Earl Gillespie's Daughter Recalls Growing Up With Milwaukee Braves

• Editor’s Note: Patch contributor Tom Andrews has published a book about growing up with the Milwaukee Braves team of the 50s and 60s. This is the second  of three excerpts from the book. Andrews' book is available at Next Chapter Bookshop in Mequon, Barnes & Noble,  in Menomonee Falls, Burghardt's Sporting Goods , Fan Appreciation at Brookfield Square, Sportsworld in Wauwatosa and online at www.bravesfansonly.com.

And it’s a home run for Joe Adcock!  Holy cow, what a blast!

If you grew up in Wisconsin during the 1950s and 60s, the voice was unmistakable. Earl Gillespie, along with his sidekick Blaine Walsh, made listening to Milwaukee Braves radio broadcasts a family event. Gillespie’s play-by-play style was exciting, riveting and just plain fun.

One of Gillespie's daughters, Mary Kay Hayes of Mequon, will never forget the thrill of growing up with the Team that made Milwaukee Famous:

When I recall the days of the Milwaukee Braves, those were the best days of my life. I was four years old when the team moved to Milwaukee from Boston and two years later, I started going to the games almost every day. It was fabulous. We had seats right above the first base dugout. We sat with all the Journal and Sentinel writers and some of the artists.

Dad would tell us we had to stay in our seats but my brother, Johnny, and I would climb all the way up to the very top of the stadium. I could see dad with his binoculars trying to find us.

The world is so different now. Dad could put is in our seats. He knew where we were and it was safe. He was upstairs doing his work and we were downstairs watching the game. We had so much fun and I can tell you it must have been such a huge part of my life because I can still name the whole starting lineup for that ’57 World Series team. I was in second grade when they won. It was fabulous. It was our whole life.

I remember that I’d get on my red Schwinn and I’d drive down the alley. It just amazed me how there were men that were cutting their lawn, working on their car or building something in the garage. There were kids sitting under trees with transistor radios everywhere.

Everybody was into the game. Every play, they were on the edge of their seats and I didn’t realize then that my father’s the one who made people feel that way about the game. He painted the picture perfectly.

The other nice thing that I didn’t realize when I was young was that if you turned the ball game on and you were in a hurry and had to do something, you knew the score within three minutes. That’s because dad used an egg timer and every time it would turn over, he would tell you the score of the game. You turn the game on radio today, or even sometimes on television, and you’re waiting 7-8 minutes before they give you the score. So that was one of his little tricks that he used.

I thought about my dad being the Voice of the Milwaukee Braves, especially when they won the Series but it was hard for a child. When kids are young, they tease you about things like that and it was hard being his daughter. Not always, but just that part of it because he was pretty famous. That’s kind of hard to deal with. I was proud of him but it can be hard to handle when you’re a little kid.

In 1997, Earl Gillespie came back to Milwaukee from his Florida home to be part of the 40th reunion of the 1957 World Series champion Milwaukee Braves. When asked about the practical joke antics of pitchers Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette, Gillespie recalled a time at Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn when they victimized Braves outfielder Wes Covington:

Wes Covington had just bought a new straw hat, a beautiful hat, fedora-like. He put it in his locker, went in to get changed and Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette took that beautiful new straw hat and brought it out onto home plate.

The Dodgers had just finished batting practice and our club was going to go out and take batting practice. But at home plate, this hat was burning! Covington comes out of that dugout and looks at his hat. I thought, “My God, all hell is going to break loose!” But that’s the way that club was. They destroyed his hat. He had just bought it and he was mad!

Upcoming book signing appearances by Tom Andrews with “For Milwaukee Braves Fans Only!”

April 9: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Barnes & Noble, Mayfair Shopping Center, 2500 North Mayfair Rd., Wauwatosa. 

April 11: 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., Old Time Ballplayers Association Spring Jamboree, Serb Hall, 5101 West Oklahoma Ave., Milwaukee.