A Brewer Homer at Milwaukee County Stadium Meant a Slide Into a Beer Mug

Hit a home run for Milwaukee and you too can see this guy do his thing out in the bleachers.

by Rich Watson 
 

When you think of Milwaukee, you think of beer. (That and seventies retro-themed sitcoms.) Since 1840, the Midwestern city has specialized in producing suds from over seventy breweries and over a hundred brewing companies, including Miller, Pabst and Schlitz.

After the Braves headed south to Atlanta, it wasn’t long before a new baseball team took their place: the Pilots, exiled from Seattle after only one year in existence. In 1970, they were renamed the Brewers and played in the Braves’ old ballpark, Milwaukee County Stadium.

All they lacked was a mascot.

The Only Baseball Game Played in the Snow Was At Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium

A snowstorm didn’t stop the American League debut of MLB in Canada.

by Rich Watson 

The Toronto Blue Jays entered Major League Baseball as an expansion team in 1976. A plan to move the Giants from San Francisco was blocked due to a court ruling. The Canadian metropolis was awarded an original team instead, in a wave that also gave birth to the Seattle Mariners.

The name “Blue Jays” had been used by the Phillies in the fifties for a time, but Torontonians selected it as part of a fan contest.

Canadian National Exhibition Stadium, a football venue built in 1948, was the chosen home site. It had been outfitted recently with AstroTurf, new at the time. The city council had also approved $2.8 million (Canadian) for stadium renovation.

An expansion draft assembled the players, among them Vancouver native Dave McKay. A schedule was drawn up, and tickets sold. The new team would play its first game on April 7, 1977 against the White Sox.

Everything went fine—as long as no one looked at the weather forecast.

Connie Mack Stadium and Its Remarkable Architecture

Baseball in Philadelphia used to be played in a virtual palace.

by Rich Watson 

During the early twentieth century, the Philadelphia Athletics were the dominant team in the brand new American League. This meant they were popular—to the point where fans had to be turned away from tiny Columbia Park.

Team president Ben Shibe eyed a square block of land on Lehigh Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets. It was part of an underdeveloped neighborhood, with trolley cars and railroad stations, but also containing bluffs and gullies where live animals roamed. A smallpox hospital was there too, but the city was about to shut it down.

Shibe quietly bought up the land beginning in 1907, with the intent to build a new, bigger ballpark on the site. Two years later, what he and the A’s got was nothing less than a cathedral to baseball.