By Bob Buege
Play ball again with the stars of Milwaukee’s original home diamond, Borchert Field. Baseball historian Bob Buege reintroduces the famous and fascinating athletes and celebrities who dazzled audiences in Milwaukee’s venerable ballpark between 1888 and 1952—including such legendary baseball figures as the Bambino, Satchel Paige, Ty Cobb, Joltin’ Joe, Jackie Robinson, and the Say Hey Kid, Olympic heroes like Jim Thorpe, Babe Didrikson, and Jesse Owens, women ballplayers, football stars from Knute Rockne’s Fighting Irish, Curly Lambeau’s Green Bay Packers, and more, as well as celebrities from U.S. presidents to rodeo stars and scat-singing bandleader Cab Calloway.
Though Borchert Field is long gone, every page of this book takes readers back to the sights, sounds, and spectacle of its heyday. Someone lucky enough to live on Milwaukee’s near north side between 1888 and 1952 could experience the world without ever leaving the neighborhood. Nestled between North Seventh and Eighth Streets and West Chambers and Burleigh, Borchert Field was Milwaukee’s major sports venue for 64 years. In this rickety wooden stadium (originally called Athletic Park), Wisconsin residents had a close-up view of sports history in the making, along with rodeos, thrill shows, and even multiple eruptions of Mount Vesuvius.
