Comments on: Milwaukee Cardinals Baseball Team v. Major League Baseball (1953): The Antitrust Case That Might Have Changed the Face of the National Pastime http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/04/21/milwaukee-cardinals-baseball-team-v-major-league-baseball-1953-the-antitrust-case-that-might-have-changed-the-face-of-the-national-pastime/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:08:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Richard M. Esenberg http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/04/21/milwaukee-cardinals-baseball-team-v-major-league-baseball-1953-the-antitrust-case-that-might-have-changed-the-face-of-the-national-pastime/comment-page-1/#comment-21145 Richard M. Esenberg Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:01:48 +0000 http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/?p=4903#comment-21145 I am both a bit more informed and a bit sadder. I am both a bit more informed and a bit sadder.

]]> By: Gordon Hylton http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/04/21/milwaukee-cardinals-baseball-team-v-major-league-baseball-1953-the-antitrust-case-that-might-have-changed-the-face-of-the-national-pastime/comment-page-1/#comment-21021 Gordon Hylton Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:19:57 +0000 http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/?p=4903#comment-21021 Rick Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately, there is a problem with your genealogy of the minor league Brewers. The Brewers did move to Toledo and Wichita as you note, but the Wichita Braves of 1958 did not become the Fort Worth Cats of 1959, Wikipedia notwithstanding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_(20th_century) Sadly, the Brewers of Borchart Field died in September 1958 when the second place Wichita Braves lost to the third place Minneapolis Millers in the first round of the American Association play-offs, four games to two. After that season, the Milwaukee Braves shifted their AAA affiliation to the already existing Louisville Colonels who had lost their affiliation with Baltimore. The Wichita team, stripped of its Milwaukee Brave farmhands and suffering from poor attendance (averaging just over 1300 fans per game in 1958 despite a second place finish), simply expired. Here is the story in more detail. In 1958, the American Association played as an eight team league. Seven of the eight teams—all but Wichita—returned the following year when the Association expanded to ten teams. Added to the league for 1959 were three Texas teams—the Fort Worth Cats, the Dallas Rangers, and the Houston Buffs. In 1958, all three of these teams had played in the AA Texas League, but after that season their owners decided that their home cities had simply grown too large to continue at the second tier of minor league baseball. (All were motivated in part by the hope of attracting a major league team at some point in the future.) In 1959, the Texas League fielded no teams in these three cities. Had the three new AAA teams been new or relocated franchises, they could not under baseball rules play in cities that were already occupied. However, at the time everyone involved with the two leagues understood that the three new Association teams were not new franchises, but existing franchises switching from one league to another. Not only were there no changes in ownership, but there were numerous overlaps in personnel between the 1958 and 1959 teams, especially in regard to the Fort Worth team. In 1958, the Fort Worth Cats were a Chicago Cub farm team managed by Lou Klein; in 1959, they were still a Cub farm team and Lou Klein was still the manager. A scan of the 1958 and 1959 rosters on Baseball-Reference.com shows considerable overlap in player personnel which is not surprising given that the Cubs AA farm team was now its AAA team. The Cubs apparently supported the move to the new league, having discontinued their previous AAA affiliation with Portland of the Pacific Coast League. Moreover, in their book When Panthers Roared: The Fort Worth Cats and Minor League Baseball (1999), authors Jeff Guinn and Bobby Bragan discuss the team’s decision to leave the Texas League following the 1958 season and to join the American Association. Guinn and Bragan represent the story as a decision made by the current owners of the Cats, and there is no mention whatsoever of the Wichita franchise. I suppose it is possible that the Wichita franchise was arbitrarily assigned by the American Association to Fort Worth while Houston and Dallas were admitted as expansion teams, but even if that were true it would establish only a meaningless link between the two franchises. Your genealogy going forward from Fort Worth is fine, but that is not the subsequent history of the old Brewer team that many Milwaukee baseball fans still adore. It would be nice if it were true that the current Salt Lake City Bees were the old minor league Brewers still playing under a different name, and I hate to be the one to point this out, but Joe, it just ain’t so. Rick

Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately, there is a problem with your genealogy of the minor league Brewers. The Brewers did move to Toledo and Wichita as you note, but the Wichita Braves of 1958 did not become the Fort Worth Cats of 1959, Wikipedia notwithstanding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_(20th_century)

Sadly, the Brewers of Borchart Field died in September 1958 when the second place Wichita Braves lost to the third place Minneapolis Millers in the first round of the American Association play-offs, four games to two. After that season, the Milwaukee Braves shifted their AAA affiliation to the already existing Louisville Colonels who had lost their affiliation with Baltimore. The Wichita team, stripped of its Milwaukee Brave farmhands and suffering from poor attendance (averaging just over 1300 fans per game in 1958 despite a second place finish), simply expired.

Here is the story in more detail.

In 1958, the American Association played as an eight team league. Seven of the eight teams—all but Wichita—returned the following year when the Association expanded to ten teams. Added to the league for 1959 were three Texas teams—the Fort Worth Cats, the Dallas Rangers, and the Houston Buffs. In 1958, all three of these teams had played in the AA Texas League, but after that season their owners decided that their home cities had simply grown too large to continue at the second tier of minor league baseball. (All were motivated in part by the hope of attracting a major league team at some point in the future.) In 1959, the Texas League fielded no teams in these three cities.

Had the three new AAA teams been new or relocated franchises, they could not under baseball rules play in cities that were already occupied. However, at the time everyone involved with the two leagues understood that the three new Association teams were not new franchises, but existing franchises switching from one league to another. Not only were there no changes in ownership, but there were numerous overlaps in personnel between the 1958 and 1959 teams, especially in regard to the Fort Worth team.

In 1958, the Fort Worth Cats were a Chicago Cub farm team managed by Lou Klein; in 1959, they were still a Cub farm team and Lou Klein was still the manager. A scan of the 1958 and 1959 rosters on Baseball-Reference.com shows considerable overlap in player personnel which is not surprising given that the Cubs AA farm team was now its AAA team. The Cubs apparently supported the move to the new league, having discontinued their previous AAA affiliation with Portland of the Pacific Coast League.

Moreover, in their book When Panthers Roared: The Fort Worth Cats and Minor League Baseball (1999), authors Jeff Guinn and Bobby Bragan discuss the team’s decision to leave the Texas League following the 1958 season and to join the American Association. Guinn and Bragan represent the story as a decision made by the current owners of the Cats, and there is no mention whatsoever of the Wichita franchise. I suppose it is possible that the Wichita franchise was arbitrarily assigned by the American Association to Fort Worth while Houston and Dallas were admitted as expansion teams, but even if that were true it would establish only a meaningless link between the two franchises.

Your genealogy going forward from Fort Worth is fine, but that is not the subsequent history of the old Brewer team that many Milwaukee baseball fans still adore. It would be nice if it were true that the current Salt Lake City Bees were the old minor league Brewers still playing under a different name, and I hate to be the one to point this out, but Joe, it just ain’t so.

]]> By: Richard M. Esenberg http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/04/21/milwaukee-cardinals-baseball-team-v-major-league-baseball-1953-the-antitrust-case-that-might-have-changed-the-face-of-the-national-pastime/comment-page-1/#comment-20919 Richard M. Esenberg Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:34:00 +0000 http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/?p=4903#comment-20919 As one of the largest customers of Distant Replays, I can only say "fascinating." Here's my angle. I have an interest in the old AA Brewers even though they ceased to exist before I was born and played in a ball park that I never got to see. I am probably the only guy that you might see at Miller Park in a AA Brewers home jersey (their color was red) and cap, although I only wear it a few times a year. (I have to devote a few games to the Milwaukee Bears.) I was intrigued by the possibility that the minor league Brewers may have become the Toledo Mud Hens. But, it turns out, that is not the case. The Brewers moved to Toledo (after the Mud Hens had decamped to Charleston, West Virginia) and were known as the "Sox," winning the AA crown in 1953. In 1956, they moved to Wichita where they were know as the "Braves" after the major league club with which they were still affiliated. After that, as far as I can tell, they moved to Fort Worth and then merged with the old Dallas Rangers. After a move to Vancouver, they seem to exist today as the ... Salt Lake City Bees. As one of the largest customers of Distant Replays, I can only say “fascinating.” Here’s my angle. I have an interest in the old AA Brewers even though they ceased to exist before I was born and played in a ball park that I never got to see. I am probably the only guy that you might see at Miller Park in a AA Brewers home jersey (their color was red) and cap, although I only wear it a few times a year. (I have to devote a few games to the Milwaukee Bears.)

I was intrigued by the possibility that the minor league Brewers may have become the Toledo Mud Hens.

But, it turns out, that is not the case. The Brewers moved to Toledo (after the Mud Hens had decamped to Charleston, West Virginia) and were known as the “Sox,” winning the AA crown in 1953. In 1956, they moved to Wichita where they were know as the “Braves” after the major league club with which they were still affiliated. After that, as far as I can tell, they moved to Fort Worth and then merged with the old Dallas Rangers. After a move to Vancouver, they seem to exist today as the …

Salt Lake City Bees.

]]>