‘Milwaukee Miracle’: Memories Return in ‘For Milwaukee Braves Fans Only!’

• Editor’s Note: Patch contributor Tom Andrews has published a book about growing up with the Milwaukee Braves team of the 50s and 60s. With the Brewers’ home opener Monday, it was a great time to feature the first 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.

When best-selling sports author Rich Wolfe asked me to help him write a new book about the Milwaukee Braves, he made it clear this wouldn’t be yet another historical account on the Braves. Rich wanted to tell the Milwaukee Braves story on a much more personal level because this was a baseball love affair the likes of which we’ll never see again.

For Milwaukee Braves Fans Only! is the first-ever fan book about those unforgettable Braves teams of the 1950s and 60s. Fans share their favorite memories, their funniest and saddest moments and their photographs. They recall what it was like going to a brand new Milwaukee County Stadium and watching players like Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn.

Most of all, Milwaukee Braves fans reveal why they just can’t let go of a team that left this city 46 years ago.

Don Dobert of Menomonee Falls is one such fan and he recalls a very special trip to see a Braves game:

If you did some forward planning, a Braves game was really cheap. I lived very near to 22nd and National Avenue. Less than a block away, on Mineral Street, between 21st and 22nd, Mrs. Quinn had a penny candy store across from Longfellow Grade School, which I attended. For ten or fifteen cents you could get a fantastic variety of gum, hard candy, pretzels, little wax bottles filled with juice and maybe some sugared red dye, sunflower seeds, Pez, and dozens of other goodies.

If you wanted a feast, the Johnston Cookie Company on 41st near National Avenue would sell you a two pound bag of broken cookies for 35 cents. The “Deutschland Dairy” on 39th and National would serve a giant ice cream cone for 15 cents. It truly was the land of bounty and all roads took you to Milwaukee County Stadium.

One day I was walking from 22nd and National Avenue with my friend Skip to see the Braves. I got to 44th and National, where we would turn North onto Harnischfeger Avenue, and I said to my buddy, Skip, “I’m tired of walking”.

Skip said “Me, too”. So, as I had seen in a Clark Gable movie “It Happened One Night,” I told Skip, “Let me show you how to hitchhike.” I stood there, stuck out my thumb, and within a couple of minutes a large car stopped and the guy said “Where are you going?”

“To see the Braves,” I said. The driver yelled: “Me too. Get in.”

My friend Skip and I got in for the one mile ride. The driver asked if we were big Braves fans, and of course we said “yes”. The Braves t-shirt and Braves cap must have been a dead giveaway. But after a short while I thought I recognized the guy behind the wheel. I whispered, “Hey Skip, that’s Spahn driving!”

Skip never believed what I said, so it was no big surprise when he told me that I was “full of it.” The ride didn’t last very long and the car parked very close to the front entrance of the Stadium.

It was Warren Spahn. After a few nice words, Spahn lectured us on the dangers of hitchhiking, and made us promise never to do it again. I told Spahn that he sounded “just like my mother.” He said “Your mom is very wise and you should always listen to her.” I told Spahn “Yeah, mom’s smart. But she can’t pitch like you—but no one can.”

Spahn held back a laugh, gave us his autograph, and we went our separate ways. I didn’t hitchhike again for more than a decade.

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.