Borchert Field

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Printer's proof of 1943 Milwaukee Brewers Opening Day ticket at Borchert Field

Borchert Field was a baseball park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1887 through 1952. It was originally home to the Milwaukee Brewers of the Western League, who joined the major league American Association in August of 1891, replacing the disbanded Cincinnati Porkers. It was also home to the minor league version of the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association and the first major league Milwaukee Brewers, charter members of the American League.

Originally known as Athletic Park, it went through several name changes before finally being named for then-owner Otto Borchert in 1919. It was sometimes known to the fans and newspaper writers as "Borchert's Orchard".

The park was built on a rectangular block bounded by North 7th and 8th Streets, and Chambers and Burleigh Streets in Milwaukee. Home plate was positioned at one end with the outfield bounded by the outer fence, making fair territory itself home-plate shaped. This was a design used by a number of ballparks in the late 1800s and early 1900s when they were confined to a block that was too narrow to allow the foul lines to parallel the streets. The most obvious example of this design would be the Polo Grounds in New York City.

Borchert Field was host to the first Green Bay Packers game in Milwaukee - a 10-7 loss to the New York Giants on Oct. 1, 1933.

One of the more colorful times for the team occurred during the early 1940s when Bill Veeck owned the team. According to his own autobiography, Veeck - As in Wreck, he installed a screen to make the right field target a little more difficult for left-handed pull hitters of the opposing team. The screen was on wheels, so any given day it might be in place or not, depending on the batting strength of the opposing team. This anticipated his later fence-moving shenanigans at Cleveland Stadium when he owned the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s.

There was no rule against that activity as such, so he got away with it... until one day when he took it to an extreme, rolling it out when the opponents batted, and pulling it back when the Brewers batted. The league passed a rule against it the very next day.

Postcard advertising the "new home" of the Milwaukee Brewers in 1953

Borchert Field was also home to Milwaukee's short-lived entries in the Negro Leagues and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the Milwaukee Bears and Milwaukee Chicks. The Chicks won a pennant in their only year of operation.

Borchert Field was way too small to accommodate Major League Baseball. Milwaukee's city fathers, looking to attract a Major League franchise (the majors had flirted with a return to Milwaukee since Veeck had attempted to move the St. Louis Browns back to Milwaukee in the 1940s), built Milwaukee County Stadium to replace Borchert Field. It was intended that the Brewers would play in County Stadium in the 1953 season, but the Boston Braves relocated to Milwaukee, ensuring that the final season of baseball at Borchert Field would also be the last season of Brewers baseball.

The former site of the stadium (and the entire block) is now fully taken up by Interstate 43, Milwaukee's major north-south arterial.