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The Boston Braves return

Willets Point Jun 11 2008 11:39 PM

...to play a road game in Chicago.

Benjamin Grimm Jun 12 2008 08:30 AM

I found this interesting: ]Had the Braves not left in 1953 for Milwaukee it is quite possible that in a few years they would have become more popular than the Red Sox as they went on to win 2 pennants and a World Series in Milwaukee led by a young slugger known as Henry Aaron. Today we might be fans of Boston Braves Nation. A similar quirk in timing affected Philadelphia. For so many years, the Athletics were the dominant team in that city, but at the time that the first wave of franchise moves hit in the 1950's, the A's were in a downturn and the Phillies had recently won the 1950 NL Pennant. And I remember reading that Bill Veeck was jockeying for the Browns to get the upper hand in St. Louis at that pivotal time, in the hopes that the Cardinals would relocate and he'd have the city all to himself. (That effort, obviously, failed. He probably never really had much of a chance.) But if the Braves had stayed in Boston, and the Red Sox had gone to Milwaukee, or Kansas City, or wherever, I imagine that the Pirates would have gone to the NL West in 1969 (the Cubs and Cardinals were insisting that they stay in the same division) which would have certainly made the early years of divisional play much different. The 1969 race would have featured the Mets, the Cubs, and the Braves, who won the NL West that year. And the Pirates ended up winning the NL East five years out of six starting in 1970. If they were in the West instead, they might have taken some of the steam out of the Big Red Machine and cleared the way for some lesser teams to compete in the East during those years.

G-Fafif Jun 12 2008 11:52 AM

I visited the site of Braves Field, on the Boston University campus, last time I was in Boston. I definitely felt the ghosts of National League past. Thought of the '51 Giants playing their final scheduled series of the year in Boston and then receiving updates on the train back to New York of how the Dodgers were doing in Philadelphia. Four teams involved in settling the greatest of all pennant races, and before the decade was out, only the Phillies would still remain in the city where they started. Also thought of how the Dodgers clinched in Boston in 1941 and Larry MacPhail waited to board the victory train at 125th Street only to have Leo Durocher order the train to proceed directly to Grand Central so the team could greet its fans as one (or to hack off MacPhail). The Braves moved to Milwaukee after '52. New York National League teams wouldn't have regular road trips north by train ever again.

AG/DC Jun 12 2008 11:57 AM

G-Fafif wrote: Four teams involved in settling the greatest of all pennant races, and before the decade was out, only the Phillies would still remain in the city where they started. Ironically, they were perhaps the saddest sack of the four, historically.

G-Fafif Jun 12 2008 12:15 PM

Although, technically, they were the defending National League champions in 1951. But yeah, you wouldn't have bet on the Phillies persevering into the 21st century. I can't remember where I read it, but from sometime back in the '40s (I think) someone reasonably well regarded in baseball circles wrote it was time to get rid of dull, tiresome teams like the Phillies, that they're only bringing down the sport. Not move them, just get rid of them. Nice prescription.

Willets Point Jun 12 2008 07:13 PM

Can't find any good pictures from the game. All I know is that "Boston" didn't wear my favorite cap: