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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