Ballpark: Miller Park

On Saturday, June 8, my buddy Chris and I went to the Brewers vs. Phillies game at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Different from many of the ballparks on the east coast, we actually we drove to the stadium and parked in the stadium lot. The parking cost was only $10 and the parking lot was the place to be prior to the game. Part of the Miller Park experience is tailgating in the parking lot before the game. Although Chris and I did not tailgate, we walked by many tailgates where people were grilling up brats, downing beers, playing corn-hole, and talking Brewers. I was also impressed with the number of people who had Brewers gear. This may seem like an obvious observation but in many of the ballparks I have been to not everyone is decked out in team apparel. We were two of the first 10,000 fans through the doors and got a free Brewers t-shirt, so we added to the amount of fans wearing Brewers gear.

Miller Park is a retractable roof stadium and the roof was open on this nice but slightly chilly evening. The concourses of Miller Park are industrial modern. In between the exposed structural beams and HVAC ducts, the concourse is filled with concessions, souvenir shops, and attractions for kids. The variety of concessions available at Miller Park is probably the greatest of any ballpark I have visited thus far. Besides the conventional stadium food, there is a variety of sausages (including a sausage of the month), a baked potato bar, many different types of craft beer (including Bell's Oberon), and luxury items like Mahi Mahi fish tacos. I got a bratwurst and a poutine (fries topped with beef gravy and cheese curds) along with my souvenir cup. The souvenir cup was extra special because it was Cerveceros Night. Everything from the cup to the players jerseys said Cerveceros (the Spanish word for Brewers). The attractions for kids is equally impressive: there were radar guns, batting cages, McDonald's-esque play places, and even a rock wall. 

There are four levels of seating to Miller Park. The field level seating is a little limited and small, but the second (lodge) level is very large compared to other parks. The third level is club seating and the top level is standard upperdeck seating. Chris and I sat second row of the upperdeck right behind home plate. These were very good seats because we could see the entire field and had a very good perspective on fly balls. The key feature of Miller Park is the big yellow slide in left field that runs from the upperdeck to the the lodge level. The Brewers Cerveceros mascot, Bernie Brewer, slides down the slide every time the Brewers Cerveceros hit a homerun. Another distinguishable feature of Miller Park is the seating just beyond the outfield walls. As I mentioned before, there is very little field level seating. This is very true in the outfield as there are only about 4 small sections in left and in right; there is no seating at all in centerfield. At the lodge and upperdeck level, the sections have more rows but they are exactly over the field level outfield seats. Catching a homerun ball a Miller Park would be a rare and impressive feat. Arguably most well-known aspect of Miller Park is the sausage race. Similar but predating the racing presidents at Nationals Park, five mascot sausages (Hotdog, Bratwurst, Polish, Italian, and Chorizo) race around the stadium. The fan favorite Chorizo came away with the victory for this game.

The first several innings of the game were marked with hard hit balls. Thanks to several great defensive plays (including Brewers Cerveceros Carlos Gomez robbing a homerun), the score through 6 and a half innings was 1-1. The only scoring was a courtesy of solo homeruns by promising young stars, Domonic Brown of the Phillies and Jean Segura of the Brewers Cerveceros. In the bottom of the sixth, a string of hits gave the Brewers Cerveceros a 3-1 lead. The Brewers Cerveceros extended their lead to 4-1 until Domonic Brown doubled in two runs in the top of the 8th. With two outs and Brown on second, former Phillies MVP Ryan Howard grounded out to end the inning and end the Phillies last scoring chance in the game. The Brewers Cerveceros won by the final score of 4-3.

My take-away from Miller Park was that it is a great fan experience and a good place to watch a baseball game but the retractable roof made the field feel boxed in. This feeling not unique to Miller Park but is shared with many other stadium type ballparks (Chase Field, Yankee Stadium, etc.). I am just thinking out loud, but this feeling would have been greatly reduced if the large panels on either side of the centerfield scoreboard had the ability to open up. The other take-away was that there were a lot of fans that came to Miller Park to party. While the fans in our section were collectively probably the knowledgeable among all the parks I have been to, there were many fans who just talked and drank on the concourse all game. And after the game, it looked there were many fans who had a few too many.