Borchert Field was the home of the minor league version of the
Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association and other leagues off-and-on
from 1887 through 1952. It went through several name changes before
finally being named for then-owner Otto Borchert in 1919.
At
a glance...
BORCHERT FIELD
Facility
statistics
Location
W.
Chambers St. between
N. 8th and N. 9th Streets
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Broke
ground
1887
Opened
May
20, 1887
First
AA Brewers Game
September
10, 1891
Closed
1952
Demolished
1954
Surface
Grass
Construction
cost
Unknown
Tenants
Brewers
(AA, 1891)
Green Bay Packers
Bears (Negro NL, 1923)
Seating
capacity
10,000
(1891)
14,000 (1941)
Dimensions
Left
Field - 266 ft
Center Field - 395 ft
Right Field - 266 ft
The park was built on a rectangular block bounded by 7th and 8th
Avenues, and Chambers and Burleigh Streets in Milwaukee. Home plate was
positioned at one end with the outfield bounded by the outer fence, making
fair territory itself home-plate shaped. This was a design used by a
number of ballparks in the late 1800s and early 1900s when they were
confined to a block that was too narrow to allow the foul lines to
parallel the streets. The most obvious example of this design would be the
Polo Grounds in New York City.
Fly
to the site of Borchert Field!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of Borchert Field. Of course the
stadium is no longer there, but you can see the old neighborhood.
(If you do not have it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
The park was known as Brewer Field until 1919, when new owner Otto
Borchert bought the team.
Borchert Field was host to the first Green Bay Packers game in
Milwaukee - a 10-7 loss to the New York Giants on Oct. 1, 1933.
One of the more colorful times for the team occurred during the early
1940s when Bill Veeck owned the team. According to his own autobiography, Veeck
- As in Wreck, he installed a screen to make the right field
target a little more difficult for left-handed pull hitters of the
opposing team. The screen was on wheels, so any given day it might be in
place or not, depending on the batting strength of the opposing team. This
anticipated his later fence-moving shenanigans at Cleveland
Stadium when he owned the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s.
There was no rule against that activity as such, so he got away with
it... until one day when he took it to an extreme, rolling it out when the
opponents batted, and pulling it back when the Brewers batted. The league
passed a rule against it the very next day.
Borchert Field was way too small to accommodate Major League Baseball.
When the Braves transferred from Boston to Milwaukee, they had the newly
built Milwaukee County Stadium waiting for them, and Borchert Field's days
as a professional ball field were over. The site was later converted to a
playground.
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