Highlights Archives
It Happens Every Spring: Baseball's Opening Day
This week, America celebrates a rite of spring with the opening of the 2005 Major League Baseball season, and the kids in your neighborhood have probably already dug their gloves, bats and balls out of winter closets. Wisconsin's own team, the Milwaukee Brewers, is scheduled for its home opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, April 11, at Miller Park, where the average normal temperature for that day is 44 degrees. This all-American tradition has happened every spring for 150 years. We invite you to take a little spring fling through Wisconsin baseball history by following the links below.
Baraboo's 1867 baseball club was one of many that sprung up following the Civil War. The Beloit Olympians even went 61-12 that year.
By the time "Casey At the Bat" appeared in 1888, enterprising publishers had begun to issue trading cards with pictures of famous athletes.
By the early 20th century there were Indian teams on reservations in Wisconsin (PDF) one of whose members invented the slider. Teams were wearing formal uniforms such as this one from Wittenberg, and what was once an amateur pastime was turning into an industry.
You'll find more baseball history on our sports page at Turning Points in Wisconsin History, including the experience of an African American team that toured Wisconsin in 1923, instructions on how 1940s players in National Girls Softball League were supposed to behave in public, and memorabilia of the Milwaukee Braves, 1953-1965.
:: Posted April 1, 2005
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