Winning the Pennant

In the fall of 1957, the Braves won the National Baseball pennant for that year. They were the Milwaukee Braves and to this day I have never forgiven them for moving to Atlanta. Why would they do that to a town that fully supported them? I know it was money. It is always money, but let me tell you about the support story.

At that time my sister Betty and I were going to school in Milwaukee. I remember the day that the Braves were to play their last game and everyone was on pins and needles expecting the best. The whole town was buzzing.

My class from Layton had been taken to the museum to sketch bones for the afternoon. The museum at that time was on the upper floors of the present-time library in Milwaukee. Our assignment was to sketch 5 bone groupings and then we were allowed to leave. The first three were done rather nicely but the last two, drawn after all the bells and whistles in town went off, were barely there. I showed my drawings to the instructor and left to find Betty.

Betty was at her school on Wisconsin Avenue but trying to get down the street was a challenge. Wisconsin Avenue (Milwaukee’s main street) was full of people from one side to the other. I only saw a couple of cars and one of them was upside down. Everyone was drinking and shouting. It was a town out of control and loving it. All The Marquette bells were ringing. I can imagine some excited students hanging on the ropes with no idea of ever letting go. All the Factory whistles were blowing from various parts of town. It was wonderful!

When I finally got to her school, they were ready to leave too so we started wandering down the street. I grabbed the bottom of a pennant that some guy in front of me had over his shoulder. He turned around along with his buddies. They were from the Great Lakes naval base. We ended up following them into a restaurant where they invited us to have dinner with them. We did.

That was the beginning of “some” night. We ran into our other two roommates, Slim and Rosemary. Navy wanted to take Slim and Betty out but at that time we all headed down the main street again. (They did connect up days later) We ended up as part of a snake dance that was winding its way up and down Wisconsin Avenue. I remember letting go of the person ahead of me in time to grab a beer that someone had just pop a tab on.

One of the guys from my school had a trumpet and was playing parts of a fight song. Every time he would stop playing, someone would put a bottle on the white line in the middle of Wisconsin Avenue. I think this started in front of the Marc Plaza Hotel (The most up-scale hotel in Milwaukee at that time) There were champagne bottles, wine bottles and beer bottles making a glass line down the street and the rest of us drunks had to step over it with our snake dancing. Finally the chant from the crowd around the trumpet player was, “To the Lake, to the lake.” They were intending to make a line of bottles from mid-town Milwaukee to Lake Michigan. (Less than a mile from the hotel.)

Milwaukee was a proud city that day. No one was out there to “handle” the situation. There was no traffic to handle, the downtown was wall to wall people who were very proud and excited. The street lights and stop lights were just decoration that evening.

Do you think that this could ever happen today, that a population could be allowed to be that “out of control?” We Have become a fear-based people living in under an orange threat condition (The national threat colors are very good at creating fear.) Our Mayors and City Councilmen wouldn’t be able to allow this much freedom in today’s world.

I do know that even way back then there were people who locked themselves into their houses and apartments that day because of fear. Had I not been in the middle of all of it, perhaps I too would have thought everyone had lost their minds but sometimes we need to let go and live. What was it that Deborah Kerr said in AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER? “Winter must be cold for those who have no warm memories.” The night that the Braves won the pennant was a warm memory. Make some warm memories today for your tomorrows.