John Klima

Bushville Wins!: the Wild Saga of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves and the Screwballs, Sluggers, and Beer Swiggers Who Canned the New York Yan John Klima

Brief Description:"Bushville hits the sweet spot of my childhood, the year my family moved to Wisconsin and the Braves won the World Series against the Yankees, a team my Brooklyn-raised dad taught us to hate. Thanks to John Klima for bringing it all back to life with such vivid detail and energentic writing." -- David Maraniss, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Clemente" and "When Pride Still Mattered"The rip-roaring story of baseball's most unlikely champions, featuring new interviews with Henry Aaron, Bob Uecker and other members of the Milwaukee Braves, "Bushville Wins!" takes you to a time and place baseball and the Heartland will never forget. In the early 1950s, the New York Yankees were the biggest bullies on the block. They were invincible: they led the New York City baseball dynasty, which for eight consecutive years held an iron grip on the World Series championship. Then the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, becoming surprise revolutionaries. Led by visionary owner Lou Perini, the Braves formed a powerful relationship with the Miller Brewing Company and foreshadowed the Dodgers and Giants moving west, sparking continental expansion and the ballpark boom. But the rest of the country wasn't sold. Why would a major league team move to a minor league town? In big cities like New York, Milwaukee was thought to be a podunk train station stop-off where the fans were always drunk and wouldn't know a baseball from a beer. They called Milwaukee "Bushville."The Braves were no bushers! Eddie Mathews was a handsome home run hitter with a rugged edge. Warren Spahn was the craftiest pitcher in the business. Lew Burdette was a sharky spitball artist. Taken together, the Braves reveled in the High Life and made Milwaukee famous, while Wisconsin fans showed the rest of the country how to crack a cold one and throw a tailgate party. And in 1954, a solemn and skinny slugger came from Mobile to Milwaukee. Henry Aaron began his march to history. With a cast of screwballs, sluggers and beer swiggers, the Braves proved the guys at the corner bar could do the impossible - topple Casey Stengel's New York baseball dynasty in a World Series for the ages. Review Quotes:"Screwballs, sluggers and beer-swiggers? Those are my kind of people, and this is my kind of book. "Bushville Wins" is captivating from beginning to end, a dramatic story told with marvelous writing and meticulous research. Highly recommended." --Jonathan Eig, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Opening Day"Review Quotes:"An irresistible tale, beautifully told, about one of the most colorful - and neglected - underdog champions in baseball history. "Bushville" is a winner." - Mark Frost, "New York Times" bestselling Author "Screwballs, sluggers and beer-swiggers? Those are my kind of people, and this is my kind of book. "Bushville Wins!" is captivating from beginning to end, a dramatic story told with marvelous writing and meticulous research. Highly recommended." -- Jonathan Eig, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Opening Day""One of baseball's finest, and most overlooked, seasons finally gets the chronicle it deserves. Thoroughly reported and elegantly written, "Bushville" recaptures a time and place--1950s Milwaukee--with loving detail. Except perhaps for Yankees fans, baseball lovers will want to keep "Bushville" on their bookshelf." --Cait Murphy, author of "Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History"Review Quotes:"Bushville hits the sweet spot of my childhood, the year my family moved to Wisconsin and the Braves won the World Series against the Yankees, a team my Brooklyn-raised dad taught us to hate. Thanks to John Klima for bringing it all back to life with such vivid detail and energentic writing." -- David Maraniss, "New York Times" bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered "An irresistible tale, beautifully told, about one of the most colorful - and neglected - underdog champions in baseball history. "Bushville" is a winner." - Mark Frost, "New York Times" bestselling Author "Screwballs, sluggers and beer-swiggers? Those are my kind of people, and this is my kind of book. "Bushville Wins!" is captivating from beginning to end, a dramatic story told with marvelous writing and meticulous research. Highly recommended." -- Jonathan Eig, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Opening Day""One of baseball's finest, and most overlooked, seasons finally gets the chronicle it deserves. Thoroughly reported and elegantly written, "Bushville" recaptures a time and place--1950s Milwaukee--with loving detail. Except perhaps for Yankees fans, baseball lovers will want to keep "Bushville" on their bookshelf." --Cait Murphy, author of "Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History"Review Quotes:"A veteran baseball writer chronicles the unlikely triumph of big-league baseball's first small-market team... A rollicking read that captures the spirit of the team, the city and a unique moment in baseball history." --"Kirkus" "Bushville hits the sweet spot of my childhood, the year my family moved to Wisconsin and the Braves won the World Series against the Yankees, a team my Brooklyn-raised dad taught us to hate. Thanks to John Klima for bringing it all back to life with such vivid detail and energentic writing." -- David Maraniss, "New York Times" bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered "An irresistible tale, beautifully told, about one of the most colorful - and neglected - underdog champions in baseball history. "Bushville" is a winner." - Mark Frost, "New York Times" bestselling Author "Screwballs, sluggers and beer-swiggers? Those are my kind of people, and this is my kind of book. "Bushville Wins!" is captivating from beginning to end, a dramatic story told with marvelous writing and meticulous research. Highly recommended." -- Jonathan Eig, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Opening Day""One of baseball's finest, and most overlooked, seasons finally gets the chronicle it deserves. Thoroughly reported and elegantly written, "Bushville" recaptures a time and place--1950s Milwaukee--with loving detail. Except perhaps for Yankees fans, baseball lovers will want to keep "Bushville" on their bookshelf." --Cait Murphy, author of "Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History" "Klima (Willie's Boys) weaves the team's "sense of destiny" with a Milwaukee fan's obsession and a journalist's eye in relating this "David versus Goliath" baseball saga that avoids the braggadocio of others of its ilk." -"Publishers Weekly" Marc Notes: ; From 1949-1958, the New York Yankees won the World Series seven times. And in 1957, the last team anybody would have thought of to challenge New York City's baseball supremacy would have been Milwaukee. But who better to beat the Yankees than the Midwest guys at the corner bar? The Braves became America's team, a happy band where color and the Cold War didn't matter, where the Cold One created the close bond between the fans and the team. Young sluggers Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews proved that brotherhood meant as much as home runs. Legendary pitcher Warren Spahn teamed with Yankee-killer Lew Burdette for a climactic finish. 'Bushville' was ready to strike a blow for the rest of America, and the Milwaukee Braves were about to turn the sports world upside down--; Provided by publisher.. Table of Contents: Part I. The Shift -- 1. David Versus Goliath -- 2. The High Life -- 3. Asshole Buddies -- 4. God Sent Me a Miracle -- 5. Tie Great Pretenders -- Part II. The Season -- 6. You're Going to Hate My Guts -- 7. Welcome Home, Braves -- 8. In for a Battle -- 9. Come On You, Henry! -- 10. The Most Meaningful Home Run -- Part III. The Series -- 11. The Smell of Money -- 12. The Button Men: Games 1 and 2 -- 13. Welcome to Bushville: Games 3 and 4 -- 14. One Party Rule: Game 5 -- 15. Four for the Room: Games 6 and 7 -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Source Notes -- Index. Review Quotes:"[Klima] tells a great story well, makes a dead era vivid and focuses on what really mattered about a wonderful team. The Braves may have won just once, but in so doing they humbled a dynasty, brought pride to the provinces and helped reshape baseball's geography. There are teams that won more championships but few that did half as much." -"The Wall Street Journal""A veteran baseball writer chronicles the unlikely triumph of big-league baseball's first small-market team... A rollicking read that captures the spirit of the team, the city and a unique moment in baseball history." --"Kirkus" "Bushville hits the sweet spot of my childhood, the year my family moved to Wisconsin and the Braves won the World Series against the Yankees, a team my Brooklyn-raised dad taught us to hate. Thanks to John Klima for bringing it all back to life with such vivid detail and energentic writing." -- David Maraniss, "New York Times" bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered "An irresistible tale, beautifully told, about one of the most colorful - and neglected - underdog champions in baseball history. "Bushville" is a winner." - Mark Frost, "New York Times" bestselling Author "Screwballs, sluggers and beer-swiggers? Those are my kind of people, and this is my kind of book. "Bushville Wins!" is captivating from beginning to end, a dramatic story told with marvelous writing and meticulous research. Highly recommended." -- Jonathan Eig, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Opening Day""One of baseball's finest, and most overlooked, seasons finally gets the chronicle it deserves. Thoroughly reported and elegantly written, "Bushville" recaptures a time and place--1950s Milwaukee--with loving detail. Except perhaps for Yankees fans, baseball lovers will want to keep "Bushville" on their bookshelf." --Cait Murphy, author of "Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History" "Klima (Willie's Boys) weaves the team's "sense of destiny" with a Milwaukee fan's obsession and a journalist's eye in relating this "David versus Goliath" baseball saga that avoids the braggadocio of others of its ilk." -"Publishers Weekly"Biographical Note: John Klima is the author of "Willie's Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, The Last Negro League World Series, and The Making of a Baseball Legend" (Wiley, 2009). His story, "Deal of the Century," was selected by "When Pride Still Mattered: Lombardi" author David Maraniss to appear in the 2007 edition of "The Best American Sports Writing." Klima's work has also appeared in "The New York Times," Yahoo! Sports, ESPN.com and" The Los Angeles Times." A former national baseball columnist and minor league radio play-by-play announcer, Klima is also a professionally trained baseball scout who studied with legendary scouts, and is a graduate of the Major League Baseball Scout Development Program. He holds a degree in cultural anthropology and spent his boyhood summers sitting in the outfield cheap seats of Milwaukee County Stadium. Review Quotes: "An irresistible tale, beautifully told, about one of the most colorful - and neglected - underdog champions in baseball history. "Bushville" is a winner." - Mark Frost, "New York Times" bestselling AuthorReview Quotes: "[Klima] tells a great story well, makes a dead era vivid and focuses on what really mattered about a wonderful team. The Braves may have won just once, but in so doing they humbled a dynasty, brought pride to the provinces and helped reshape baseball's geography. There are teams that won more championships but few that did half as much." -"The Wall Street Journal"Review Quotes: "Klima (Willie's Boys) weaves the team's "sense of destiny" with a Milwaukee fan's obsession and a journalist's eye in relating this "David versus Goliath" baseball saga that avoids the braggadocio of others of its ilk." -"Publishers Weekly"Publisher Marketing:"Bushville hits the sweet spot of my childhood, the year my family moved to Wisconsin and the Braves won the World Series against the Yankees, a team my Brooklyn-raised dad taught us to hate. Thanks to John Klima for bringing it all back to life with such vivid detail and energetic writing." -- David Maraniss, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Clemente" and "When Pride Still Mattered"The rip-roaring story of baseball's most unlikely champions, featuring new interviews with Henry Aaron, Bob Uecker and other members of the Milwaukee Braves, "Bushville Wins!" takes you to a time and place baseball and the Heartland will never forget. In the early 1950s, the New York Yankees were the biggest bullies on the block. They were invincible: they led the New York City baseball dynasty, which for eight consecutive years held an iron grip on the World Series championship. Then the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, becoming surprise revolutionaries. Led by visionary owner Lou Perini, the Braves formed a powerful relationship with the Miller Brewing Company and foreshadowed the Dodgers and Giants moving west, sparking continental expansion and the ballpark boom. But the rest of the country wasn't sold. Why would a major league team move to a minor league town? In big cities like New York, Milwaukee was thought to be a podunk train station stop-off where the fans were always drunk and wouldn't know a baseball from a beer. They called Milwaukee "Bushville."The Braves were no bushers! Eddie Mathews was a handsome home run hitter with a rugged edge. Warren Spahn was the craftiest pitcher in the business. Lew Burdette was a sharky spitball artist. Taken together, the Braves reveled in the High Life and made Milwaukee famous, while Wisconsin fans showed the rest of the country how to crack a cold one and throw a tailgate party. And in 1954, a solemn and skinny slugger came from Mobile to Milwaukee. Henry Aaron began his march to history. With a cast of screwballs, sluggers and beer swiggers, the Braves proved the guys at the corner bar could do the impossible - topple Casey Stengel's New York baseball dynasty in a World Series for the ages. Review Citations:

Publishers Weekly 05/07/2012 pg. 45 (EAN 9781250006073, Hardcover)

Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2012 (EAN 9781250006073, Hardcover)

Booklist 05/15/2012 pg. 11 (EAN 9781250006073, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Klima, John John Klima is the author of "Willie's Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, The Last Negro League World Series, and The Making of a Baseball Legend" (Wiley, 2009). His story, "Deal of the Century", was selected by "When Pride Still Mattered: Lombardi" author David Maraniss to appear in the 2007 edition of "The Best American Sports Writing". Klima's work has also appeared in "The New York Times", Yahoo! Sports, ESPN.com and" The Los Angeles Times". A former national baseball columnist and minor league radio play-by-play announcer, Klima is also a professionally trained baseball scout who studied with legendary scouts, and is a graduate of the Major League Baseball Scout Development Program. He holds a degree in cultural anthropology and spent his boyhood summers sitting in the outfield cheap seats of Milwaukee County Stadium.