Milwaukee County Stadium
- David Hegler
- Mar 9
- 6 min read
There once was a ballpark that housed many teams but no matter how hard the city tried none would commit to calling it home. Not the Braves, not the Packers nor the Brewers. But while much of its history is dotted with abandonment, Milwaukee County Stadium was "the Little Stadium that Could". This is its story.
The Conception
Shortly after World War II, the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin was booming. With local plans such as Allis-Chalmers recently flush with cash from the war effort, new jobs began to open up just when veterans started to come home. With new neighborhoods springing up practically overnight, the town was blossoming into a crucial metropolis for the state.
At the dawn of the 1950's, Milwaukee's leaders knew that they needed a baseball team if the city was to stay relevant in the public eye. So without having any team of their own, Milwaukee hired the famed ballpark architectural firm Osborn Engineering and broke ground on an old garbage dump on October 19, 1950.
The Glory Years
Three years after ground was first broken, Milwaukee's gamble paid off when the Boston Braves moved to town. As luck would have it, they already had a young slugger in their system named Hank Aaron.
The Braves opened the new ballpark on April 14, 1953 against the St. Louis Cardinals in front of 34,357. Warren Spahn led the Braves through ten innings and Bill Bruton won it for Milwaukee in a walk-off homer off of Gerry Staley. The Braves won 3-2.
Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers were beginning their stay at County Stadium. In an attempt to boost attendance as well as statewide appeal, the Packers had been playing two to three games a year in various Milwaukee stadiums since 1933 before they began playing at County Stadium in 1953.
The Packers stay at County Stadium began in a humbling loss to the Cleveland Browns on September 27, 1953. They would lose all three of their contests at County Stadium that first year and didn't get their first win until October 17, 1954 when they drubbed the Los Angeles rams 35-17.
Seeing how big the crowds were, the NFL threatened to move the Packers permanently to Milwaukee until Green Bay could come up with the funds to build a new stadium. Thus, Lambeau field opened in 1957. Still the Packers would continue to play two to three games a year in Milwaukee. They were enamored with both teams having to share the same sideline and saw the close proximity of the north end zone to the third base dugout as a home-field advantage.
In 1954, Hank Aaron was called up to the majors. In the middle of that year, Sports Illustrated came out with its first issue. The cover? a June 9 game showing Braves slugger Eddie Mathews swinging away against the New York Giants. Although the Braves would lose to the eventual champs 4-0, the photograph would live forever.
A year later, County Stadium hosted the All-Star Game. The Midsummer Classic lasted 12 innings until the Cardinals' Stan Musial blasted a homer off of Boston's Frank Sullivan to give the National League a 6-5 win.
Three years later, the Braves made it to the World Series where they faced off against the defending champs: the New York Yankees. It was a tough seven game series, with neither team willing to give up. In possibly the most critical game of the series, Joe Adcock drove in Eddie Mathews off of Whitey Ford for the game's lone score at Milwaukee County Stadium. Two games later, the Milwaukee Braves won their only World Series in New York.
Much like the Yankees the year before, the Braves entered the 1958 World Series looking to repeat as champions. It was another rollicking seven game series, with neither team willing to give quarter. It all blew up in their faces in the eighth inning of Game 7 at Milwaukee County Stadium when the Yankees scored four runs to pull away with the 6-2 victory.
The Braves would play in Milwaukee until leaving for the greener pastures of Atlanta, Georgia. After the Braves lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-6 on September 22, 1965, the Packers were County Stadium's sole tenants. The Packers made the most of their opportunity by beating the Rams 28-7 in the 1967 Western Conference Championship Game. It was the only NFL playoff game ever held in County Stadium.
Milwaukee only had to wait four years until it got a new ballclub to call its own. In 1970, the Pilots left Seattle and moved to Milwaukee, quickly changing their name to the Brewers. It was a miserable inaugural season and it took the Brewers an entire months before they got their first home win, a 4-3 decision over the Red Sox on May 6.
In 1975, County Stadium hosted the All-Star Game. The National League was up 3-0 until the American League tied it up with three runs in the sixth inning. The NL won it when White Sox pitcher Goose Gossage gave up a two-run single to the Cubs' Bill Madlock and a sacrifice fly from the Reds' Pete Rose
Meanwhile, after years of struggling to dig themselves out of the cellar, by 1978 the Milwaukee Brewers had earned their first winning season. Three years later, they won the AL East but lost to the Yankees in the Divisional Round.
Inspired by how close they had come to the World Series, the Brewers stormed through their 1982 schedule. Led by AL MVP Robin Yount, they won their second straight divisional title and made it all the away to the ALCS where they clinched the American League title in five games with a 4-3 win over the California Angels at County Stadium.
The Brewers next battled the Cardinals in the world Series. Although they lost in seven at St. Louis, the Brewers pushed the series that far with wins in front of home crowds in Games 4 (7-5) and 5 (6-4).
The Final Years
Much of the reason why Lambeau Field has lasted as long as it has is because of Green Bay's continued dedication to improving the ancient stadium. Every few decades, new bonds are sold and the stadium sees further improvements. By the mid-1990's Lambeau Field underwent an extensive expansion that included much-needed luxury boxes which were becoming all the rage in stadium construction. Since, County Stadium had much fewer luxury boxes and the city didn't want to expand further, the Packers' days in Milwaukee were numbered.
On December 18, 1994, the Packers met the Atlanta Falcons in their final game at County Stadium. In front of 54, 885 fans, Packers quarterback Brett Favre's performance on that memorable day portrayed his career in a nutshell. He connected on a lot of passes (29 for 321 yards and two touchdowns), missed on others (44 attempts and an interceptions) while clinching the 21-17 victory over the Falcons (his old team) with a nine-yard touchdown in the closing minute of the game. And with that, an era that spanned 61 years came to an end for the city of Milwaukee and the Green Bay Packers.
Less than six years later, the Brewers built a new ballpark right next to their old one. With Miller Park set to open at the beginning of the 2001 season, the Brewers played their last game at County Stadium in front of 56,354 on September 28, 2000. While the 8-1 loss to Cincinnati was forgettable, catcher Raul Casanova gave the crowd one last happy memory by scoring the last run for the Brewers.
In February 2001, demolition began on the old ballpark. Down went the bleachers that once witnessed the Giants' Willie Mays blast four home runs and add another rbi in a 14-8 triumph over the Braves in 1961. Away went the pitcher's mound that once bore the brunt of Nolan Ryan's 300th career victory in 1990 and home plate where Hank Aaron bashed so many home runs and smacked so many hits, including his last ever on October 3, 1976 to give him hit number 3,771 and set an MLB record with his 2,297th RBI.
When the iconic chalet and giant beer mug where the Brewers mascot Bernie Brewer would dunk himself after every Milwaukee home run came down, the public was met with the cold splash of reality that their home of 47 years was no more. Today, all that remains of County Stadium is a marker where home plate once rested.
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