On Home Away from Home
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| Miller Park, 2009 |
NY Metropolitans vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Miller Park
Major League Baseball, National League
Milwaukee, WI
1:05 PM
Outside the Game:
I had to get up insanely early this day after not quite enough sleep even by the standards of this trip. My barely functioning brain forgot to refill my tank on the short drive to airport, and I was subsequently tagged for nearly 20 bucks for a gallon of gas. That's how they get you.
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| Another sunrise |
The KC airport is not an extensive edifice, and not thinking much about it, I went straight to my gate, only to find out that my gate was essentially a closet with one disinterested food stall wedged into it, which was to become my only source of breakfast. Suffice to say, I was disappointed with my meal. The plane thankfully boarded on time, and I was unconscious on the short jump up to O'Hare in Chicago. I remember little about the shuttle out to the rental car, except the clear idea in my mind not to accept any sort of "free upgrades." I got my sissy blue Kia without much to-do, and then settled in for my drive up to Milwaukee.
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| Not a Canyonero |
For whatever reason, this Wednesday game was decided to be an afternoon start, which was what prompted this whole endeavor to start this early. I never did find out exactly why the game started when it did. At any rate, I had about an hour and half drive up to Milwaukee (as there were no direct flights from KC to Milwaukee, just Chicago). The one road on the way up was helpfully undergoing major road work, and it was absolutely pouring buckets all the way on the drive up. This just added a slight extra degree of difficulty to the drive and posed no danger of a rainout in the covered Miller Park.
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| Rain |
Although there were some slowdowns in places, the drive up wasn't that bad, and by the time I had arrived at Miller Park, the rain had slowed to a misty drizzle. Despite the minor setbacks, I managed to get to the stadium two hours before the start of the game. However, I found out that Miller Park didn't open until an hour and a half before game time. There was a big tailgating community in the parking lots before the game, but I was a little concerned by the fact that the parking lot wedged everyone in so tightly. This fear would be realized after the game.
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| Packers! Whoooo! |
Although not quite bad as Dodger's Stadium, the Miller parking lots after the game ended were just a stationary string of cars that didn't move for a good half hour after the last pitch. There at least were a bunch of personnel directing the traffic to avoid the absolute anarchy that was in place in LA, but people just pulled out of their space, got in the unmoving line, and threw their car into park. As it was the middle of the afternoon and not the middle of the night as was in the case for me in LA, I was in a little more accommodating spirit (no doubt helped by the Mets win), and I just finished proving out the scorecard in enough time before the traffic started moving again.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Miller Park |
Brewer park is a retractable dome, and given the weather in the area, you can hardly blame them. As covered parks went, it was quite nice, and it got a lot of natural light in from big windows built into to dome structure itself and along the center field wall, which made it feel less oppressive than other domes in the league. You can get the culinary flavor for the area in that a huge TGI Fridays was built into the stadium and open year-round, and that there is another opportunity to stop and get a sausage on the walk from the parking lot to the stadium, you know, in case you hadn't had enough sausage tailgating and couldn't wait until you were actually in the stadium proper to get another sausage.
Miller Park had all the major accouterments you'd expect in a modern park, including an extensive kids play area, and specialty areas such as the right field bar and the Harley Davidson pavilion (that has its own motorcycle parking only area). Another big feature is "Bernie's Dugout," where the Miller mascot hangs out in his Left Field club house and slides into a big tub of water (formerly beer) every time the Brewers hit a home run. Thankfully, I did not get to see this during this game, and upon closer inspection of the Dugout, it seems that the splashdown, much like the cake, is a lie.
The other big event in the stadium is the Sausage Race, where the span between innings is filled with a race of guys in foam suits representing the different kind of sausages on sale in Miller Park. It is such a big deal that the kids area even has a interactive version of the Sausage Race, where you peddle along to make your sausage of choice go faster. If you haven't yet guessed, Milwaukee is serious about sausage.
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| Serious bidness |
For an afternoon game in the middle of the week, the place was pretty packed, which speaks well for the local fandom. There was also a sizable Mets contingent present as well, and we made our presence felt when appropriate.
As with Houston, as soon as the last out hit the mitt, someone hit a button to open the retractable dome and let in the elements. This was less dramatic than in Houston, as instead of letting in searing beams of sun, it just kind of let a little more cold into the confines, along with a damp chill.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| He's so dreamy |
Since this was going to a Mets game, I splurged for good lower deck seats right behind home plate on the first row of the deck overhanging the lowest deck. As it turned out, I was sitting right behind Bob Freakin' Euker's booth, which was pretty cool. You turn around, and there's a guy who saw Mr. Belvedere naked. It's quite a thing. My area was largely filled with rather sedate Brewers fans. As with San Francisco last year, after being in incredibly hot areas, I was suddenly plunged into cold weather, and if the game was played in the open air instead of under the dome, I might have been in danger of freezing after being in danger of heat stroke several days before. But thankfully, the air-conditioned interior of Miller Park was slightly less cold and damp than the outside of Miller Park.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Metropolitans vs. Brewers |
Outside of a Subway Series game at Yankee Stadium, I had never seen the Mets play as a visiting team before. As a matter of course, I tend to root for the home team on these trips unless I have an active interest otherwise, and this surely qualified, not even taking into account that the Mets hadn't won a single game since I left on this trip.
The Mets jumped out to leaving men on base early, stranding two in the first, and one in the second and fourth. Despite a Brewers threat in the fourth, the Met's pitcher Pelfrey kept the Brewers locked down. The Mets scraped a run across in the sixth and managed to stiffle a Brewer's attempts, despite having runners in scoring position in the next three innings. The Brewer's Gallardo was literally mowing down the Mets, totaling 12 strike outs before he left the game on the hard-luck hook. The game breezed by quickly, as it was clear that that one run was all the shut-down Mets were likely to get, and the Brewers were similarly unable to get a run of their own across. Francisco Rodrigues came in for the Mets to close it out, and despite surrendering a lead-off single, he quickly retired the next three batters he faced, leading the Mets to a sort-of deserved first win in a week, crushing the Brewers 1-0.
There was a scoring incident of note, as David Wright struck out in the first inning, and the catcher dropped the ball without Wright noticing. If a catcher drops the third strike of a strikeout, the strikeout is recorded, but it is not a putout until the catcher tags the runner or puts him out on first. The catcher dropped strike three, Wright walked away, and by the time the catcher corralled the ball, he just waited until Wright walked back to his dugout and was called out by the umpire for leaving the basepaths.
The Scorecard:
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| Metropolitans vs. Brewers, 07/01/09. Metropolitans win, 1-0. |
The $2 scorecard is sold separately from the free program provided when you enter the ballpark. It is a cardstock trifold with plenty of space to score a game and personalized to the series that was being played. (And frankly, looking at the [count 'em] nine players on the DL for the Mets on the scorecard was simply depressing.) It was an all-around honest scorecard, and it even had a listing for the umpires.
The Accommodations:
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| Clarion Hotel |
After the game. I drove out to the Clarion Hotel out by the airport, checked in, and took a nice and quite unavoidable nap. I had the entire evening to kill, and not having any pressing business in Milwaukee, I took a recovery day in my nice hotel room and even did some laundry to wash the sweat of Texas and KC out of my clothes. After a bountiful room service meal, I went out to the adjacent airport to return my rental car, filled up and early this day. However, I managed to miss all the signs saying that the return was closed until I got into the lot, prompting me to beg for some help at another desk to get my car settled away. A two minute shuttle ride back to the hotel got me back in plenty of time to make it an early night and get back to being some manner of functioning individual before my flight out the next day.
2009 The Rest
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