{"id":13278,"date":"2019-03-28T09:52:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T14:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=13278"},"modified":"2019-04-01T10:39:40","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T15:39:40","slug":"history-other-milwaukee-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/history-other-milwaukee-brewers\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief history of the other Milwaukee Brewerses"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Milwaukee Brewers begin a new season today. After coming one win shy of the World Series last fall, they\u2019re expected to be one of baseball\u2019s best teams<\/a> again this year.<\/p>\n

But which <\/em>Milwaukee Brewers, exactly?<\/p>\n

A click on the ol\u2019 disambiguation<\/a> link on Wikipedia shows that today\u2019s club is one of several baseball teams throughout history to carry the moniker. The best known one \u2014 our Brew Crew \u2014 actually began life in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots<\/a>. The Pilots played one season, finishing at the bottom of the American League, plagued by ownership squabbles and financial woes.<\/p>\n

Bud Selig, a former minority owner of the Milwaukee Braves (which had packed up for Atlanta in 1965), acquired the fledgling expansion club in bankruptcy court. He moved the team to his hometown in the spring of 1970, and thus the modern major-league Brewers were born.<\/p>\n

But before the Pilots \u2014 even before the Braves \u2014 there were four other Milwaukee Brewerses (excuse the Tolkien-esque plural). So in honor of the Brew Crew beginning one of their most hotly anticipated seasons, let\u2019s take a look at the original quartet.<\/span>\n

1884: Union Association<\/h2>\n

The O.G. Brewers<\/a>\u2019 run was short and marred by drama<\/a>. They joined the Northwestern League in 1884, but the league ran out of money. Accordingly, the Brewers left for the Union Association (along with the St. Paul Saints) after the Northwestern League disintegrated partway through the year. They joined near the end of the season as a replacement team and posted a respectable 8-5 record in the UA, which itself only lasted one year. Baseball in the 1800s seemed to be a lot like dot-com startups.<\/span>\n

1886-92: Northwestern League, Western Association, American Association, Western League<\/h2>\n

There aren\u2019t a ton of records about the Second Brewers<\/a>, which began life in 1886 as a minor league squad. In 1891, the team compiled a 21-15 record as the replacement for the major league Cincinnati Kelly\u2019s Killers \u2014 great name btw \u2014 which had gone defunct midway through their American Association season.<\/p>\n

\"Athletic<\/p>\n<\/span>The 1891 team played its home games at Borchert Field, then known as Athletic Park, on Milwaukee\u2019s north side. Bounded by city streets, it was a bizarre, elongated baseball park that seemed more fit for football. Despite the unusual shape, it lasted for decades.<\/p>\n

But the American Association folded that offseason. The Second Brewers then joined a reformed Western League in 1892, but it too only lasted just one year. I\u2019m starting to feel like the Brewers\u2019 name is sort of like the video from The Ring<\/em>, but killing everything it touches in 365 days, not seven.<\/span>\n

\"1901<\/p>\n<\/span>\n

1894-1901: Western League\/American League<\/h2>\n

The Western League reformed in 1894, and with it came yet another Brewers franchise. These Third Brewers<\/a> played a few minor league seasons until 1900, when the Western League decided to go major and renamed itself the American League, intended as an equal to the National League, which had formed in 1876.<\/p>\n

One of the few teams to survive the big-league jump without being excised, move or simply just cease to exist, the Third Brewers were invited to play in the American League. Back in the majors, baby!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Third Brewers were awful. In their inaugural game, against the Detroit Tigers, the Brewers gave up 10 runs in the 9th inning<\/a> to lose 14-13. They were now the Shitty Brewers. The team finished last in the AL and, after one season, moved to St. Louis (as the Browns) for a few decades before settling in Baltimore. Today they are the Orioles.<\/span>\n

\"1936<\/span>\n

1902-52: American Association again<\/h2>\n

There is a silver lining to this story. In 1902, a new American Association launched, promising to be a strengthened minor league for small market cities. Among those were the New Brewers<\/a>, who came together shortly after the Shitty Brewers moved to StL.<\/p>\n

And strengthened it was: For 50 years, the New Brewers played in the AA, mostly as an independent team but also with stints as a farm club of the Browns (1929-33) and Boston Braves (1947-52).<\/p>\n

The New Brewers were the first to use the \u201cBarrel Man<\/a>\u201d mascot. Introduced in the 1940s, Owgust<\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s right, my man\u2019s name was \u201cOwgust\u201d \u2014 was also the inaugural mascot for the fifth and current iteration of the Brewers (from 1970-77).<\/span>\n

\"Borchert<\/p>\n<\/span>Over their half-century, these Brewers won the AA league title eight times. They made such an impression that in 1952, the National League\u2019s Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee to play in the brand new County Stadium. Now obsolete, the aforementioned Borchert Field was demolished a year later; its site is now part of Interstate 43.<\/span>\n

\"Interstate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Milwaukee Brewers begin a new season today. After coming one win shy of the World Series last fall, they\u2019re expected to be one of baseball\u2019s best teams again this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":13282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5153],"tags":[1342,9132,2196,969,9129,973,79],"yoast_head":"\nA brief history of the other Milwaukee Brewerses - The Bozho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A click on the ol' disambiguation link on Wikipedia shows that today\u2019s Brewers are one of several baseball clubs throughout history to carry the moniker.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/history-other-milwaukee-brewers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There were other Milwaukee Brewerses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let's look at the ol' disambiguation link on Wikipedia.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/history-other-milwaukee-brewers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bozho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-28T14:52:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-01T15:39:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Brewers-fb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"There were other Milwaukee Brewerses\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Let's look at the ol' disambiguation link on Wikipedia.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Brewers-tw.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thebozho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thebozho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Whitcomb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Bozho\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/\",\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/thebozho\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebozho\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":280,\"caption\":\"The Bozho\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Bozho\",\"description\":\"Seeing things. 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