Wisconsin was hooked on the World Series, 61 years ago

Only one major league baseball club from Wisconsin has ever been a World Series champion, and that was the 1957 Milwaukee Braves. They beat the Yankees 4 games to 3 that fall, and just about any public place in La Crosse with a TV set tuned to the Series drew a crowd. The series games were all played in the daytime in those days. Doerflinger’s department store had five TV sets showing the games. Banks and hospitals also set up television screens during the ball games…and while La Crosse police were not allowed to have TV’s at headquarters, they could listen to the Braves on the radio.

The U.S. was starting the second year of Interstate highway construction in the fall of ’57. Wisconsin had already built 24 miles of interstate road in the first year, while Iowa had 80 miles complete. The entire interstate system was expected to cost $27 billion.

The Air Force fired a rocket more than a thousand miles into space…a few weeks after Russia put Sputnik into orbit. Meanwhile, the Pentagon had a list of inventions it wanted someone to create…such as a high-speed tunneling device, and a death ray.

New shows on TV that fall included “Leave It to Beaver”…”Perry Mason”…”Maverick”…”Wagon Train”…and “The Real McCoys,” in 1957, yesterday in La Crosse.