Baseball With the Roof On

Wednesday, May 14th

Miller Park looks like a giant spaceship that has set down next to I-94 on the west side of Milwaukee. It's a graceful and striking spaceship for sure, but if you didn't know it's a baseball park, that probably wouldn't be your first guess. The arched trusses that support its much ballyhooed retractable roof and the enormous glass windows that sustain the natural grass lend the building a sort of retro field house look, but the building is as modern as can be.

Miller Park

Miller Park replaced Milwaukee County Stadium with its opening in 2001. In fact, County Stadium was demolished and most of the former stadium sight was converted to parking for Miller Park, but the infield was saved and is now home to Helfaer Field a little league park. Miller Park is surrounded by an ocean of parking lots. Though Milwaukee is the smallest market in major league baseball, they have some very loyal and enthusiastic fans. When Matt and I arrived at the ballpark an hour and a half before the first pitch, there were lots tailgating fans. I've never seen baseball tailgating like this: people had tents, grills, lots of beer and folks were tossing beanbags all over the parking lot - it had the feel of a college football Saturday.

Tailgating before the game

Matt and I headed into the park and caught much of the Cardinal's batting practice. Matt is a born and raised Cardinals fan and we joined a sizable group of red-wearing Cardinals faithful gathered around the left field dugout. I rarely make it to batting practice, but always enjoy it when I do. The everydayness of the game is driven home when I watch BP. They guys are out there running drills and honing their skills. It makes them seem more human. We were also surrounded by folks who knew about the team and had more than a passing interest. Some of the players (including the Cards biggest star, Albert Pujolis) even stopped to sign autographs for the kids gathered near the field.

The Cards take BP

Matt watches his Cards take BP

Pujolis signs autographs

Come game time, we didn't have to move far to our seats - we held tickets that were 3 rows behind the Cardinals dugout. Knowing what a big fan Matt was, I couldn't resist these awesome seats when they popped up in my on-line search. The two of us settled in to watch the final game of the four game series with a proper Milwaukee ballpark dinner: bratwurst with mustard and kraut, fried cheese curds and genuine Miller products. Of course, the Miller products confused Matt - the ballpark in St. Louis is Busch Stadium and they serve only Budweiser, but he quickly adapted.

Fried cheese curds, a bratwurst with kraut & a beer - that's what's for dinner!

The view from our seats

The Red Birds struck first with a first inning homerun by Ankeil, but fell apart in the third inning when their starter Wainwright gave up five runs on four hits. The Brewers batted around and benefited from a spectacular fielding error: the Cards' second baseman bobbled an easy pop-up foul ball into the stands, turning it from an out into a ground rule double. By the fifth inning, the wheels were really coming off for the Cardinals. Their All-Star catcher, Yadier Molina, had been arguing about the homeplate umpire's balls and strikes calls all night and got tossed out of the game abruptly. This brought manager Tony LaRussa out of the dugout and he, too, was pitched after jawing at the umpire for what must have been 3 or 4 minutes. By the end of the night, the Brewers had sent their mascot, Bernie the Brewer, careening down his slide 3 times en route to a 8-3 victory. (Bernie has a "dugout" above left-center field and slides down a yellow plastic slide accompanied by a light up sign of Bob Uecker's signature home run call: "Get up, get up, get outta here, gone!" There are also fireworks after every Brewers home run - which, with the roof closed, leave a haze over the field for the next couple of innings. At County Stadium, Bernie slid into an over-sized mug of beer, but the mug didn't make the move to Miller Park.)

Bernie's Dugout and slide

Third inning fireworks

Molina tossing his gear on the plate while LaRussa argues

Though his team failed to split the series, Matt and I had a great time at the park. At the conclusion of the sixth inning, Miller Park hosts the Great Sausage Race. Five characters costumed as various kinds of tubular meat enter from left field and race around the warning track from third to first base. The contestants are: #1 Bratt Wurst (a bratwurst in green lederhosen), #2 Stosh (a Polish sausage in a blue and red rugby shirt), #3 Guido (an Italian sausage in a chef's outfit), #4 Frankie Furter (a hot dog in a baseball uniform) and #5 Cinco (a chorizo in a sombrero). All the sausages stand better than 7' tall and make quite a spectacle as they run. (Some readers may recall the "Don't Whack Our Wiener" incident of 2003. Randall Simon of the Pirates hit Guido with a bat as he ran by. Though the human inside the costume was not seriously injured, she did fall down, taking the hot dog out with her. Simon was arrested, charged with assault and suspended for three games. The Pirates also have costumed racers who participate in the Great Pierogi Race and twice a year, once in Pittsburgh and once in Milwaukee, the two sets of racing foodstuffs compete.) From our seats right near the starting line, Matt and I were able to size up the field and lay our bets. I chose the brat and Matt went with the hot dog. It really wasn't a fair fight when you take into consideration all my years of watching the Great Subway Race at Yankee Stadium. The brat easily won.

The sausages prepare to race

The Great Sausage Race

Miller Park's "Brew Crew" lead the singing of Take Me Out to the Ballgame at the seventh inning stretch while they throw bags of peanuts into the crowd. Right after the traditional seventh inning stretch, they then lead the crowd in The Beer Barrel Polka. The Brew Crew then polka atop the dugouts. I love the ballparks that have these sorts of regionalisms! In Cincinnati they played Take Me to the River; in both ballparks in Texas they played Deep In the Heart of Texas; at Yankee Stadium we're meant to dance to Cotton Eyed Joe?!?!

The Brew Crew polkas on top of the third base dugout

The Spamalot tour has been very kind to me in terms of baseball. Monday's game was my 19th on the road. I've been to 6 new major league parks (Miller Park, Great American Ballpark, Coors Field, the Metrodome, Minute Maid Field and the Ballpark at Arlington), 5 Spring Training facilities and the minor league parks in 7 cities. It was especially fun, though, to go along with Matt and see his team play. I had hoped to see the 26 time world champion New York Yankees play while we're in Minneapolis, but it doesn't look like that's going to work out... The baseball tour will resume in June when I hope to see the San Antonio Missions unless I can fit a trip to Comerica Park in around Casey's wedding.

JV & Matt at Miller Park

Until then, it's root, root, root for the Yankees!

JV

Fun Fact #1: Take Me Out to the Ballgame recently celebrated its 100th birthday. The lyrics were written in 1908 by jack Norworth while riding a New York City subway train. He was inspired by a sign advertising a ballgame at the Polo Grounds. Albert Von Tizler set the words to music and the tune became one of the biggest hits of 1908.

Fun Fact #2: Bob Uecker is celebrating his 52nd year in professional baseball. He signed to a minor league contract with his hometown Milwaukee Braves in 1956. He played in the majors for 6 seasons (1961-1967) with four different teams (Milwaukee Braves, Cardinals, Phillies and then Braves again - but this time they were the Atlanta Braves). Since 1971 he has broadcast Brewers games on the radio. The Brewers have mounted a plaque alongside their retired numbers (#4 Molitor, #19 Yount, #34 Fingers & #44 Aaron) in his honor.