The '57 Bushville Champs

This is the true and highly researched story of the most underrated team in Major League Baseball, the 1957 Milwaukee Braves. It reveals their intense rivalry with the venerable New York Yankees, both on the field and in the press, a Davey & Goliath war between sophisticated, metropolitan urbanites vs. small market city representing America's Dairyland. Milwaukee, population approximately 800,000, was comprised of a high number of myriad European immigrants, whose rabid loyalty to the Braves bordered upon delirium, particularly as the World Series approached, the city never having enjoyed a pro sports championship in its history. It was viewed as a watershed moment culturally and historically. 400,000 met the team at the airport after they won the series at Yankee Stadium that year. Led by WWII hero Warren Spahn, the greatest southpaw of all time, eccentric side-armer Lew Burdette, home run king Hank Aaron, and slugger Eddie Mathews, (who together amassed 863 homers), plus a ragtag collection of minor league has-beens and "never was" players to supplant veterans like Red Schoendienst, the Braves proved Yankee manager Casey Stengel's "Bushville" taunts about the team and the city to be deceptive, if not totally unfounded. Set in an era when players had no agents and most teams still traveled by trains, 1957 saw the first team air travel, along with the first seven game national television coverage, the concept of closed circuit, and international viewing in Japan. It ushered in vast westward expansion and world marketing of America's favorite past time, baseball.