The franchise was sold to a conglomerate headed by Milwaukee auto magnate Bud Selig. Despite some last minute legal contests, Selig won the approval of baseball to move the franchise to Milwaukee and the Brewers were reborn, having existed once previously in the American League's initial season of 1901. Those Brewers moved to St. Louis to become the Browns in 1902. The National League's Milwaukee Braves had played here from 1953-65.
The Brewer's first decade was mostly a dance with the bottom of the American League - first the Western Division where they played in 1970-71, and then the American League East, where they moved in 1972, trading places with the Washington Senators franchise which moved west to Texas.
It did not matter in which division they played. The Brewers were basically a moribund crew through most of the 1970s. Their only claim to fame was having all-time home run king Hank Aaron on the team in 1975-76. Aaron hit the last twenty-two of his seven-hundred fifty-five home runs for the Brewers.
The Brewers began to stir under the leadership of General Manager Harry Dalton and field manager George Bamberger, earning a third place finish in 1978. The Brewers steadily improved their roster until, at the end of the decade, they suddenly had one of the strongest teams in the game, featuring a combination of home grown talent and imported veteran talent including future Hall of Famers Paul Molitor and Robin Yount, Cecil Cooper, Gorman Thomas, Ben Oglivie, Sal Bando and Sixto Lezcano.
The acquisition of all-star catcher Ted Simmons (1980) and relief ace Rollie Fingers (1982) helped put the team over the top. The Brewers won the back-half of the two-part strike season of 1981 with Cooper hitting .320 and Thomas smacking twenty-one home runs, one behind the league leader Eddie Murray. The team lost the Divisional Playoff to the Yankees in the maximum five games.
Milwaukee Brewers History
