This is normally the time of year when I am the most excited for the baseball season. Winter is in its coldest and darkest days and I'm eager to be outside. Spring training schedules are typically set by now and reporting dates are right around the corner. And in most years by this time, Erik and I have a framework for our trip for the year. But we are now 10 months into a pandemic that seems to be plateauing but still with no end in sight. Commissioner Manfred and the 30 MLB teams might be saying all the right things and planning on playing a full season, but even if by some miracle that ends up being true, a day at the ballpark in 2021 still stands to be far from what we would consider "normal." I recently heard somebody put this into words perfectly: 2021 will be the same as 2020, only with hope. Not to diminish the excitement or significance of this in any way, but on top of all that, my wife and I are expecting our second child in May. So for all of these reasons, I can't say with any certainty what Erik and I will be doing this year, if anything.
We remain committed to attempting some sort of trip as we have not seen each other in person in over a year, but we might have to get creative on what it actually is and it's all going to depend on the vaccination rollouts. I can't imagine going two entire seasons without baseball, but we both have to be safe about it as well. The absolute best case scenario and #1 goal is to do our planned trip from last year which was the new Rangers ballpark, and if that happened it would probably be late summer when we are both hopefully immunized. If the vaccinations for us slide out into fall, our backup plans we have discussed could be going back to Cooperstown, or to the Arizona Fall League to actually watch live baseball!
I've come to terms with the fact that attending a game at what will soon be known as American Family Field is increasingly unlikely for me this year. It's really sad, both because I love the Brewers, and because we bought a house literally within walking distance of the ballpark in Fall 2019. It's depressing that we could be potentially spending two full summers in this house without going to the ballpark. But I do feel confident that I will get to a ballgame in some form somewhere this year. I would feel comfortable in the open air berms of a Northwoods League or minor league game, or the aforementioned AFL late in the year. So I do still hope to add some new ballparks to my list in some capacity. It will be weird being in a crowd again whenever that is, but I also didn't realize how much I missed human interaction until this all started.
Stay tuned, but until then, 69 days to [maybe] Opening Day!
touch with baseball when his childhood heroes Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner retired but the Great Home Run Chase of 1998 reignited his passion. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Erik became involved with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. With this group Erik traveled to Portland, OR and Baltimore, MD to work on construction projects and help the group raise $25,000 to partially sponsor a house in Milwaukee. Also at UWM, Erik met Peter Nagel. The two attended their first Brewers game together during Opening Weekend 2003. Despite their failure to ignite the coals at their first tailgate, the two had a blast and were soon making weekly trips to the ballpark. Erik has gone on to several colleges and changed careers several times, and has moved all the way out to New Hampshire, but has always stayed true to his baseball roots by holding part-time stadium usher jobs. To this day he looks back fondly on his incredible cross-country journey.