Aaron in Milwaukee, 1957

The move from Boston set a franchise free. It did the same for a quiet young man from Mobile.

The Braves needed an exit. When the club left Boston in the spring of 1953, it left a town that had mostly stopped coming to the ballpark. Boston belonged to the Red Sox, and the Braves played to empty seats.

Milwaukee felt like another planet. A brewing city that had waited decades for a major league team welcomed the Braves like family, and County Stadium filled up. Over their first five seasons there, the Braves averaged more than two million fans a year. No other club came close.

The move gave the franchise a new life. It also gave one young outfielder a place to grow without looking over his shoulder.

The Road to County Stadium
Hank Aaron grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and began his pro career with the Indianapolis Clowns. By then, the Clowns were a fading Negro Leagues club that leaned on comedy routines to draw a crowd. Aaron's quiet nature never fit the act, but scouts liked his bat. One of them noticed he gripped it with his hands crossed and told him to stop. He did, and he got better fast.

The Braves sent him to Jacksonville in 1953. He was one of five black players who integrated the South Atlantic League. The abuse was constant: threats, hate mail, and taunts from the stands. Hardly anyone outside the league paid attention.

Aaron answered the way Jackie Robinson had. He did not fight back, and he let his play do the talking. He hit .362 with 22 home runs and was named the league's Most Valuable Player.

Milwaukee came next. In the spring of 1954, a broken ankle sidelined Bobby Thomson and opened a spot in the outfield. Aaron took it. He hit .280 with 13 home runs before breaking his own ankle in September.

After the Sally League, the Wisconsin crowds must have felt like a different country. Fans embraced him instead of threatening him. In 1955, he hit .314 with 27 home runs and 106 runs batted in. He also made the first of 21 straight All-Star teams. A year later he won the National League batting title at .328.

He was still warming up.

The Summer of 44
By 1957 the Braves had stars all over the field. Warren Spahn, 36 years old and still getting better, won 21 games. Eddie Mathews hit 32 home runs. Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl anchored the rotation behind him. Joe Adcock hit 12 homers in just 65 games.

But Aaron led them all. He hit .322 with 44 home runs and 132 runs batted in. He scored 118 runs and collected 198 hits. His 44 homers matched the number on his back, a coincidence writers loved. Baseball Reference credits him with 8.0 wins above replacement, ahead of Mathews at 7.4.

The race was tight for a while. Stan Musial, 36 and in the middle of the last of his seven batting titles, kept St. Louis close at .351. Then August arrived. Milwaukee won ten straight while the Cardinals lost nine in a row, and the Braves never looked back.

In September they ran off eight more wins. The seventh clinched the pennant, and Aaron supplied it with a home run in the 11th inning against St. Louis at County Stadium. He was the easy pick for MVP.

The supporting cast mattered too. When Bill Bruton and Felix Mantilla collided in the outfield, Milwaukee traded for veteran Red Schoendienst, who hit .310. Rookie Bob Hazle, called up to fill in, batted .403 in 41 games. He was a comet, bright and brief, and he was gone from the majors by 1958.

Hank Aaron, 1957, Milwaukee Braves

Source: Baseball Reference

Fall Classic
Waiting in the World Series were the Yankees, and Casey Stengel had his own superstar. Mickey Mantle hit .365, second in the league only to the .388 of Ted Williams. New York also had the best pitching staff in baseball.

Aaron's teammates hit only .183 against that staff. Aaron himself batted .393 with three home runs, and his 11 hits led the Series. None of them came in a walk-off moment, but every one kept Milwaukee in the fight.

His three-run homer early in Game Four mattered most. Milwaukee trailed 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th when Nippy Jones was struck on the foot by a pitch. The umpire first ruled that it missed him. Jones showed him the ball, with a smudge of shoe polish on it, and he waved Jones to first.

Felix Mantilla ran for him, scored on a double by Johnny Logan, and Mathews ended it with a two-run homer. Aaron's homer had kept the game within reach. Now the Series was tied at two games apiece.

Then Burdette took over. He won Game Two, shut out the Yankees on seven hits in Game Five against Whitey Ford, and did it again in Game Seven. That final game was a 5-0 win over Don Larsen, who had thrown a perfect game in the previous Series.

Milwaukee had its first World Series title. It was also the first time since 1948 that a team from outside New York took the crown.

What the Title Meant
For the franchise, the title was a vindication. The move from Boston had been a gamble, and many doubted that a smaller market could sustain a big league club. Milwaukee answered with packed stands and a champion. It was the first title for the Braves since the Miracle Braves of 1914, and the first ever for the city.

For the players, it was a prize that had taken years to reach. Warren Spahn, 36 years old, finally had his championship after a career that already pointed toward Cooperstown. Lew Burdette, once cast off by the Yankees, won three complete games against his old organization. Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock got their ring after seasons of near misses.

It also changed how the team saw itself. For four years the Braves had been the club that came close. Now they were the club that finished the job, and the lineup seemed to know it.

A Short Golden Age
The glow lasted a little while. In 1958 the Braves won the pennant again, and Aaron hit .326 with 30 home runs. They met the Yankees once more and took a three games to one lead.

Then New York won the last three games, and Casey Stengel got his revenge. It was the closest Milwaukee came to a second title.

The Braves were still strong in 1959. They tied the Dodgers for first place on the final day, then lost a best of three playoff in two games. After that the crowds began to thin, ownership grew restless, and the franchise packed up for Atlanta after 1965.

The Happiest Year
Aaron's later years carried a far heavier load. His chase of Babe Ruth's home run record brought the same kind of hate mail he had known in Jacksonville. But that was all ahead.

In 1957 he was 23 years old, the best player on a champion, in a city that loved him back. He had arrived, and the doubters were finally quiet.

Looking back, it would remain his happiest year. Milwaukee had made room for him, and he filled it.