Today In Brewer History: Goodbye (For Now), AL Baseball

Long before the Seattle Pilots became the current Milwaukee Brewers in 1970, another American League franchise had that same name. On this day in 1901 the original Milwaukee Brewers lost both halves of a doubleheader in Boston, wrapping up their only season in the city.

The 1901 Brewers played at the Lloyd Street Grounds and went 32-37 there, but went 3-12 on a 15-game road trip to close out the season and finished last in the new major league with a 48-89 overall record. Following the season the franchise moved to St. Louis and spent 52 years there as the Browns. In 1954 that team moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles.

With the exception of a few White Sox games played in the city, it would be 69 years before AL baseball returned to Milwaukee.

With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:

• 2006 Brewer Chris Demaria, who turns 32.
• 2001-03 Brewer Mike DeJean, who turns 42.
• 1996-99 Brewer Brian Banks, who turns 42.
• Milwaukee native Todd Frohwirth, who turns 50. He played nine major league seasons between 1987-96 as a member of the Phillies and three other teams.

Today is also the anniversary of Ryan Braun's home run against the Cubs in 2008 that helped propel the Brewers to a Wild Card berth on the season's final day. We covered that event in this space last year.