Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Review of "Sad Riddance"

I was in the mood for a baseball book, and realizing that I have not read a non-fiction baseball book in awhile, I picked this one out of the TBR, even though it hasn't been there too long.  It was a long, detailed read about the last season of the Milwaukee Braves. It is well worth the time to invest in reading. Here is my review of "Sad Riddance." 


Title/Author:
“Sad Riddance: The Milwaukee Braves’ 1965 Season Amid a Sport and World in Turmoil” by Chuck Hildebrand
Tags:
Baseball, professional, Braves, politics, race
Publish date:
November 27, 2016

Length:
468 pages

Rating: 
4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
After moving to Milwaukee from Boston after the 1952 season, the Braves franchise saw instant success on both the field and at the box office. It felt like the perfect marriage between a struggling baseball franchise and a city looking to achieve “major league” status.  However, that initial euphoria didn’t last as by 1965, the team announced they planned to move to Atlanta, but the city of Milwaukee would not let the team out of its stadium lease. If the marriage between team and city was perfect at the start, it ended in an acrimonious divorce. The last season saw small crowds, court actions and no less than three attempts by the team to leave for the Deep South in the middle of the season.  All of this and more is captured in this well-researched and thoroughly written book by Chuck Hildebrand.

The team won the World Series in 1957 and nearly duplicated that feat in 1958. They shattered attendance records in those years and while the fans didn’t continue to turn out in those record numbers as the 1960’s evolved, the team continued to perform well on the field. Then the team was sold to a group based out of Chicago, led by Bill Bartholomay, repeatedly assured Milwaukee that the team would stay put – only to do an about face and apply for the team to move to Atlanta in 1965. The city would not allow the team out of its lease, so the team had to play a “lame duck” season in 1965.

Hildebrand weaves stories from Braves players on that team with anecdotes from fans, team officials and city officials to paint a complete picture of what took place on and off the field during that 1965 season.   For the on-field exploits, he covers each game and notes the attendance at each home game, most of which drew less than 10,000 fans – a precipitous decline from the previous 12 seasons.  While these sections are not all detailed play-by-play for each game, the reader will get a good sense of how the team performed, which was admirably given the circumstances – they were contenders for the National League pennant until the last week of the season and did finish fourth with a winning record.

As for the off-the-field accounts of the struggle between the ownership group and the city, these are well documented as well.  Not only does Hildebrand explain about the city’s insistence that the team honor its County Stadium lease, he delves into the politics of baseball at the time regarding franchise moves and Milwaukee’s challenge to baseball’s exemption from anti-trust laws.  Each of these topics were addressed in enough detail that readers will understand exactly what was happening. 

There are also plenty of passages about non-baseball events of the time, not only on a national level but also local as well.  The struggles for civil rights in Milwaukee, city council politics and the push for public funding for sports arenas are covered as well as national topics like the Vietnam War and the Watts riots in Los Angeles.  Connecting these with the baseball team was tricky, but Hildebrand pulled it off.  Readers will have to read these sections carefully if they were not familiar with the local politics of Milwaukee.

Nonetheless, this book is a wonderful account of the last season of the Milwaukee Braves.  No matter what a reader looks for in his or her baseball books, there will be something for everyone in this one.  It is a long, detailed read so be prepared to spend a significant amount of time with this one.  It will be worth the investment.

Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sad-riddance-chuck-hildebrand/1125183492?ean=9781539475712


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