On this date in 1967, owner Arthur Allyn announced the White Sox would play nine games in Milwaukee at County Stadium in 1968.
Allyn made the unexpected announcement at the Chicago American Quarterback Club luncheon at the Sherman House.
The news broke with rumors, which Allyn dismissed, swirling that the Sox were pondering a move to Milwaukee.
“There’s no truth to it,” Allyn said in the Tribune.
Allyn said the games were slated so the Sox could get a foothold in the Milwaukee television market.
“(This is) our attempt to develop Milwaukee for our television market,” Allyn said. “We will televise our games into Milwaukee next year.”
While the article did not address it directly, these games had to be viewed as an attempt to boost the Sox sagging attendance.
The ‘67 Sox, in the pennant race until late September, drew just 966,284 fans to Comiskey Park. Allyn attributed the disappointing figure to bad press and bad weather.
Milwaukee, with future Brewers’ owner and future commissioner Bud Selig leaving the way, was hungry to get another MLB team.
“While we continue working toward another permanent franchise for Milwaukee, we feel that this interest can, in part, be satisfied by a series of games such as these,” Selig said. “At the same time, we can continue to demonstrate Milwaukee’s credentials as a Major League site.”
Milwaukee demonstrated it still loved big league baseball when 51,544 turned out for a Sox-Twins exhibition game on July 24, 1967. It was the largest crowd to watch a sporting event at County Stadium.
The agreement had the Sox playing an exhibition game against the Cubs the Saturday before Opening Day in 1968. From there, the Sox would play one mid-week night game against each American League team.
The Sox also did this in 1969.
The Sox went 1-8 in 1968 and 7-4 the next season in Milwaukee.
The games in 1968 drew 265,552 fans, which was close to half of the Sox home attendance that season. A year later, the Sox attracted 196,784 to their Milwaukee contests.
History tells us the Sox stayed put Milwaukee and Selig got their MLB team when the Seattle Pilots moved there in 1970.
References: https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-chicago-white-sox-1968-70-three-years-in-hell/ and Chicago Tribune archives