BASEBALL The Team That Made Leaving Milwaukee Famous

Nobody ever accused Milwaukee Manager Bobby Bragan of lacking imagination. At one time or another, to protest an umpire's call, he has 1) fainted on the field, 2) staged a sitdown strike in the middle of the diamond, and 3) announced, then called back seven successive pinch hitters before finally allowing the game to proceed. One day last month, to back up his claim that the umps were permitting flagrant use of the illegal spitball, he deliberately ordered Braves pitchers to moisten the ball, kept careful count of how many times (75) they got by with it, and released the statistic to sportswriters after the game. Bobby's latest project is to embarrass the whole city of Milwaukee -by giving it a National League pennant.

Milwaukeeans have been on a boy-cott-the-Braves campaign ever since the team's management decided to move to Atlanta next year. A beer company angrily canceled its sponsorship of home-game telecasts. Signs sprouted from buildings: ATLANTA YOU CAN HAVE THEM. Businessmen wore BYE-BYE BRAVES buttons, and fans stayed away from the ballpark; attendance this season is down almost 400,000 from 1964.

Somewhat Warmer. That was the mood so long as the Braves were floundering in fifth place, half a dozen games or so behind the league-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. Now the Braves have won 29 out of their last 41 ball games, and last week they were thrusting in and out of the National League lead. Milwaukee began to warm up and take notice. Advance orders were pouring in for this week's home stand. Hotels were taking reservations for the World Series.

The players felt the excitement most of all. "I've never seen this team so spirited," said Manager Bragan. How else to explain the fact that Catcher Gene Oliver, who hit only 13 home runs all last year, clouted four in 24 hours to win two games? Or the clutch pinch-hitting of Don Dillard (average: .200), who drove in the winning run twice in a week in the last inning? Or the fantastic spurt of Third Baseman Eddie Mathews, who raised his average 26 points (to .259) and accounted for 25 runs in nine games?

With a Double A. For part of the Braves' success, no explanation was needed. Rightfielder Henry Aaron was batting .332 last week, with 29 doubles, 27 homers and 63 RBIs. With a lifetime batting average of .320 for eleven big-league seasons, he is the best hitter in baseball. "When Henry looks out at that pitcher," says Bobby Bragan, "it's like an animal stalking its prey." Says Los Angeles' Sandy Koufax, baseball's No. 1 pitcher, with 21 victories already in the bank: "It's no wonder his name begins with a double A."

A lithe, 180-lb. six-footer whose wrists are bigger (8 in. around) than Cassius Clay's, Aaron, 31, is a superb fielder, a dangerous base runner (19 stolen bases in 22 attempts) as well as a natural hitter who says, "I just grab a bat and look for the baseball. If it's near the plate, I swing at it." Technically, he does almost everything wrong: he stands at the very back of the batter's box (where it is practically impossible to reach pitches before they break), has a hitch in his swing, hits off his forward foot, regularly swings at the first pitch, is a notorious bad ball hitter. "I've seen Hank hit pitches right off his ear into the rightfield grandstand," says Pittsburgh's Bob Friend. Another opposition pitcher once complained: "The last two pitches I threw at Aaron's head, he hit out of the park."

Last week in St. Louis, Hank leaned clear across the plate to reach for a wide, soft curve thrown by the Cardinals' Curt Simmons. He belted it onto the rightfield pavilion roof -but Umpire Chris Pelekoudas called him out for stepping out of the batter's box. Groused Aaron: "He didn't say anything the time before, when I did the same thing and popped up." Some pitchers think that Aaron toys with them, making himself look bad on certain pitches so they will throw the same pitches again. But Hank himself insists that there is no subterfuge behind his hitting. "I've got a bat, and all the pitcher's got is a ball," he says. "That gives me a natural edge."

Aaron naturally gets a handsome salary for doing what comes naturally $67,500 a year, which seems only reasonable by Mickey Mantle standards. If all goes according to Manager Bragan's plan, Milwaukee's fair-weather fans will contribute another $8,000 to that when the Braves get into the World Series and they get into the ballpark. There is some opinion that they shouldn't be allowed. "If I owned the Milwaukee ball club," says San Francisco Giants Owner Horace Stoneham, "I wouldn't sell one World Series ticket in Milwaukee."

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