Woody's World - Cats, guitars and sports cards

My Sports Card Collection (Milwaukee Braves)

As I described in my page on Eddie Mathews, I became a Milwaukee Braves fan in 1958. The Braves had won the 1957 World Series over the Yankees, but they lost the '58 Series to the Yankees despite having a 3-1 lead after four games. In 1959 the Braves finished tied with the LA Dodgers (who had just moved from Brooklyn the year before), and Milwaukee lost the ensuing playoff. Sadly, the Braves would not again appear in a World Series until 1995, long after they had left Milwaukee for Atlanta.

The Braves had moved to Milwaukee from Boston just before the season opened in 1953. They were wildly popular with the people of Milwaukee. Attendance that first year was nearly two million. The Braves continued to be popular there and had varying degrees of success on the playing field, but in 1966 they were moved to Atlanta, apparently because new ownership wanted a larger TV market.

The Milwaukee Braves featured future Hall-of-Famers Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews and Red Schoendienst. Right-hander Lew Burdette was the 1957 Series MVP with three complete game victories. Lew won 203 games in his career including thirty-three shutouts and one no-hitter. Del Crandall was a perennial All-Star catcher. Right-hander Bob Buhl and fleet-footed centerfielder Billy Bruton were among the team's stars, as was slugging first baseman Joe Adcock, who in 1954 hit four home runs in one game (as well as a double - his eighteen total bases in one game stood as an MLB record until 1992). Gene Conley was a 6'-8" right-hander who also played for the NBA's Boston Celtics. Future Yankee manager Joe Torre began his career as a Milwaukee Brave catcher.

My Milwaukee Braves collection includes:

- Topps team cards for all years 1956-1965 (team cards were not available before 1956).
- A year book for every year from 1953 to 1965, except 1957, 1960, 1962 and 1965.
- A home program (score card) for every year except 1953, 1954, 1964 and 1965.
- Team photos for six years.
- I'm working on collecting one card for every player and manager who was on a Milwaukee Braves roster (for those players who have cards). I now have fifty-three of a possible 179 (I think).
- In 2007. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Milwaukee's World Series victory over the Yankees, I put together a display of memorabilia associated with that Series. It includes:

All available 1957 Topps cards for players on the team.
A home World Series program.
An autographed photo of Series MVP Lew Burdette.
A team photo.
A photo of a number of players waiting to board an airplane. It is autographed by Ernie Johnson (future Braves announcer), Del Crandall, Johnny Logan, Red Schoendienst, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn and Frank Torre (Joe's older brother).

- Several magazines that feature Braves on the covers.
- A couple of "pin-back" buttons.
- Books:

"The Milwaukee Braves" by Bob Buege.
"Milwaukee's Miracle Braves" by Tom Meany.

- Videos:

1953 Milwaukee Braves (including "Meet Your Milwaukee Braves").
1955 Milwaukee Braves "Baseball's Main Street".
Vintage videos of the 1957 and 1958 World Series.

- Maybe my favorite piece of Braves memorabilia is a scrapbook from the '50s. It clearly was lovingly put together I'm sure by some youngster who lived in the Milwaukee area. It includes some one hundred pages of pictures, articles and cartoons clipped from local newspapers. The pictures and stories cover not only on-the-field exploits but also give glimpses of the players' personal lives and families. It appears to cover the years up to maybe 1956. I suspect that some of the collection was "cherry-picked" before I bought it on Ebay. Maybe the World Series years had been included, but I have no way of knowing. In any case, it's a wonderful view of life for the Braves players during those early years in Milwaukee.

For sample pictures of this collection click HERE.
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