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Bill's Journal Entry #16
Miller
Park
Date: August 25, 2002
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Opponent: Pittsburgh Pirates
Travel
companion: My dad, Marv Verkuilen; my sister, Cathy
Hein; and my brother-in-law, Todd Hein
Link
to my photos
Game
Result: I was greatly relieved to have family present to talk to, as there
wasn’t much in this ballgame to watch. Kris
Benson of the Pirates pitched solidly, and Rob Mackowiak homered, as the Bucs
beat the Beermakers, 3-2. It was
the Pirates’ fifteenth win over the
Brewers in 2002.
Stadium
Summary: During Miller Park’s inaugural season, I made two trips to games
in Milwaukee. And had generally
come away unimpressed. Despite
having a lot going for it, this stadium also has a lot of detractions. I was expecting much the same reaction this year.
It didn’t happen. I was far more impressed with Miller Park this year than
previously. What caused this?
I can only think of two things that were changed this year.
One was the completion of the youth stadium (see below).
And the other was that, for the first time in my visits, the roof was
open.
First, the positive aspects of this park.
Like all new parks of recent years, there’s a lot to like here.
A beautiful entranceway is reminiscent of many historical ballparks of
days gone by, and the statues of Robin Yount and Hank Aaron are nice touches.
I also like that as soon as you enter this entrance, you have a beautiful
view of the field straight ahead of you -- no ramps or escalators for a peek.
The centerfield scoreboard is nice, and not excessively dominated with
ads like some of the other new parks. And
like all new parks, there’s great, wide-open walkways behind the seating areas
on all levels, making it quite easy to get around.
On the negative side, well, I hope this
doesn’t come across like a rant, because I’m going to mention quite a few
things here. First, there’s the
roof. When I first saw the design
for it, long before it was built, I thought it was one of the ugliest ballpark
designs I’ve ever seen. I still
don’t care for it, although the look has been slowly growing on me. When the roof is closed, the place looks and feels like a
greenhouse. One of the games I saw
in 2001 had outside temps in the mid-70’s, no rain, a beautiful day for
baseball, and the powers-that-be had the roof closed.
The entire stadium felt stuffy and stagnant all game—until they opened
the roof moments after the last out was recorded, when a great early-fall breeze
was allowed in. Another problem is
the upper deck seating area, which curves around in the outfield in such a way
that, if you’re sitting just past first or third base in these sections, your
view of the nearest outfield is completely blocked by the upper deck seats.
At this year’s game, we were unable to see several plays in right
field, even though they took place well into fair territory.
I have two big issues with the home run fence.
First, it’s boring -- it’s all the same height, and way too close to
perfectly symmetrical. Show a
little imagination already! Second,
there is not a single place in home-run territory where the seating section is
directly adjacent to the playing field. The
entire way around, there’s bullpens, or equipment storage, or what not.
Jeffrey Meier would hate it. And
the final gripe I’ll put in here is the stadium’s location.
County Stadium was in a bad spot—the only thing in the area is the
Miller brewery, which usually has a repugnant yeast odor.
(No, it doesn’t smell like beer.)
There were plenty of interesting locations available to build a new park
in Milwaukee -- most notably, just south of downtown, by the Summerfest grounds.
But instead, they put it in the center field parking lot of County
Stadium.
But all in all, this isn’t a bad stadium.
It’s just that, well, it’s not great either.
And for the price paid for it, it needed to be great.
Worst
example of how not to go about building a stadium:
For those of you in the parts of the country that don’t follow
Wisconsin current events (in other words, nearly all of you), the story of
Miller Park is one of the ugliest tales in construction history—one that
continues still. When the funding
for the stadium was being debated in the state legislature, it passed—by one
vote, on a vote that was held around 3 a.m.
The deciding vote was a representative from southeast Wisconsin, who at
that wee hour voted in favor of a sales tax being extended to include his
constituents, despite having opposed it previously.
This one vote led to the first recall election in Wisconsin history.
Then, once construction had begun in the parking lot of County Stadium
(which, incidentally, is far and away the worst stadium location of any built in
the last 20 years), the primary crane used to hoist the roof into place
collapsed, killing three workers and putting the project a full year behind
schedule. Now, the oh-so-impressive
radial roof leaks. Both fixes and
lawsuits are currently being discussed. And
this is just the debacle of the stadium itself -- I haven’t even mentioned the
Brewers team itself, the tied All-Star Game …
Best
thing to do on the site of a former Major League stadium: Build another
stadium, but make this one youth/Little League sized.
A brand new youth stadium (not one of those kiddie wiffle ball stadiums
that are at several other stadiums, but a legitimate Little League sized
ballfield) now stands on the site of the former Milwaukee County Stadium.
So kids can play ball on the site of Hank Aaron’s 755th and
last homer. (Not that any of them
are likely to realize that.)
Best
stadium food, period: As Kobe (or a Kobe look-alike -- I’ve debated this
with some friends) says in the “ESPN -- The Magazine” commercial, “The
bratwursts at Miller Park”. These
brats just may be reason enough to buy a ticket into the stadium even on days
when there isn’t a game being played.
Worst
adaptation of a classic part of a former stadium: Bernie Brewer’s dugout
and slide. One of the best features
of County Stadium was the giant keg of ‘beer’ just past the right-center
field bleachers, complete with a tap and stein.
Adjacent to it was a ‘chalet’, the home of the Brewers’ mascot,
Bernie. Anytime the Brewers homered,
Bernie would come out of the chalet and slide (well, it actually wasn’t quite
steep enough to truly slide—he usually pulled himself down) into the stein,
sending balloons skyward. It was
one of the better home-run celebrations in the Majors.
But in Miller Park, there’s no keg.
There’s no stein. There’s
not even a chalet. Bernie just
slides down onto a -- well, I guess it would be best described as a
‘platform’. All the personality
is completely gone.
Best
“Guess the Winner” Race: The racing sausages, that run around the field
live. Nearly every stadium has at
least one video race where kids are supposed to cheer for their favorite to win,
but in Milwaukee, it’s not just on the screen -- live mascot-style sausages
run a race. This year, in honor of
the Austin Powers movies, the race is a relay race, with the sausages tagging
off to the “Mini-Me” version of themselves, with kids in similar costumes.
Pittsburgh did a decent job of trying to copy it with their racing
Pierogis, but there’s nothing like Milwaukee’s original.
Best
thing to do during the seventh inning stretch after singing “Take Me Out To
The Ballgame”: Sing “Roll Out The Barrel” while polka-ing in the
aisles. Well, actually, sing
“Roll Out The Barrel” while watching others
polka in the aisles.
Best
memories from County Stadium: OK, I’ll admit that, by today’s standards,
County Stadium was not a good park. But
it still has a lot of great memories for me, some of which I want to mention
here. I saw a couple major
milestones here -- Robin Yount’s 3000th hit, and Nolan Ryan’s 300th
win. Another memory is from many
years ago, when I went to a Brewers/Yankees game with my grandfather and two
cousins. My one cousin was a big
fan of then Yankee Ricky Henderson, and the entire two hour drive to the game,
he was letting us all know how great Ricky is.
The rest of us were getting plenty tired of it, so we didn’t mind it
when, late in a close game, Ricky tried to score from second on a hit, got
thrown out at home, and then got ejected from the game for arguing the call.
It made the drive back home much easier on the ears.
And what may have been one of the most fun times ever at County Stadium
happened in the fall of 1988, when a group of us from Marquette spent way too
many evenings out there as extras for the movie “Major League.”
Stadium grade: B- This
visit, on its own, with the roof open, would garner a B.
Previous visits, on their own, with the roof closed, would garner a C.
Overall
grade of my experience at the game: C-
A boring
game in a so-so stadium.
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