A 1901 All-Star Team

Toward the end of the 1901 Connie Mack and Clark Griffith picked a “champion team” of the American League, judged by the work done by players at each position. The two men agreed at seven positions: 1b: Frank Isbell, Chicago 2b: Nap Lajoie, Cleveland ss: Wid Conroy, Milwaukee 3b: Jimmy Collins, Boston rf: Fielder Jones, […]

Hall of Famer Ed Walsh’s Time in Milwaukee

Hall of Famer Ed Walsh’s brief stay in Milwaukee is not well known Not surprising, as it is a small, small chapter in the successful career of the Big Spitballer. But as he is a Hall of Fame pitcher, I think it merits some paragraphs. Walsh first appears on the 1919 Milwaukee radar on February […]

The Milwaukee Tigers-Like the Sound of it?

As citizens of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we can look back and say what if. What if the Detroit Tigers had been transferred to Milwaukee. We would have rooted for Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, Al Kaline, Mickey Lolich and Prince Fielder. (Well, we did cheer for him longer than Detroit fans had a chance to.) How close […]

April 25, 1901–Tigers 14, Brewers 13; Biggest Comeback Ever or Biggest Collapse Ever?

It was 113 years ago today that the Detroit Tigers staged the biggest ninth inning come from behind victory engineered in baseball. It still stands. The American League 1901 season was scheduled to open in Detroit on Wednesday, April 24, but intense rains just prior to game time prevented this. To make amends for this […]

Barney Dreyfuss Remembers A Pete Dowling Story

I have always enjoyed reading reminisces of old ball players (and owners in this case). When time permits and I have enough information, I check on some of them—-many times finding baseball people’s memories are not that much better than my own weak ones. I came across this story in the Milwaukee Daily News of […]

Napoleon Lajoie A Milwaukee Brewer — Only An Owner’s Dream

My main research project at present is the detailed history of the 1902 and 1903 seasons of the two Milwaukee minor league baseball teams—Brewers in the American Association, and Creams of the Western League. I have come across some interesting and unusual happenings. The following is one I think is worth sharing with baseball history […]

For Two Bits: A Ball Game and Farce Rolled Into One Good Time

Minor league baseball in the early 20th Century in America was not the same as today. Yes, it was a step below the big leagues, but the Class A teams were only a little step from the big leagues, not the giant step it is today. Many players in these Class A leagues were in […]

Charles Dexter–The Pretty, The Pretty Bad, and The Pretty Darn Heroic

When I first started work on this article I envisioned its title as “Charles Dexter—The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”, focusing on the events of August 23, 1904 and October 2, 1905. But when further research brought to light the events of December 30, 1903, I decided to change that title. Readers will see […]

The Good Old Days: An Out Of Control Series In St. Paul

As the American Association 1904 season winded down the second place Milwaukee Brewers (79-59) entered the territory of the first place St. Paul Saints (89-46) on Saturday, September 10. The Brewers had just fallen completely out of the pennant race, having dropped their last five games in Minneapolis. Even before the game at St. Paul’s […]

The Political Reality of Building a 19th Century Ball Park

Many baseball magnates of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century had difficulties building their ballparks. Much of this was political. Even though ballparks were not built with public money, public officials could hinder—or stop—construction with zoning regulations and the placement of streets through the area where the baseball men were planning to build. […]

Brewers Lose a Manager 100 Years Ago

Managers have been fired in baseball since the beginning, so that the Brewers would let a manager go in 1912 is not a big story. But very seldom was the situation aired out in the press as this story was. As the Milwaukee Brewer manager story of late 1912 involves a future Hall of Fame […]

Sports Writing Style 100 Years Ago

Manning Vaughan was the main baseball writer of the Milwaukee Sentinel one hundred years ago. His style was colorful and full of panache. While researching the 1912 Brewers I fell in love with his writing style. What follows is what is typical of Vaughan’s wonderful way of bringing baseball games to life in people’s parlors […]

New Fangled Aeroplanes And Vaudville: Things Were Different 100 Years Ago

On the second of June 1912, an event took place that we today would find commonplace, but it was no doubt rather unusual 100 years ago. But to let us know the nature of the man involved in the story, we will need a few extra lines. Both the incident and the man are clearly […]

A Grooved Pitch—Hall of Famer vs. Three Game Cup of Coffee Youngster

On Sunday, May 26, 1912, the sixth place American Association Milwaukee Brewers opened a series against the second place Minneapolis Millers, facing future Hall of Fame member Rube Waddell. The eccentric Waddell is known to most baseball fans. Although on the downside of his career, he was still a pitcher to be reckoned with. During […]

Produced Before Steroids: Happy Felsch’s Great Clouts in 1914

Oscar “Happy” Felsch was a Milwaukee boy who came to the American Association Brewers in August 1913, after playing with the Milwaukee/Fond du Lac Mollys of the Wisconsin-Illinois League. In the W-I League Felsch had hit .337, including 10 home runs, in 49 games—mostly as a shortstop. He only managed to hit .183 in for […]

A New York View of the 1913 Merkle Play

For those who read the accounts of Fred Merkle’s handling the ball hit to him in the third inning of the final game of the 1913 World Series—from the Philadelphia sport writers’ view—I have some follow up that presents the play from the New York writers’ view. One major difference is the Philadelphia writers all […]

Three Different Views of One Play

Below I print three descriptions of the same play from the 1913 World’s Series. After over 30 years of interviewing eye-witnesses at accidents and crime scenes, I know that people see the same incident differently, so that three sport writers might see the same play different does not surprise me. For whatever the reasons when […]

The Milwaukee Brewers Once Famous Mascot

Most ballparks now have mascots. But how many have a real live animal mascot? Perhaps the oddest I came across were the 1902 proposed mascots for the Denver and Colorado Springs teams: a live Grizzly Bear and a live Mountain Lion. Other Western League owners frowned on the idea and the bear remained the pet […]

Using Player Reminiscences

Many times we read stories told by players of an incident that occurred years previous. On occasion we use these in our research. But we should always be suspicious of taking these stories as the absolute truth. I would think there is almost always the basis of a true story there, but the details get […]

Kid Elberfeld’s Trip From Washington T0 Montgomery–Through Milwaukee

I have not read a lot about Norman “Kid” Elberfeld, but between the very informative books “Clark Griffith: The Old Fox of Washington Baseball” by Ted Leavengood, and Jim Riesler’s “Before They Were the Bombers”, plus the splendid Terry Simpkins biography on Elberfeld at the SABR Biography Project, I have a working knowledge of him. […]

A Good Old Fashioned Mano a Mano Fight in Milwaukee

Baseball fights still occur, but very seldom are they only a two-man affair. It seems the entire team has to show up now. But in baseball’s Deadball Era I have come across a number of one-on-one fights. One of the nastiest occurred in Milwaukee on May 8, 1913. The press coverage gives us the feeling […]

The Man Who Brought The American League to Milwaukee: Matthew Killilea

If asked, most no doubt would answer Bud Selig was the man who brought the American League to Milwaukee–and that answer would not be wrong. But 70 years before the 1970 Brewers first played at Milwaukee County Stadium, Milwaukee had a team in the American League, and Matt Killilea was a major part of the […]

One Season Hitting Wonder, But Major League Lumber Man: Otto Schomberg

Otto H. Schomberg was born in Milwaukee on November 15, 1864. His father, Henry, (listed as Schoemberg in the 1865 City of Milwaukee Directory) was a cooper, working and living at 710 West Lloyd Street.1 Otto Schomberg first appeared in a City of Milwaukee Directory in 1880 as a laborer, living at 721 7th Street […]

Those Thrifty Milwaukeeans

Being born and raised in Milwaukee I know we have a reputation for being thrifty, frugal, financially conservative (O.K., cheapskates!). But I found it goes back well over one hundred years. The Western League Brewers built a new park on the city’s north side at 17th and Lloyd Streets in 1895. By the next year […]

Milwaukee: Famous for Beer and Tall Baseball Players???

Over the years Milwaukee has been known for a number of things it produced, most famously beer. But how many of us knew Milwaukee was the home of the tallest–and perhaps the two tallest–baseball players in the land in 1884?

The Life of a Talented, but Troubled Man: Paddy Bolan

My book “The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball” is dedicated to the ball players of the 19th Century: “The great, the not nearly great, and everyone in between. Those players who set fine examples, and those who led troubled lives.” I had Patrick “Paddy” Bolan in mind when I wrote of the latter players. Reading of […]

Some team nicknames that did not stick

With Matt Aber’s post regarding player nicknames still in my mind, I came across an article in the August 22, 1891, Sporting News which gave a number of team nicknames and background on the names. Most of the major league team’s nicknames and reasons for the names are well know. However, I found a few […]

Milwaukee’s First All-Black Baseball Team and its Star Napoleon Broady

I imagine we have all done it. Found a tantalizing tidbit on a subject and decided to research it further. It sounds so exciting and newsworthy. Just find what there is to be found and put it into an article. Heck, maybe even a short book. There will be so much of interest. The big […]

The Long and Winding Road–Milwaukee Baseball from microfilm to book

My book “The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball: The Cream City from Midwestern Outpost to the Major Leagues, 1859 -1901” has been published by McFarland & Company. As many of you Seamheads are SABR members you perhaps saw my message at 19th Century and Deadball groups, so this post is not a plug for the book […]

Another Use for an old Wooden Baseball Park: Fireworks!!!

On August 20, 1892, the Milwaukee Sentinel ran an article that C.R. Conable, business manager for H.B. Thearle & Co, general American agents for James Pain & Sons, the great London fireworks kings, was in Milwaukee looking to make arrangements for the production of “the gorgeous pyrotechnical exhibition ‘The Last Days of Pompeii’.” The show […]

The First Black Baseball Team to Visit Milwaukee

The first games of baseball involving an all-Black baseball team in Milwaukee that I could find were played in 1879.

Baseball on Roller Skates

It is no doubt safe to say we will never see major leaguers playing an exhibition game on roller skates. Just as likely the prospect of minor league prospects risking a serious injury is considerably slimmer than winning the lottery. But in a different time–can I say a long time ago in a galaxy far, […]

The Milwaukee Mets???

Think of it. Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver, Bud Harrelson. All playing for the Milwaukee Mets. O.K. A bit of a stretch from what really happened–a really big stretch to be honest. But a few reports in 1888 talked of Milwaukee replacing the New York Mets franchise in the American Association.

The First Police-Fire Baseball Game in Milwaukee

Many cities have annual Policemen vs. Firemen baseball games. Here are the details of the first such game played in Milwaukee. My guess is a good many followed these same lines.

Baseball’s First World Series Goat: Abner Dalrymple and Game Six of the 1886 World Series

Almost one hundred years to the day before Bill Buckner’s error in game six of the 1986 World Series—forever blaming him for losing the series in some people’s mind, even though another game was played—a similar incident happened to Chicago’s Abner Dalrymple.

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