Milwaukee

... and we start with Miller Park for Reds @ Brewers.

We stayed in Milwaukee for over a day, and the whole time it was cold and anywhere from overcast to pouring. I would characterize it as a bad fall day… in August. So keep that in mind for all Milwaukee posts.

The stadium is very cool, but a little funny looking. Miller Park has a retractable roof, and it was on because of the weather. With the roof on, the stadium looks like it’s covered by a green hairnet. It’s not the prettiest thing but at least there won’t be hair in our meatloaf. Even though the roof was on, there are a lot of glass windows and it gives the park, even when it’s covered and indoors, an outdoorsy feel.

Other interesting things about the stadium are the Bernie Brewer slide for homeruns (of which there were many), and the fact that the homerun fence in left field is a scoreboard itself. This strikes me as the kind of idea someone came up with when they were high. (“Dude… no, no scoreboard… it’s on the field man… the wall isn’t a wall… it’s a video, man.”)

The stadium also had one particular thing in common with PNC Park in Pittsburgh – the appeal to children. The slide obviously works for that. There is also a little kids Sesame Place type play area in the upper deck concourse. (No, they wouldn’t let me into the ball pit. Yes, I need to shave so I can pull off the six and under look.) You can text message the stadium and they put selected ones on the scoreboard. Lastly, and amazingly, in the bottom of the fourth, they had a Jr. public address announcer, calling out all those who came to bat.

You have to wonder what the Jr. Announcer can get away with. Can s/he ad lib a little? Comment on a nice hit? Give a nickname for a player? How far can the Jr. Announcer go before losing his/ her microphone? Sometimes the questions are better than the answers.

Game Notes

• I would like to judge a mustache contest between Bernie Brewer and anyone else in the world.
• The main sponsors for the Brewers are Miller and Valvoline, beer and cars. I couldn’t explain Milwaukee better if I wanted to. And I do want to, I just can’t.
• The Sausage Race went to a replay, photo finish. The sausage race is up there with a world series game, the 18^th hole of the Masters, and the Super Bowl for sports events you need to see live.
• Many teams have some other song that they sing after “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the 7^th inning stretch. The Brewers’ song is “Roll out the Barrel!” This is the most ridiculous song I have heard since the Ketchup song (not you, Ketchup), and it actually includes the lyric “Zip! Boom! Tar-rar-rel!” If I remember correctly, Tar-rar-rel was Superman’s Kryptonian father.
• They played hava nagilla as a stadium pump up song three times. Jews run everything.
• Relief pitcher Brian Shouse was played in to the game with Tears for Fears’ “Shout.” Milwaukeeans pronounce Shout in Ashkenazi.