Milwaukee Brewers history

Following a respectable 1974 season, there were some hopes that major league baseball was finally coming into its own in Milwaukee after just five years. But terrible seasons in 1975 and 1976 ruined any optimism. The 1977 Milwaukee Brewers weren’t any better in the won-loss column. But they did start to put some pieces in place, and those efforts would pay off in the immediate future.

Milwaukee went on the free agent market and signed third baseman Sal Bando, one of the key players for the Oakland A’s teams that won three straight World Series championships earlier in the decade. The Brewers made a bold move when they dealt power-hitting first baseman George Scott, their best position player, to Boston, and got Cecil Cooper in return. Cooper’s career seemed to be floundering. But this would prove to be a steal for the Brewers in the coming years.

They drafted Paul Molitor in June out of the University of Minnesota, and while Molitor didn’t see big league action this year, the future Hall of Famer would emerge the following season. A trade for lefty starter Mike Caldwell didn’t pay immediate dividends, but Caldwell eventually found a career revival in Milwaukee.

A big trade with Kansas City really didn’t pan out—the Brewers dealt catcher Darrell Porter and starting pitcher Jim Colborn in exchange for Jamie Quirk, Jim Wohlford and Bob McClure. The deal wasn’t terrible—Quirk and Wohlford were respectable position players, McClure was a decent arm who could both start and relieve and nobody given up was a star. But Porter was the best player in the deal and the balancing scales favored K.C. on this one.

But when you make a lot of moves, not every one will work out. Milwaukee was at least shaking things up and, all things considered, were starting to make themselves better.

Cooper immediately acclimated to his new surroundings and hit .300 in 1977, along with 20 home runs. Bando popped 17 homers and drove in 82 runs. Sixto Lezcano was coming into his own in rightfield, finishing with a stat line of .358 on-base percentage/.503 slugging percentage.

Don Money, after a couple down years, roared back with a .348/.470 stat line that included 25 home runs from his second base position. And a young shortstop by the name of Robin Yount, just 21-years-old and already in his fourth big league season, hit .288 .

There was no depth and no one beyond these players made any significant contributions. The Brewers still finished 10^th in the 14-team American League for runs scored. But a lineup was starting to come together.

Pitching had been a serious problem in recent years and even if this franchise’s best years, remained a gnawing issue. Jim Slaton was the top starter, with a 3.58 ERA in 21 starts. Young starters in Jerry Augustine, Lary Sorensen and Moose Haas rounded out the rotation. None finished with a winning record. None had an ERA under 4.

Caldwell made 12 starts after his acquisition in early summer and struggled to a 4.58 ERA. The biggest disappointment was Bill Travers, who had started to emerge in 1976, slipping back and finishing with 4-12 record and 5.25 ERA over his 19 starts. McClure was the only reliable arm in the bullpen, with a 2.52 ERA. And the Brewer staff collectively finished 11^th in the American League for composite ERA.

Milwaukee was not only an American League franchise prior to 1998, but the structure of the league and postseason itself was quite different. Each league had only two divisions, an East and a West. Only the first-place teams qualified for the playoffs, going directly to the League Championship Series. The Brewers were situated in the AL East, where the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox were the clear frontrunners and battled each other to the final weekend of the season.

And it was the Yankees and Orioles that were on the schedule to open the season. New York had won the pennant in ’76 and would win it all this season. Milwaukee went into Yankee Stadium to open the season. Travers got the ball and pitched well, scattering 11 hits and working into the eighth inning. But a lack of run support led to a 3-0 loss.

After a day off, the Brewers bounced back behind Augustine, who worked eight good innings. He was aided by a three-run fifth inning, when an RBI single from Yount was one of the shortstop’s two hits. The Brewers won it 3-2. Sunday’s game was a tight one, tied 1-1 in the ninth with Haas working into the eighth inning. In the top of the ninth, Lezcano went the other way for a home run to rightfield and won it 2-1. Milwaukee had a series win to get this season started.

They came home to face Baltimore, then get the return visit from New York. Travers took the mound in the home opener against the Orioles and lost a hard-luck 1-0 decision to Baltimore great Jim Palmer. Slaton took the ball for the second game and dealt a complete-game three-hitter. He got some support—Yount, Cooper and Bando combined for seven hits out of the 2-3-4 spots in the lineup and keyed a 5-0 win.

After a day off, the Yankees came in for a weekend series. A five-run fifth was the highlight of Friday night, including a two-RBI triple from Cooper. Lezcano drove in three runs and the Brewers won 7-4. On Saturday, Milwaukee trailed 4-1 in the ninth. They were facing Yankee closer Sparky Lyle, who would win the Cy Young Award for his work out of the bullpen this season.

Wohlford led off with a single. Cooper promptly homered and it was tied 3-3. Bando tripled with one out. When Lyle struck out Money, it looked like extra innings were at hand. Until reserve outfielder Steve Frye singled and the Brewers walked it off, 4-3.

Travers took the ball on Sunday. Again, he didn’t get much run support. But this time it didn’t matter. He tossed a complete-game shutout. Yount homered. Milwaukee completed a sweep, 2-zip. They were off an running to a 6-2 start on this season.

By the first week of May, the Brewers were still 14-9 and in first place. Milwaukee fans had seen this movie before though. They had enjoyed early leads in both 1975 and 1976 as well. So, when a stretch of games against Detroit and Cleveland went poorly, it was like watching a rerun. By Memorial Day, the Brewers were at .500, 24-24 ,but still within four games of the division lead.

Kansas City was the class of the old AL West and the Brewers won a series over the Royals in early June. Milwaukee was still hanging in on the Fourth of July, 38-39 and within five games. The schedule to end the first half would be heavy on Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles. But it went poorly. The Brewers lost seven of ten against the three AL East powers, lost three others on top of it and arrived at the break with a record of 41-49.

The second half opened the same way the first half ended—10 games against New York, Boston and Baltimore and a 3-7 record. August was even worse. A schedule that included six doubleheaders in the season’s hottest month was not going to be kind to a team that lacked depth, and the Brewers went 11-23. By Labor Day, they were 58-84 and no one in Wisconsin was going to neglect the Green Bay Packers in September for these Brewers. The final record ended up 67-95.

It was the third straight year of 95-plus losses. Only the arrival of the expansion Toronto Blue Jays kept Milwaukee out of last place in the 7-team AL East. It was an ugly record. But some help had arrived. More was on the way. And the greatest six-year stretch in franchise history was immediately around the corner.

The 1976 Milwaukee Brewers came into the season looking to pick up the pieces, after a drastic collapse over the final two months of 1975 ruined what had been an upward trajectory for a still-young franchise. The Brewers made a managerial change, handing the reins to Alex Grammas. But the problems proved to be on the field rather than in the dugout, and another season of loss totals in the high 90s is what ensued.

There were two Hall of Fame players in the lineup of the ’76 Brewers. But one of them—the all-time great Henry Aaron was too old, age 42. And another one—the up-and-coming shortstop Robin Yount was too young, at age 20. Neither posted numbers of any note in 1976.

The three players that could have been realistically counted on to produce all had spotty seasons. First baseman George Scott hit 18 homers and drove in 77 runs, but both were significantly down from ’75. Don Money at second base finished with a stat line of .333 on-base percentage/.408 slugging percentage but Money had shown himself capable of more. The young catcher, Darrell Porter, had a terrible year with the bat.

Sixto Lezcano would become a good right fielder, but he wasn’t there yet—at least not with the bat. Charlie Moore and Gorman Thomas were part-time players who would eventually be important parts of this franchise’s finest hour in 1982. They batted under .200 in 1976.

All in all, the Brewers had no one who produced consistently and they finished ninth in the 12-team American League for runs scored.

Pitching wasn’t as bad as it had been a year earlier, when the worst staff in the American League ruined a potential pennant drive after the All-Star break. But improvement off that performance is a low bar and Milwaukee’s arms still came in ninth for composite ERA. Bill Travers had a good year, with 34 starts and a 2.81 ERA. Jim Slaton and Jim Colborn each went to the post 30-plus times and each had ERAs in the 3s.

Jerry Augustine was a young and versatile lefty, finishing with a 3.30 ERA in both the rotation and the bullpen. But the collapse of Pete Broberg, the rotation’s best starter a year earlier helped to kill the depth.

The Brewers made a nice trade in June, picking up closer Danny Frisella from St. Louis at little cost. Frisella posted a 2.74 ERA the rest of the way. But that was canceled out by a trade that same week with Boston that didn’t work out. Milwaukee parted with reliever Tom Murphy, just two years removed from a spectacular 1.90 ERA. They got back a notable name from the Boston Red Sox, in Bernie Carbo. But Carbo didn’t pan out as a Brewer and Murphy stabilized the rest of the year with the Red Sox.

We should point out that not only were the Brewers an American League team prior to 1998, the leagues themselves were very different, split into just an East and West division and only the first-place teams going to the postseason. Milwaukee was in the AL East. Boston had won this division in 1975. Baltimore had been its consistent gold standard through the first half of the decade. New York, with a relatively new owner named George Steinbrenner making noise, was itching to get back on top.

It was the Yankees who came to old Milwaukee County Stadium on Opening Day. Slaton was facing the great Catfish Hunter. The Brewer lineup jumped on Catfish early. Money ripped a one-out double in the first. After a couple walks, Aaron singled in two runs, and a subsequent error tacked on a third run. Then, with two outs and a man aboard in the bottom of the second, Porter and Aaron hit successive RBI doubles. It was 5-0 and it was all Slaton needed to cruise home with a complete-game shutout.

That Opening Day win triggered a 9-3 start and Milwaukee was tied for first at the end of April. The first part of May was when things started to go awry. A schedule heavy on the Red Sox and Orioles resulted in nine losses in eleven games. By Memorial Day, the Brewers were 16-19, in fifth place and 6 ½ games back of first-place New York.

No one in major league baseball was better in the first part of the 1970s than the Oakland A’s. They were on a run of five straight AL West titles, with three consecutive World Series championships sandwiched in between, from 1972 to 1974. Even though the A’s were starting to break up, and this season would end their streak of division crowns, they were still a contender and still had proud veterans. And they came to Milwaukee for a weekend series on June 11.

Colborn faced off with Oakland lefty Vida Blue on Friday and beat him with a five-hitter, 4-2. Travers threw a five-hitter of his own on Saturday, although he didn’t get the same run support and lost 2-1. That set up the Sunday rubber match.

Von Joshua, the centerfielder and leadoff batter opened the home half of the first by dropping a bunt and beating it out. That eventually set up four successive RBI hits from Carbo, Scott, Lezcano and Yount. The Brewer bats quieted the rest of the day, but they held on for a 5-4 win.

That was followed up with a series win over the California Angels. But on the return trip west, the Brewers lost four of six to the Angels and A’s. Milwaukee went 1-8 the rest of June. And by the All-Star break, they were 34-44, now in last place in the AL East and a 14 ½ games back of a New York team that was running away with the division.

Baltimore was notorious for getting on late summer runs under Earl Weaver and the Brewers visited the Orioles for a four-game set that began on July 23. Slaton squared off with Baltimore Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. The game went extra innings. Slaton pitched twelve innings. Palmer pitched eleven. The score was tied 2-2. Finally, Milwaukee’s Bill Sharp broke the tie with an RBI double. He then scored an insurance run that proved necessary when Baltimore got one back in the bottom of the 13^th. But the Brewers prevailed 4-3.

Saturday brought a doubleheader. Yount, batting leadoff, set the tone with two hits in the opener and Milwaukee won 4-1 behind the work of Eduardo Rodriguez and Bill Castro. In the nightcap, Scott ripped three hits to lead the offense. Augustine did some serious dealing and threw a complete-game four-hitter. The Brewers swept the doubleheader with a 5-0 win. And on Sunday, they improbably swept the entire four-game set. Travers tossed a complete-game three-hitter and won 3-1.

Milwaukee came out of that series at 41-50. They were well off the pace being set by New York, but there was still a chance for a respectable record and perhaps even the franchise’s first winning season. But they only held serve through August and early September and were still nine games under .500, 63-72 on September 7.

The Yanks, Orioles and Red Sox were on the schedule, with series both at County Stadium and out east. It was a complete disaster for the Brewers. They lost 15 of 18 games, scoring just 41 runs over that stretch. The offensive woes had come home to roost.

Milwaukee’s final record ended up a woeful 66-95. They were last in the AL East. Within the American League overall, they were better only than the Chicago White Sox. They were 21^st among what was then 24 major league teams. The collapse at the end of 1975 was no fluke. The Brewers had problems and while this franchise was only two years away from a big turnaround, that was hard to see at the end of 1976.

The 1975 Milwaukee Brewers came into the season with plenty of reasons for hope. Their young franchise, established in 1969 and then relocated to Milwaukee a year later, had been gradually improving and reached a respectable 76 wins in 1974. The Brewers were bringing home one of their city’s great legends, acquiring Henry Aaron who starred for the Braves when they played in Milwaukee. And for a good chunk of the season, the ’75 Brewers ran with the top dogs of the old AL East. Then a massive collapse ruined this season and sent the franchise into a brief multi-year tailspin.

Aaron was 41-years-old, well past his prime and his acquisition as the DH was more a sentimental draw than anything. But the price proved inconsequential—first baseman Davey May who had gone into his own career decline. And the ’75 Brewers had other bats that could produce.

Darrell Porter was a young 23-year-old catcher with a good batting eye. In the world of 1975, people may have had a hard time looking past his .232 batting average. With the lens of modern analytics, Porter’s .371 on-base percentage is what would stand out. George Scott played first base and “The Boomer” had a big year, with 36 home runs and 109 RBIs. But other parts of the lineup weren’t able to step up as hoped.

Robin Yount had a Hall of Fame career ahead of him, but the shortstop was still only 19-years-old. Don Money was one of this team’s better players during their 1970s and his numbers weren’t bad–.331 on-base percentage/.432 slugging percentage—but they weren’t quite up to snuff .Sixto Lezcano would eventually become a top rightfielder, but he went through rookie growing pains in 1975. Bobby Mitchell slugged .454, but his OBP was a more mediocre .320.

Manager Del Crandall used his bench, with names like Kurt Bevacqua and Mike Hegan getting time in the infield. Players like Charlie Moore and Gorman Thomas, who would eventually become big parts of this franchise’s best teams in the early 1980s, also got playing time. But none produced numbers of any real note in 1975.

It added up to an offense that ranked just ninth in a 12-team American League for runs scored. That was a problem. But the bigger problem was a pitching staff that ended up as a disaster.

Pete Broberg started 32 games, went 14-16 and finished with a 4.13 ERA. Not awful. But he was the staff ace. No one in the rotation finished with a winning record in an era when starters routinely went deep into games and finished them. Jim Slaton struggled to an 11-18 mark and a 4.52 ERA. Jim Colborn and Bill Travers had ERAs on the high side of 4. Tom Murphy saved 20 games out of the bullpen, but at the cost of a 4.60 ERA.

The only help Crandall got pitching-wise came from reliever Eduardo Rodriguez, who finished with a 3.49 ERA in 87 innings that were mostly relief. Bill Castro mixed in a few starts with relief work and posted a 2.52 ERA. That’s not much to go on and the Brewers finished last in the American League for staff ERA.

The problems certainly didn’t show up right away. Milwaukee bolted out of the gate fast and validated any preseason optimism the fan base might have been feeling.  

Here might be a good place to step back and remind younger readers that not only were the Brewers an American League franchise prior to 1998, the leagues used to be split into just two divisions, an East and a West, with only the first-place team making the playoffs. Milwaukee shared the AL East with current occupants, Boston, New York and Baltimore, along with Detroit and Cleveland. Toronto was still a year away from existing and baseball in Tampa Bay was a generation off.

The Orioles were clearly this division’s gold standard, having won five of the previous six division titles. The Red Sox had played winning baseball for several years running. And the Yankees, while having been quiet since the mid-1960s, were coming into 1975 with high expectations. New York visited Milwaukee’s old County Stadium for a weekend series in early May.

The Brewers spotted the Yanks a 2-0 lead in Friday night’s opener. Money started a tying rally in the bottom of the third, with one of his three hits. Scott hit an RBI double. Hegan broke the 2-2 tie in the fourth with a solo homer. Money hit a solo blast of his own an inning later. Bill Champion went the distance on the mound for the 4-2 win.

Money came right back on Saturday afternoon with two more hits. Yount got two hits and three walks in his five plate appearances. In the bottom of the eighth, with the score tied 3-3, second baseman Pedro Garcia doubled and was bunted over to third. With one out, Money’s slow roller on the infield was enough to get the run home. The 4-3 lead stood up for the win.

After two tense games, the home fans got to watch a rout on Sunday. Lezcano ripped four hits, while Scott added three more, leading the way to an 11-4 win. The sweep of New York was the highlight of a 19-11 start that had the Brewers four games up in the AL East.

Six losses in seven games going into Memorial Day gave away the lead and Boston moved into first place. But Milwaukee was still just a half-game out as we moved into the early part of summer.

The Brewers stabilized in June. They won three of five games from the Oakland A’s, the three-time defending World Series champion who were heading back to the playoffs in 1975. By June 29, Milwaukee’s record was 39-34. They were in third place, chasing Boston and New York. But the deficit was only 2 ½ games and both rivals were coming to town.

The Yankees came in first for a two-game set on Monday and Tuesday. The Brewers let a 3-2 lead get away in the top of the ninth and fell behind 4-3. Disappointment was looming when Lezcano singled in the bottom of the ninth. Then backup outfielder Bobby Darwin hit a walkoff two-run shot and Milwaukee won 5-4. The following night, Money had two hits, Scott had three, while Hegan added two hits of his own and drove in two runs. The Brewers won 6-3.

The Red Sox rolled in for a twilight doubleheader on Wednesday. An old-school concept, this was where the first game started at 5:30 or 6 PM and there was just a twenty-minute break between games. Castro pitched the early game and struggled, losing 6-3. The Brewers trailed the nightcap 3-1 going into the bottom of the fifth. Garcia tied it with a two-run homer. Three consecutive singles in the sixth inning gave Milwaukee the lead. Broberg closed out the 4-3 win.

One more thriller went down in Thursday’s finale. Trailing 2-1 in the ninth, Thomas tied the game with an RBI double. In the bottom of the 10^th, Yount worked a walk. Bevacqua singled. When Boston centerfielder Fred Lynn made an error, Yount kept running and scored the winning run.

In jam-packed run of five games in four days against the division’s best, the Brewers had gone 4-1 and pulled into a tie for first. Even though they slumped going into the All-Star break, losing seven of ten and settling back into third place, there was still reason for hope. Milwaukee was 46-42, 4 ½ games out and the promise of pennant race excitement was alive.

That excitement collapsed with extraordinary speed. Most of the Brewer struggles in the first half had been against the AL West and that continued in late July, when they lost of six of nine. Baltimore was also starting to get themselves going and would make a run at another division title before falling short of Boston. The Orioles beat the Brewers four times in a five-game series.

Milwaukee was suddenly in an 11-game hole. Boston was pulling away. The Brewers then lost 23 of 30 games in August. September wasn’t any better. By season’s end, they had actually regressed, finishing a woeful 68-94.

Crandall was replaced with Alex Grammas, but the second half collapse of 1975 wasn’t just a one-off thing. The Brewers stayed in the low 60s for wins in both 1976 and 1977 under Grammas. Not until 1978, with an infusion of more talent from the farm system and free agency, and a new manager in George Bamberger, did Milwaukee give its great fan base a winning team.