It was no April Fools joke. Milwaukee was a Major League city again.
On April 1, 1970, a federal court declared the American League’s Seattle Pilots bankrupt, allowing Milwaukee baseball fan and entrepreneur Bud Selig and his investors to purchase the team and move them to the Brew City.
The re-named Brewers found out at their spring training home in Arizona that their first home game would not be in Seattle, but rather at Milwaukee County Stadium six days later.The odds were dramatically against the Milwaukee Brewers ever existing as an MLB franchise, and Bud Selig’s dream becoming reality.
“We were down to the end,” Selig reminisced in a conversation with WTMJ’s Gene Mueller back in March. “There was no doubt in my mind that if this (didn’t) work, we’re done. There was no more expansion. They didn’t want to come to Milwaukee.
The Seattle Pilots were possibly his last shot to pull it off after failing financially following their inaugural season in 1969. The Braves had left for Atlanta in 1965 after spending 13 seasons in Milwaukee.
“Five-and-a-half years were really tough,” Selig admitted of the time between the Brewers and Braves calling Milwaukee home. “But that night…I was overcome. Oh my goodness.”