Borchert Field / The Milwaukee Bears

Borchert Field, originally Athletic Park, stood between West Burleigh, West Chambers, North 7th, and North 8th Streets and served as Milwaukee professional baseball's home for more than 60 years after opening on May 20, 1888. It hosted the major league Brewers in 1891, the minor league Brewers from 1902 to 1952, the Negro National League Bears in 1923, and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Chicks in 1944, while Marquette University and the Milwaukee Badgers and Green Bay Packers also played football there. The rectangular wooden ballpark was renamed in 1927 after Brewers owner Otto Borchert died. Hall of Famers including Al Simmons, Eddie Mathews, Bill Veeck, Casey Stengel, and Pete Hill, along with Olympian Jim Thorpe, played there, and Milwaukee natives Happy Felsch, Joe Hauser, and Ken Keltner appeared there on their way to the majors. Home runs often landed on porches across the street, especially when visiting stars such as Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Babe Ruth, and Jackie Robinson came to the neighborhood park. After Milwaukee County Stadium was completed and the Braves arrived in 1953, Borchert Field was demolished, and Interstate 43 now passes through the site. In 1923 the Milwaukee Bears entered the Negro National League as a replacement for the Pittsburgh Keystones, drawing many players from the disbanded Keystones and from the independent New Orleans Crescent Stars. They played home games at Athletic Park, later Borchert Field, and were led by player-manager Joseph Preston "Pete" Hill, a star outfielder later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Although barnstorming teams with Negro League stars such as James "Cool Papa" Bell drew sizable crowds in Milwaukee, the Bears struggled with scheduling conflicts at the park with the minor league Brewers and with inconsistent newspaper coverage, finished with a losing record, and disbanded in late July before the end of their only season.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin · United States