1943 Pocket Schedule

In 1943, the Milwaukee Brewers were searching for their first American Association pennant since 1936. America was at war, and FDR was in the White House. Bread cost nine cents a loaf, three pennies bought you a first-class stamp, and the average American annual salary was $2,500. A Brewer fan could look at this pocket schedule to decide which games he or she would be spending part of that salary on.

This is a little larger than most pocket schedules; about 3¼ by 5 inches folded. On the cover, manager Charlie Grimm and mascot Owgust rally the fans.

1943 was a great year to "come out to Borchert Field and watch the Brewers play ball!". Owner/president Bill Veeck was starting his second year at the helm.

The Brewers must have loved that photo of Jolly Cholly - they used it again on the pocket schedule the next year.

On the inside, the list of games.

Look at all those night games in red! The Brewers didn't play their first night game until June 6, 1935, and now eight years later the Brews were playing most of their games under the floodlights.

Apparently when this schedule went to prees Veeck hadn't yet thought of holding 10 am morning games for war production swing-shift workersl the first morning game was held on June 5, which is marked here in blue as just another day game. I wonder when the idea first came to Sport Shirt Bill?

The Brews also had three exhibition games during the regular season; the Brewers would welcome the Yankees and Cardinals to Borchert Field, and would hop just across the border to play the draftees at the Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago.

And in case you were wondering, the average price of a gallon of gas that year (presumably even MobilGas) was 15¢.

Even sixty years ago, teams were looking for ways to make ticket-buying as easy as possible for their fans. Buy them by mail, head on down to Borchert Field, call the ticket office at COncord 3180, or stop in to Gimbel's downtown to pick them up.

And look at all those options. Box seats a buck-and-a-quarter, but kids could get 'em for sixty-five cents. Grandstands for 85¢ and the bleachers were forty-five cents for adults and twenty-five for children. When was the last time kids got a reduced rate at the ballpark?

Wadham's Oil Company had been sponsoring the "Sport Flash", with "up to the minute sport news" since at least 1933. Even if you couldn't make it to the ballpark any of those nights, you could still get updates on the radio.

For those fans who did get to Borchert Field, they saw some pretty good games. The Brewers finished 1943 with a 90-61 record, taking home the club's fourth pennant.