Miller Park

I have a life-long pursuit of visiting every major league baseball stadium. It isn’t something that I really set out doing until a few years ago where I was up to a handful and realized that seeing each of them might not be out of the question. This will obviously take some time, but it’s totally doable. Totally.

Anyway, the other week I, along with my wife and in-laws, took the drive over to Milwaukee to knock the Brewers’ Miller Park off the list. While we were there we also visited Road America to see some races, but that’s another story (and another blog post). The drive to Milwaukee was, all told, about 12 hours. A long haul for sure, but worth it.

We started out the day by getting a tour of the stadium in the morning. It was the first game after the all-star break, so the stadium was pristine, although our guide assured us that the park looked that good before every game. We got to see the press area, where the play-by-play announcers sit, and we even got to walk on the field from the visitor’s dugout (on the third base side) all the way to the left field corner. Had it not been game day we would’ve been able to see the team’s clubhouse.

Miller Park is one of the few stadiums in baseball with a retractable roof. I’ve long railed against Rogers Centre in Toronto and after seeing a place like Miller Park it further strengthened my stance. But I digress. We got to the stadium when the gates opened, which was about 5:45; the game started at 7:00. It was incredibly hot and humid in Milwaukee that day, so much so that I nearly got heat stroke before the game even started. Once I sat down to cool off with a frozen drink I started to feel a lot better. We sat in the second deck to the left of the foul pole in left field. The Brewers aren’t a very good team this year—they’re in last place in their division—were playing the Pirates who are in contention and expected to compete for a playoff spot. Surprisingly, Milwaukee hung on for a 4-1 win. We left after the 8th inning to beat the traffic and because we were exhausted, half-melted and almost stuck to our seats.

So right now my count is up to 10 of the current stadiums (Rogers Centre in Toronto, Safeco Field in SeattleComerica Park in Detroit, Fenway Park in BostonCitizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Oriole Park in BaltimorePNC Park in Pittsburgh, and Wrigley Field and US Cellular Field in Chicago being the others) with another 20 to go. Easy peasy. 

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