The 1948 World Series, which the Braves lost in six games to the Indians, turned out to be the Braves’ last hurrah in Boston. Amid four mediocre seasons, attendance steadily dwindled until, on March 13, 1953, Perini, who had recently bought out his original partners, announced he was moving the team to Milwaukee, where the Braves had their top farm club, the Brewers. Milwaukee had long been a possible target for relocation.

The 1957 World Series featured the defending champions, the New York Yankees (American League), playing against the Milwaukee Braves (National League). After finishing just one game behind the N.L. Champion Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956, the Braves came back in 1957 to win their first pennant since moving from Boston in 1953. The Braves won the Series in seven games, behind Lew Burdette’s three complete game victories, and became the first team to win a championship after relocating.

Lou Perini sold the Braves to a Chicago-based group led by William Bartholomay after the 1961 season and the ink was barely dry on the deal when Bartholomay started shopping the Braves to a larger television market. Keen to attract them, the fast-growing city of Atlanta, led by Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., constructed a new $18 million, 52,007-60,606 seat multi-purpose stadium in less than one year, Atlanta Stadium, (later on known as Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium from 1976 until 1996 with its demolition in 1997) which was officially opened in 1965 in hopes of luring an existing Major League Baseball and/or NFL/AFL team. After the city failed to lure the Kansas City A’s to Atlanta (the A’s would move to Oakland in 1968), the Braves announced their intention to move to Atlanta for the 1965 season. However, an injunction filed in Wisconsin kept the Braves in Milwaukee for one final year. In 1966, the Braves completed the move to Atlanta.