side.

After finishing his remarks, the President was driven to the Pfister Hotel for a brief reception before boarding a train for Chicago.

Eleventh-hour or otherwise, the swing helped, and Truman carried Wisconsin 50.70% to Thomas Dewey's 46.28% (the Progressive Party candidate received just under 2% and the Socialist just under 1%). This was all part of a come-from-behind victory that still remains the standard for political shockers.

Flying the Flag

On July 7, 1937, long-simmering tensions between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan boiled over into open conflict. A small skirmish at the Marco Polo Bridge soon engulfed both great powers in an extensive war, as Japanese forces launched a full-scale invasion of the mainland.

To citizens of Milwaukee, this war must have seemed impossibly remote. But the following May, the Cream City found itself facing a small but curious reverberation of that conflict from the other side of the globe.

Downtown Building Nearly Involved in Sino-Japanese War

Milwaukee property owners have international complications, as well as high taxes and local troubles, to worry about these days.

Joe Mallon, superintendent of the Plankington Building, Saturday received a protest from Milwaukee Chinese that the building was unduly favoring Japan in the current oriental war.

The Chinese, it seems, believed that the baseball flag, which flies above the building when the Brewers' team is playing at home, is the Japanese flag. The baseball banner has a white field with a red center, similar to Japan's "rising sun" flag. Mallon explained this to the protesters.

The polite Chinese apologized for their mistake.

Setting aside the regrettable dog-whistle language about "polite Chinese", it's a fascinating story. This is the flag that caused their confusion, the flag the Brewers would fly over their downtown office to announce home games:

A little confusion seems reasonable enough.

So how did this flag-flying tradition come about? It started in 1913, although the original "Game Today" flag looked a little different:

The flag was the brainchild of Brewer minority owner/business manager Bill Armour; who in the days leading up to 1913's Opening Day announced that a special flag would be flown over the Majestic Building on Wisconsin Avenue—"a white flag with a blue ball in the center"—on days when the Brewers were to play a home game at Athletic Park. No flag on scheduled game days signified a postponement. For fans a bit closer to Athletic park, he intended to line the grandstand roof with "a dozen or more" smaller pennants on game days.

This may have been a last-minute addition for 1913 (Armour had only taken over baseball operations the previous January); the day before the first scheduled game, the Milwaukee Journal reported that the flag might not be ready to fly.

Arrangements were made this morning by Business Manager Armour to keep the fans informed each day as to whether there is to be a game or not, by displaying a white flag with a blue ball in the center from the flagpole on the Majestic building. There is some question as to whether this flag with be ready for tomorrow, but after that it can be depended upon each day.

The Milwaukee Sentinel was especially positive, declaring that Armour's innovation "will prove of great convenience to the fan and will save many a fruitless journey to Athletic park during the season."

	The Majestic Building circa 1910

The Majestic Building was chosen not only for its towering presence as one of Milwaukee's first skyscrapers, but also because it housed the Brewers' headquarters; the club had kept its offices in Room 1300 of the 14-story Beaux-Arts building since its opening in 1908.

We may never know if the flag wasn't ready for the first game, as heavy rains settled in over Milwaukee and pushed the opening back two days. But when the rain stopped, the Brewers were prepared. Armour's blue-and-white flag went up for the first time on Saturday, April 12, 1913, telling fans all over downtown that the first Brewer game of the season was on.

The new flag on the Majestic Building, which will inform the fans when the Brewers are playing, did its first service yesterday.

I'm struck by the simplicity of the design, its abstraction.

It reminds me of a maritime flag, a symbol capable of conveying great import to people in the know while being utterly opaque to the uninitiated (like our Chinese-American friends). Had this flag been introduced a few decades later, I would expect the Brewers to have flown a slightly more on-the-nose design:

Then again, if Bill Veeck had been the owner behind it instead of Bill Armour, the flag might have looked more like this:

It's unclear when Armour's "Game Today" flag fell out of favor, but at some point its use was discontinued. That is, until June of 1934, when the Brewers moved their offices out of the Majestic and down the street to the seventh floor of the Plankinton Building.

With the new location came an opportunity to revive an old tradition, and the Brewers brought their flag out of mothballs.

Baseball Flag Flies Again

The white flag with its big round spot will fly again when the Brewers are at home and a game is to go on. The baseball flag used to fly over the Majestic Building when the club's office was there. Then the custom was abandoned for a time. The picture shows Mercedene Foster and Mavis Strehlow hoisting it on the Plankington Arcade flagpole Friday. (Journal Staff Photo)

This might also have been the point when the flag switched from a blue dot to red.

Flying a "Game Today" flag is a quaint tradition from an era before mass communication, when fans could look to the skyline to see if their club was playing.

Is this the Japanese Consulate,
or do the Brewers have a home game today?

The "Brewers That Were" in Kansas City, 1927

The Kansas City Royals are the 2014 World Champions. To celebrate, we offer this photo featuring members of the 1927 Kansas City Blues baseball club, which was well-stocked with former Milwaukeeans.

Brewers That Were

Milwaukee is well represented on the Kaw this season, as four former Brewers are striving to put Kansas City on the baseball map. Joe Hauser, the mainspring of the Kay See club, is a native of Milwaukee and Eddie Schaack, one of the club's leading pitchers, is also a resident of this city. Ginger Shinault and frank McGowan, the other two stalwarts shown above are also former members of the Milwaukee club. Reading from left to right, they are McGown, Schaack, Hauser, Shinault.

Video: Our Boys in the 1917 World Series

This film gives us a look at Game One of the 1917 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants.



It is a rare opportunity to see some early-20th century Brews in action, as the Cream City club had contributed three starting position players to that 1917 White Sox squad:

• Oscar "Happy" Felsch was Chicago's starting center fielder. A local Milwaukee boy, Felsch was a member of the 1913 and 1914 pennant-winning Brewer squads, going to the Sox in 1915. By 1917 he was a true star. He was later banned from baseball for his part in throwing the 1919 World Series, the only one of the infamous "Eight Men Out" who ever wore a Brewer uniform. Felsch came home to live the rest of his life in Milwaukee, where he owned a grocery store and a tavern.
  
  
  
• Catcher Ray Schalk, widely considered the best catcher in the majors, had played for the Brews in 1911 and the first half of 1912 before being sold to the White Sox in late July for $10,000. He played nineteen years in the majors, all but the last with the Sox. Schalk moved into managing and was the skipper of the Buffalo Bisons in 1936, when the Brewers beat them to win the Junior World Series. He would return to Milwaukee for a brief managerial stint with the Brews in 1940, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.
  
  
  
• Outfielder Nemo Leibold had a more circuitous route from Milwaukee to Chicago than either of his two teammates. He was a Brewer in 1911 and 1912 before moving to the Cleveland Indians, who traded him to the Sox during the 1915 season. After his playing days were over, he had two managerial stints in the American Association; first with the Columbus Red Birds (1928-32) and the second with the Louisville Colonels (1944-48).

That 1917 roster also included two men who would later play in Milwaukee:

• Backup first baseman Ted Jourdan was a frequent visitor to Athletic Park; he had a solid five-year career with the Minneapolis Millers (1919, 1922-24) after leaving Chicago. In the middle of the 1924 season, he got to see the home dugout when the Millers loaned him to the Brewers for 14 games.
  
  
  
• Lefty Dave Danforth pitched for the Brewers in 1926. He won seventeen games that season, including two during the club's 21-game winning streak. He struggled at the beginning of 1927, and just weeks into the season (and following the sudden death of team owner Otto Borchert) he was shipped off to New Orleans of the Southern Association.

Now that you've met the Brewers' contribution to the 1917 White Sox, see if you can spot any of these men in the footage!

Were These Intended to Replace Our Beer Barrel Man?

Paul Lukas's blog Uni Watch had a great little nugget today:

Matthew Prigge was at an antique sale and found someone’s renderings for new Brewers logos. "Perhaps these were intended for the 1977 logo design contest that resulted in the glove/ball 'mb' logo," he says.

I think Matthew might be correct. They certainly have that 70's vibe to them, don't they?

The contest he refers to was the Brewers' process for replacing the Beer Barrel Man, the descendent of our very own Owgust. After nearly a decade of using an updated version of the American Association club's mascot, they were looking for a modern logo. Their fan-submission contest finally yielded the now-famous "ball in glove" logo.

These newly-uncovered sketches don't represent the clean break we got in 1977; they're more of an evolutionary step. Let's take a look at each of them.

The first one anticipates the large bushy mustache of Bernie Brewer.

I love the Tyrolean hat, playing on the city's German heritage.

He owes a bit to the original version of Bernie Brewer (right), which was briefly used by the club in 1970. I can easily see this logo translated into a full-body version complete with lederhosen.

The anonymous designer has also included a potential wordmark - "brewers" in curved, even, lower-case letters. Again, very groovy '70s.

The second version has clear Beer Barrel Man ancestry.

Overall, this one is a combination of Owgust's tap nose with the round baseball noggin of Messrs. Red or Met. Bonus points for the old 19th Century pillbox cap. I could definitely picture him hanging out with these guys:

He's even facing the right direction.

If Matthew is true, and these were contest entries or steps along the way to contest entries, it's a shame they were never developed. Mascot logos are the best, and not just because they lend themselves to grown-ups dressed in gloriously ridiculous foam suits. The applications are limitless, from special logos to seasonal applications to the unhappy Mr. Met Rain Check on this 1972 ticket stub.

I guess I can't really complain; after a long time in the wilderness the Beer Barrel Man is back in force. And featured as a costumed character in Miller Park, a delightful development. But it's possible that he might not have had to go away at all in late 1977, only adapt into a slightly new form.

"The Street Car Takes You to the Ball Park Entrance", 1936

I recently had the privilege of speaking with WTMJ Radio's Doug Russell about Borchert Field and the neighborhood around it; one of the things we talked about was how fans got to the ballpark.

Many fans took the streetcar, as seen in this Milwaukee Journal ad from May, 1936:

Amazing. The contemporary trend towards downtown stadiums often includes public transport, trying to recapture days gone by.

What it must have been like to jump aboard the No. 20 Eighth Street car to take in a game. Perhaps with the planned Milwaukee Streetcar, we might be able to re-create this on our way to Miller Park.

Spring, 1944: Julio Acosta Tosses One In

This gorgeous 8x10 photo features Julio Acosta, the Brewers' Cuban pitcher, showing off a little follow-through.

Acosta was central to one of president Bill Veeck's best gags; in late August 1943 Veeck secretly bought the left-handed hurler's contract and had Acosta jump out of a cake during an on-field birthday party for manager Charlie Grimm.

So can we date this photograph? In addition to stamps indicating "Milwaukee Journal Library", there is a stamp on the reverse indicates that the picture was filed on Monday, June 12, 1944. At that point, Acosta had been on the team less than a year, so the window is fairly narrow as these things go.

This uniform design predates the Veeck administration; a solid uniform with thick, dark royal blue piping and a red block "M" on the chest. Sport Shirt Bill introduced his own design starting with the 1942 season, his first full season in charge.

The patch on his left sleeve is even more telling; it was introduced to commemorate the "100th birthday of baseball", and was worn by all professional clubs during the 1939 season. The Brewers were no exception; here we can see it on the gray flannel road jersey of then-player/manager Minor "Mickey" Heath:

Look at how long Heath's sleeves are in that picture! In the early 1940s, baseball fashion was changing. Sleeves were shorter, and this jersey had its sleeves crudely chopped off above the blue piping to make them fit the period's preferred style.

So Acosta is wearing a jersey that is at least four years old. It's therefore most likely that the photo was taken at Spring Training in 1944. Even today it's still common for clubs to re-use old uniforms in spring and exhibition games. If that's the case, the location is Waukesha in the outer Milwaukee suburbs. Wartime travel restrictions caused the Brewers to move their Spring Training camp to a closer location.

There's another tantalizing detail, although a bit out-of-focus. There's an unidentified right-handed player wearing a team jacket.

Although it's not clear in this photo, that jacket features a patch of team mascot Owgust, and it is one of my personal Grails. I don't know if any still exist, but we can certainly hope.

In 1943, or at least the nine appearances he made in a Milwaukee uniform, Acosta went 3-1 with an ERA of 3.89. He finished 1944 with the exact same ERA, this time with a 13-10 record from 36 appearances. He bettered all those numbers in 1945, a 15-10 record and 3.44 ERA. Those good times were not to last; in 1946 Acosta struggled in Spring Training and was provisionally sold to the Little Rock Travelers. His struggles continued in Arkansas, and they returned him to Milwaukee in June. Unable to get him back to his old form, the Brewers released him outright that month.

1948 Capital Airlines Pocket Schedule

This 1948 Milwaukee Brewers pocket schedule was printed up by Capital Airlines to promote their service in and out of Milwaukee.

On the front, a generic if stylish view of a gentleman picking up his tickets from the counter. Remember when air travel was glamorous and adventuresome? Me neither.

"Serving Air-Minded America for Over 20 Years" refers to Capital's founding in Pittsburgh in 1936 as Pennsylvania Central Airlines. They re-branded to Capital the year this schedule had printed.

The reverse lists all the Brewers contests at Borchert Field.

It might have been fun for an airline to produce a schedule of road games, which fans might fly to see. But a list of home games is probably more practical for fans in Milwaukee.

Compare it with this 1948 schedule, printed by the Brewers themselves.

These schedules were printed up for many of the pro teams in cities served by Capital, such as the Baltimore Colts of the All-America Football Conference.

At the time, Capital was an eastern-based airline as seen in this 1952 route map:

Not many American Association cities on there, although the Brewers could fly Capital for their road trips to Minneapolis, St. Paul or Toledo.

Capital Airlines merged into United Airlines in 1961.

1943 American Association Championship Ring

Championship rings are the ultimate prize in sports. An athlete's career is often judged by how many he won. This was no less true in the 20th Century than today, and no less true in the minor leagues.

This 1943 American Association championship ring recently came up for auction:

1943 Milwaukee Brewers American Association Championship Ring

Founded in 1902, the American Association was one of the oldest and highest levels of professional baseball’s minor leagues until its merger with the International league in 1997. The original Milwaukee Brewers were a charter member of the American Association and remained in the league until the city was granted a Major League franchise in 1952.

This 10K, size 9, 13.8-gram American Association Championship ring was presented to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Bill Norman, a member of two consecutive championship teams from 1943-1944. Norman hit .275 with 18 home runs and 83 RBI in 132 games for the Brewers in 1943. This aged but well preserved ring contains an approximately ½ carat diamond in the center of a sliver outlined infield diamond encircled by “American Association Champions” in raised but slightly fading lettering with the league’s American Eagle logo and “1943 Milwaukee AA” on both shanks; Comes with handwritten LOA from Stephen Koschal of Boynton Beach, FLA, dated 5/2/95 verifying purchase of the ring from Norman’s daughter.

This is the second 1943 ring I've seen. The first was owned by skipper Charlie Grimm, but he had the diamond crown replaced with his monogram. This one gives us a good look at the original design.

Gorgeous. I love the eagle/shield design on each shank.

Outfielder Bill Norman was a favorite among Milwaukee's baseball fans, and he loved playing in the city. Although this is one of two rings he won during his time in Milwaukee, he may have been awarded another: the Brewers won their third American Association pennants in a row in 1945, after he left the club in July. In any case, this ring is well-worn and was presumably much-loved.

Glenn Elliott in the Corner

This photo of Brewer pitcher "Silent Glenn" Elliott, standing in front of the Borchert Field left field corner, was taken sometime around 1948.

"Silent Glenn", also known as "Lefty", was (naturally enough) a left-handed hurler. His quiet nature, coupled with the spectacles he wore, led sportswriters to describe him as "contemplative" and "scholarly", and the Oregon State graduate was in fact a schoolteacher during the offseason.

He came to the Braves organization from the Pacific Coast League's Seattle Rainiers after the end of the 1946 season. The 27-year old made his big league debut in relief during the second game of 1947, and promptly entered the history books; coming in to the game in the fifth, he gave up Jackie Robinson's first hit in the major leagues, a bunt single. After the game, Elliott received some scorn from those opposed to the integration of baseball, but Robinson's continued performance caused those voices to fade and now Elliot's role is reduced to a footnote.

Elliott struggled with the big club, and in May he was sent to Milwaukee for seasoning. Brewer manager Nick Cullop recognized the young man's potential to help the Brews. Cullop added a curveball to Elliott's repertoire, and Elliott ended the season 14-5. The Brewers could do no better than third place in the pennant race, but they did secure a playoff berth. Elliott would be an important part of that playoff run.

The Brewers' bookish lefty won a game in each of the Brewers' two series, first against the Kansas City Blues and then the Louisville Colonels, to take the Brewers to the 1947 Little World Series. And when they came to the deciding seventh game, Cullop put Elliott on the mound. Silent Glenn rewarded his skipper's confidence by pitching a complete game as the Brewers demolished the Syracuse Chiefs 9-1 to take their fourth Series.

Back in Milwaukee to start the 1948 season, Elliott found himself on both ends of a 12-game losing streak. He was on the mound on July 24, when the St. Paul Saints beat the Brewers, 3-2, in 17 innings. The Brewers then lost the following dozen games before Elliott dominated the Colonels on his way to an 8-3 victory on August 3rd. He was retrieved by the Braves on September 1st having accumulated a 14-7 record and 3.76 ERA, the best in the American Association. The call-up bothered fans in Milwaukee; the loss of their ace certainly contributed to a second-place Association finish and first-round playoff departure. To make matters worse, Elliott made only one appearance for the Braves—on September 1st, his first day there, no less—and watched from the bench as Boston lost the World Series to Cleveland.

He saw a little more big-league action in 1949, making 22 appearances including 6 starts, four of them complete games. That, coupled with a record of 3-4 and 3.95 ERA, was good enough to earn an invitation to the Braves' Spring Training camp in 1950, but he failed to make a mark before the end of April they had sold him outright to the Brewers. Elliott hit all the right notes speaking with the Milwaukee Journal; writer Lloyd Larson quoted Silent Glenn as saying:

"I'm sure glad to get back. Milwaukee is a fine city. The fans here were always kind to me. And I know I can pitch regularly here. That's what I want to do—pitch. I didn't have too much opportunity to do that with the big club, you know."

He did indeed get to pitch at Borchert Field, but he wasn't the ace Brewers fans had seen just a couple years earlier. Elliott was carrying an 11-12 mark and 4.50 ERA by August, when the Braves sold him to the PCL's Sacramento Solons. He bounced between the Salons and Portland Beavers through the end of the 1956 season before becoming the Philadelphia Athletics' Pacific Northwest scout. He died of cancer in 1969, at the very young age of 49.

This photo was most likely taken during Silent Glenn's first stint with the team; this uniform style was worn from 1946-1949. Starting in 1950 the Brewers wore a clone of the Braves' script across their chests. The white cap logo would place this in 1948; the 1947 club wore red "M"s on their caps.

As for the background of the picture, this is the best look at the left field corner I've ever seen. And "corner" is the only word for it; the left field wall ran parallel with 8th Street and the centerfield fence with Burleigh, resulting in a sharp 90° angle where they came together. Much has been said about what the Orchard's configuration did for hitters, with the short porches and incredibly deep centerfield, but it must have been equally challenging for fielders. I'd hate to have to play a ball off that corner.

Some great local ads color those walls.

Clark's Super Gas was a Milwaukee-based oil and gasoline company which had been a Brewer sponsor at least as far back as 1942.

We've seen ads for Snirkles caramel bars, the local treat created by Howard B. Stark Co. Confectioners, in the 1944 score card. Johnnie Walkers is a new one to me; they were a mens' clothing shop founded in 1937. They had their heydey in the 1960s with five locations, and survived until the last store closed in 2010.

One photograph can tell so many stories. Even an impromptu snap such as this.