Moses in Milwaukee

It was the last series the Milwaukee Braves would play in Brooklyn. Last year's pennant-winning Dodgers were lagging 6 1/2 games behind, and the Braves were determined to plow them under. The plow was working. Big Henry Aaron, the Braves' heavy-wristed cleanup hitter, put the game away in the very first inning with a three-run homer to left. Second Baseman Red Schoendienst rapped another to right in the fifth. Rightfielder Bob Hazle, a remarkable rookie from Wichita, got three hits and boosted his four-week batting average back to an amazing .500. Meanwhile, Pitcher Lew Burdette, the covert spitballer still waiting for his first victory over Brooklyn this year (though he is 13-7 for the season), was so sharp he never had to open his mouth. Throwing them dry, Burdette beat up the Dodgers 6-1.

Next day the Braves lost a close one, 3-2. But in the rubber game they ran through eight Dodger pitchers and collected 13 hits (including four home runs) to win another for Burdette, 13-7--proof positive that they have finally buried their fainthearted, four-year habit of folding in the stretch.

Last-Day Losers. For Milwaukee it was none too soon. Their fans could forgive the Braves for finishing second in 1953. The team was just out of Boston then; it had not won a pennant since 1948, and all the experts still figured it for the second division. Even in 1954 third place was not too bad; Milwaukee still loved the Braves simply because they boosted the beer town into the big leagues. But in 1955 the Braves should have won the pennant; they folded in the stretch and finished 13 1/2 games behind Brooklyn. Last year the love affair between Milwaukee and its ballplayers really wore thin. After exciting the fans all season with the promise of a pennant, they backed down again in the last week of the season and left their town in the lurch, one game behind Brooklyn.

This year things had to be different. Another season as also-rans and Milwaukee would be back to bragging about its beer instead of its Braves.

Freckle-Fisted Winner. So the Braves won. They hung on in the National League pennant scramble even after First Baseman Joe Adcock broke his leg, and Outfielder Bill Bruton and Shortstop Johnny Logan limped over to join him on the sidelines. Somehow Manager Fred Haney kept on fielding a team. (At one time his outfield consisted of Catcher Del Crandall, Utility First Baseman Nippy Jones and Bonus Baby John DeMerit.) And somehow the Braves kept winning, put together a ten-game winning streak that knocked the St. Louis Cardinals out of the lead and broke up the fight for the flag.

Most important of all, the Braves themselves were agreed they could run all the way, and what made the big difference was the presence of a freckle-fisted pro named Albert Schoendienst. When they got Red from the Giants last June (in a trade for Pitcher Ray Crone, Second Baseman Danny O'Connell and Outfielder Bobby Thomson), the Braves got the leader they had been lacking for so long --a man who could tell them how to play and make them listen. Switchhitter Schoendienst had been around the league for so long (eleven years with the Cardinals before he went to the Giants) that one Milwaukee sportswriter was sure he was "Moses, come to lead the Braves out of the wilderness of bitter disappointment and frustration of the past four years."

Red has done just that, anchoring the infield and hitting .316 into the bargain. And with Red to help them, Brave substitutes have played far over their heads while filling in for injured teammates.

Veteran Braves like Hank Aaron (now leading the league with 37 home runs and 102 runs batted in) and Pitcher Warren Spahn have found their old winning form. And Manager Haney has found himself in possession of the one essential ingredient of managerial genius: a pennant-winning club. At week's end the fast-finishing schedule left the Braves a comfortable 7 1/2 games ahead of their only competitors, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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