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County Stadium

Milwaukee County Stadium

Location 201 S. 46th St.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201

Broke ground April 6, 1953

Opened April 19, 1966

Closed September 28, 2000

Demolished February 21, 2001

Replaced Borchert Field

Replaced by Miller Beer Park (2001)

Owner Milwaukee County

Surface Grass

Construction cost $5M (1953)

Architect Osborn Engineering

 

Tenants

Milwaukee Braves (1953-1965)

Milwaukee Brewers (1970-2000)

Chicago White Sox (1968-1969)

Green Bay Packers (1953-1994)

 

Seating capacity: 53,192

 

Dimensions

1953:

Left Field – 320 ft

Left-Center – 355 ft

Center Field – 404 ft

Right-Center – 355 ft

Right Field – 320 ft

 

2000:

Left Field – 315 ft

Shallow Left Center – 362 ft

True Left Center – 382 ft (unposted)

Deep Left Center – 392 ft

Center Field – 402 ft

Deep Right Center – 392 ft

True Right Center – 382 ft (unposted)

Shallow Right Center – 362 ft

Right Field – 315 ft

Ball Park First Game
Date – 04/14/1953 (1)
Starting Pitchers – Braves vs. Cardinals: 04/14/1953
Final Score 3-2 (ML1)
Attendance – 34,357
Starting Pitchers Warren Spahn (ML1); Gerry Staley (SLN)
First Batter – Solly Hemus (SLN) Result – Walked
First Hits – Joe Adcock (ML1),Singled to LF (2nd)
First Run – Joe Adcock (ML1)
First RBI – Ray Jablosnki (SLN)
First Homerun – Bill Bruton (ML1) vs. Gerry Staley (SLN) on 04/14/1953 (10th inning)
First Grandslam – Eddie Mathews (ML1) vs. Al Corwin (NY1) on 07/27/1953 (4th inning)
First Inside Park Homerun – Joe Adcock (ML1) vs. Turk Lown (CHN) on 07/07/1953 (8th inning)
First No Hitter – Jim Wilson (ML1) vs. Phillies on 06/12/1954

Ball Park Lasts
Last Game – Brewers vs. Reds: 09/28/2000, Final Score – 8-1 (CIN)
Attendance – 56,354
Starting Pitchers – Jeff D’Amico (MIL); Elmer Dessens (CIN), Winning Pitcher – Elmer Dessens (CIN) Losing Pitcher – Jeff D’Amico (MIL)
Last Batter – Mark Loretta (MIL), result – Grounded to SS
Last Hit – Michael Tucker (CIN), Singled (8)
Last Run – Sean Casey (CIN), Last RBI – Juan Castro (CIN)
Last HR – Sean Casey (CIN) vs. Jeff D’Amico (MIL) on 09/28/2000 (5th inning)
Last Grand Slam – Raul Casanova (MIL) vs. Danny Graves (CIN) on 09/27/2000 (8th inning)
Last Inside The Park Homerun – Mike Felder (MIL) vs. Dave Johnson (BAL) on 09/26/1989 (1st inning)
Last No Hitter – Steve Busby (KCA) vs. Brewers on 06/19/1974

TRIVIA –
The first homer ever hit at Milwaukee’s County Stadium was also the first of Bill Bruton’s career.

Milwaukee County Stadium

Milwaukee County Stadium had two opening days April 14, 1953, was the debut of the former Boston Braves who became the first team in 50 years to relocate to a new city. They promptly set a league record with 1.8 million fans coming to the ballpark that first season, expanded seating to more than 43,000 and became the first nationally team to draw 2 million fans in 1954.

The Braves stayed in Milwaukee for 13 seasons in County Stadium played host to some of the games greatest legends. On August 11, 1961 Warren Spahn won his 300th game here. In 1960 Lew Burdette and Spahn pitched no-hitters against the Phillies only one month apart. On May 26, 1959 Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched 12 innings perfect game. in 1955 Stan Musial hit a 12th inning walkoff home run in the All-Star game. Willie Mays and four home runs on April 30, 1961 each one traveling more than 400 feet.

Hank Aaron, Spahn and Eddie Matthews all played here and became members of Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

The Braves moved out 1965 to go to Atlanta, the talk went unused for two seasons in the 1968 and 69 the Chicago White Sox played 20 away from home games here. They were eight and 12 in those games.

Then in 1970 the Seattle pilots baseball’s only one-year franchise moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers.

County Stadium was the first baseball only facility built entirely with public funds, and underwent only minimal changes during its five decades. They added bleachers in 1961 and 1973 they increase the seating to 54,000. County Stadium was a place were football tradition met baseball as some of the finest tailgating is on display to this very day.