In the spring of 1953, while the Pirates trained in Havana and Ralph Kiner held out, the major league baseball map was about to change for the first time in a half-century.
On March 18, 1953, the National League approved the move of the Boston Braves to Milwaukee, to be effective when the season opened in April. Earlier that week, the American League had denied the St. Louis Browns' request to move to Baltimore.
It seems that the Braves owned the Triple-A Milwaukee Brewers. According to the Mar. 13 Pittsburgh Press, Braves owner Lou Perini was unwilling to accept $500,000 to give up the market so the Browns could move there. So the Braves looked at Milwaukee, while the Browns set their sights on Baltimore, with both leagues set to meet on the 16th.
The Mar. 14 Post-Gazette had an Associated Press story that claimed the Browns' move to Baltimore would be approved unanimously by A.L. owners, while nobody was ready to admit that the Braves were looking for a vote.
On Mar. 15, The Press carried a United Press story that said both moves had been approved, and would be announced officially after the American League met Monday and the National League Wednesday.
The American League did meet on Monday, March 16, and they voted down Bill Veeck's application to move the Browns. Veeck vowed to sell the club, which made some fellow owners happy.
The official statement:
"The American League clubs have decided it is not advisable to transfer the St. Louis club for the 1953 season.
"The league decided that the numerous problems involved preclude transfer of the franchise by reason of the short period of time before the opening of the season.
"In view of improved attendance of the Browns in 1952 and the urgent requests from numerous St. Louis fans for retention of the club in St. Louis, the league looks forward to increased support of the St. Louis Browns."
Perini, about whom The Press' Chet Smith noted "he's building the tunnels under Squirrel Hill you'll be riding through one of these days," was confident that when the N.L. owners met, they'd approve his move.
"Bill Veeck's case and mine are entirely different," said Perini. "As far as I know, there are no personal animosities involved in my case. I own the property in Milwaukee. I own the Braves. There are no contracts involved that can't easily be arranged. And there's no possibility of legal entanglements."
And, when the N.L. met two days later, they unanimously approved the Braves' move. "Boston Braves Go to Milwaukee" was the front page headline in that day's Press. The subhead was "Pirates Swap Schedule in N.L. Transfer." The next day's Post-Gazette proclaimed, "MILWAUKEE GETS BOSTON BRAVES," and they also had a subhead about the Pirate schedule changing.
While both leagues had balanced schedules where every team played each of its rivals 22 times, there were two informal "divisions" for travel purposes, with four teams in the east and four in the west. In the National League, Boston, New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia were the east, while Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis were the west. When a team went on a road trip to play the other division, it would play all four teams. This cut down on the long east-west train rides. Within a team's division, the scheduling was much more random.
So when the Braves moved to Milwaukee, they went from being the easternmost club in the league to one of the westernmost. And since Pittsburgh became the fourth eastern city, the Pirates and Braves switched schedules.
Instead of participating in the traditional opener April 13 in Cincinnati, the Bucs would begin the next day in Brooklyn. And the home opener, which had been scheduled for April 14 against St. Louis, would now be on the 16th with the Phillies.
Of course, all of this happened with less than a month to go before Opening Day. The Pirates had to re-ticket, although it was mostly about season tickets. Home opener tickets just said "Opening Game," so they were good. Ansell-Simplex, the ticket printers, said that by working weekends, they would have the new tickets ready for opening day.
The Braves had a lot to do, of course. Milwaukee wanted to add 12,000 seats to County Stadium to bring capacity to 40,000. The American Association agreed to accept $50,000 for the territory, and the Braves moved the Triple-A club to Toledo, which had seen its last team move to Charleston the previous year.
The Chicago Daily News claimed that the Braves had almost reached a deal with Branch Rickey to buy Kiner. Had they succeeded, they were planning on using him as their drawing card in Boston, but when the clubs couldn't come to terms, Milwaukee became more attractive. (The Braves claimed that they were never close to such a move, since Rickey wanted too much back.)
On Mar. 25, the Pirates burned $2,000,000 worth of unused tickets. They cost $12,000 to print, and Federal and local tax officials were present to make sure the tickets actually went up in flames.
Even the Steelers were affected. They were going to play the Packers in an exhibition at County Stadium on September 12, but the Braves would be home that day. The game was moved to Marquette Stadium.
The move was a success for the Braves. They played their 13th home game on May 20, and surpassed their total 1952 attendance in Boston. The Pirates, on the other hand, traded Kiner in the middle of another poor season.
On September 29, the Browns got their approval to move to Baltimore under local ownership. The Orioles have remained there since 1954. The Athletics left Philadelphia for Kansas City in 1955, and the Dodgers and Giants went to California in 1958.
Looking at the 1957 Pirates, the east-west travel schedule was still in effect. Of course, the addition of teams on the West Coast changed that. The rise of air travel was likely a factor, too. So teams don't trade schedules any more.
(All quotes are from the original newspaper coverage.)