Major Anniversaries for Brewers

(photo of Borchert Field, Milwaukee ca. 1911)

It feels like the USA Semiquincentennial has been capturing the minds and spirits of Americans for most of this year (and rightfully so).  With that event now come and gone, I wanted to draw attention to a couple of significant baseball anniversaries happening this year in Milwaukee that I feel have gotten lost in the excitement of America250.  The first of these is the 25th Anniversary of the opening of what is now referred to as American Family Field.  This technically occurred on April 6th of this year, but is being celebrated with an Alumni Legends Game on July 24th.  At least one member of the Brewers from the last 25 years will be represented in this game, and it is a follow-up to the extremely popular Alumni Homerun Derby that occurred for the 25th season last summer.  The headliner will undoubtedly be Ryan Braun, who to this day remains one of the most popular and greatest Brewers of all time, still my favorite player of all time, and not to mention is still on the Brewers payroll and an important part of the Milwaukee community.  He is 42 years old, but looks like he could suit up tomorrow and not be much worse of a DH than Christian Yelich is right now.  This event features $2.50 beer and brats and I really wish I could attend if I weren't working at German Fest.  I would be shocked if this doesn't become a semi-annual event, so I'm sure I'll get there one day.

The other lesser known but still important milestone occurring for the Brewers this year is the 125th Anniversary of the original Brewers major league franchise.  Most Brewers fans probably know that the current iteration of the team began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969.  Many Brewers fans probably also know that the current Atlanta Braves had a stint in Milwaukee from 1953-1965 at County Stadium, winning it all in 1957 for the city's only baseball championship to date.  There may even be some fans old enough to remember that Milwaukee had a minor league team - also called the Brewers - for half a century until the Braves came to town, who played at old Borchert Field, which has since been paved over as present-day Interstate 43.  However, it takes a particular baseball weirdo like myself to know that for one season in 1901, the Brewers briefly existed as a major league franchise in the newly-formed American League.  In fact, the American League was actually founded as a major league at a former hotel in Milwaukee, and there is still a plaque on MLK & Kilbourn commemorating this event.  Following the 1901 season, the Brewers would relocate to St. Louis to become the Browns, and would eventually go on to become the modern-day Baltimore Orioles.  So technically, if it wasn't for Bud Selig moving the Pilots in 1970 and saving baseball in Milwaukee, we might all be Orioles fans, or Braves fans, or God forbid maybe even Cubs fans.  May 6th 2026 marked the 125th anniversary of our original major league hometown 9 and it is a milestone worth celebrating.  If you want to get even more in the weeds, there were also some minor league versions of the Brewers that date back to the 1880s, but let's just stop our lesson at 1901 for today.

Stay tuned next week for a full report on Tour 2026!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 7/6/26:

Brewers 55-33, +6.0; 5 @ Cardinals, 3 @ Pirates

Twins 44-47, - 4.0, -1.5 WC; 3 v. Guardians, 3 v. Angels

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 16

Tour 2026

Hello and welcome to 2026 and the 20th year of this blog!  I can't believe this hasn't been flagged by the internet gestapo yet and/or that Blogger.com still exists, but here I am.  This is always one of my favorite weeks of the entire year - football is mercifully over, spring training is right around the corner, and the announcement of our annual Tour trip to myself and the 5 other people that read this.  Erik and I decided it was appropriate for 2026 to celebrate America's pastime in the birthplace of our nation - Philadelphia - during the USA's Semiquincentennial year.  There are a lot of appalling things going on in our country right now that make it hard to be a citizen at times, but as Mark Twain famously said, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."  It would be stubborn and short-sighted to pass up this opportunity, and we'll be proud to be in Philly for America's 250th birthday.

I was originally hoping that we could journey to Philadelphia over Independence Day and also sneak in a World Cup match, but alas, Erik was not available that weekend.  We then quickly pivoted to the All-Star Game the following weekend, which Citizens Bank Park is appropriately hosting.  We plan to attend basically every event surrounding All-Star Week except for the ASG itself - MLB Amateur Draft, Futures Game, MLBx, All-Star Village, All-Star Workout Day, and the Homerun Derby.  Erik and I did technically go to the Futures Game together when it was in Minneapolis in 2014, but he had to work the rest of the festivities when he was employed by the Twins, so this will be a first of sorts for us.  We will also not be going to the hotbed region of baseball that is Eastern Pennsylvania without fitting in a minor league game or two, and we've got a few options for those.  Erik has been a trooper the last four years of our trips with torturous cross-country flights, so I'm sure he is quietly very excited about not having to wake up at dawn to fly 6 hours this year.  I am also happy about not needing a rental car this year, which is usually one of the biggest headaches of our travels.  As is always the case, this will be months of planning and anticipation for something that goes by in the blink of an eye, but I can't wait!

Whereas Tour Erik 2026 will be all about celebrating the United States, Tour Molly 2026 will be going international for the first time.  My goal is to drive Molly up to Thunder Bay, Ontario for our daddy-daughter trip this year.  I'll probably break up the trip with a stop in Duluth since Thunder Bay is 6 hours away, but we've got our passports ready and I am super excited for this trip as well.  I always cherish our special time together, especially as she gets older and gets more and more of her Dad's attitude with each passing day.

Aside from the two major trips, I've also got the usual Town Ball and local collegiate schedules to scour, as well as what I'm assuming will be a poorly attended embarrassment of a Twins home opener.  Pitchers & Catchers report in just 2 days, play ball!!

Tour 2025

Tomorrow kicks off the Caribbean Series in Mexicali!  This annual event always comes with a high amount of anticipation for me, as it usually marks the first live ballgames I will watch of the year and my own sort of unofficial start to the baseball calendar.  Serie del Caribe is certainly on our our list for a future trip, but for now, it seems as ceremonial a time as any to announce our Tour 2025 ball trip to Sacramento and Northern California.  Single game ticket presale for the A's starts today and we're pumped!

There are some years where we may sift through the bucket list to decide where to go, or we may revisit an old favorite as we did with last year's trip to Seattle.  But there are also years like 2025 when an MLB team moves or builds a new stadium and it makes our decision easy.  When the Athletics announced last year that 2024 would be their final season in Oakland, and that they would move to West Sacramento while awaiting their supposed new Vegas stadium, we knew we had no choice but to fly out to Sactown to see regular season major league baseball at a minor league ballpark.  The most important trips for Erik and I are the ones that get us back into that elite 30-ballpark club, no matter where they may take us or how temporary the situation may be (this may also mean we need to get out to frickin' Florida again if the Trop does not get fixed, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it).  The crux of our trip will be centered around a game or two at Sutter Health Park.  This park will be shared with the AAA Sacramento River Cats, so I'm actually kind of excited to be in such an intimate setting for a real major league game in what should be a launching pad for the Swingin' A's.  We also can't fly all that way without revisiting revered Oracle Park in San Francisco.  Our last game there together was in 2007 the day before Barry Bonds broke the career homerun record so that will be hard to top, but it'll be fun to get back there and see what's changed in the last 18 years.  There are also many California League, Pecos League, and Pioneer League teams dotting this area that we will undoubtedly fit into this trip, which will hopefully include a stop to see the Nuts in their 80th and final season in Modesto.

As for the rest of the 2025 ball trip calendar, the 5th year of Tour Molly should be taking us out to Fargo, North Dakota, to see the RedHawks and to cross another state off my and our list.  My son Elliot is still not quite at the age where I think he could be attentive and relatively calm for an entire weekend trip, but maybe I'll try getting him out to some Town Ball games this year as a test run.  Other than heaps of local Minnesota baseball, I've got no other big travel planned for the year.

Megan and I have tickets for our first-ever Minnesota Twins home opener, so check back in early April for a report from under the patio heaters at Target Field!

Goodbye Oakland, Hello Sacramento

(unofficial probably not real but maybe logo courtesy of Reddit)

We're already at the calendar midpoint of the season, and this is amazingly the first week I don't have a ballpark visit or baseball travel to report on.  So instead, I thought I'd write about a different sort of travel, and an all-too-familiar topic - the never-ending relocation saga of the A's.  Way back in early April, the Athletics officially answered the question of where they would be playing for the next 3+ years while their new stadium in Las Vegas is supposedly getting built, by announcing a move to their temporary home 90 miles up I-80 to Sacramento.  They will be taking up residency in Sutter Health Park, a minor league park that will be shared with the Sacramento River Cats of the Pacific Coast League, who are ironically a Giants affiliate but were formerly an A's affiliate for many years.  The stadium opened in 2000 and seats about 14,000 people.  The A's will play there through at least 2027 with an option for the 2028 season if (and when) the Vegas park has a delayed opening.  During that time, they've chosen to essentially be homeless, by having no mention of Sacramento anywhere on their uniforms or team logos, which is both horrible and completely on brand for the Athletics franchise.

In many ways, this move is completely an A's move - sticking it to Oakland seemingly out of spite, and somehow making a bad situation even worse for its players and staff.  But in many other ways, it's shocking and seems like a logistical nightmare that could have been avoided.  One of the few good things that came out of the hostile takeover of the minor leagues by MLB in 2021 was that it geographically aligned the leagues more sensibly and reduced travel by creating 6-game series with almost every Monday off.  That might be great for the River Cats, but that will make scheduling very challenging when trying to fold in the A's.  There may now be scenarios where one or both teams could have road trips spanning multiple weeks.  Another obvious deficiency is the capacity of the park and just the general facilities being less than or smaller than MLB standards.  One could argue that the park still has a capacity twice the size of a normal Athletics crowd in Oakland, and that I'm sure the team will be forced to pour in millions to upgrade the facility, but none of that replaces the stigma that these major league players now feel like they are playing in the minor leagues.  I'm sure A's players already feel embarrassed by their current playing situation, and the move to Sacramento is lateral at best.  The Blue Jays made this work admirably in Buffalo in 2020-21, but that was during the pandemic due to Canadian COVID restrictions, so it was a completely different situation.  There's also just the strain this must put on the players/employees and their families knowing this will be a temporary situation.  They'll have to find houses and schools knowing they won't be there for more than 3 or 4 years.  And what free agent would ever want to sign there?  This is going to tank the payroll and big league roster even more, and will be an awful product to watch for those dozens of Sacramento fans who are excited for a taste of the big leagues.  On the money side, I'd be curious to know what the revenue hit will be for that poor billionaire John Fisher.  Many thought the A's would work out a lease extension in Oakland merely to keep their lucrative TV contract and stay in the larger market for awhile, so there must be some sort of financial incentive for this move that we're not aware of.  As we've seen play out in the last quarter-century, money is at the heart of every single A's front office decision.

Let's get down to what I really care about - how does this affect me?  Erik and I will now likely be obligated to make Tour 2025 a trip centered around Sacramento.  It means that at the end of the 2024 season, I'll be back down to 29 current MLB ballparks attended, which is always a sad moment for me.  And lastly, I've lost my last chance to sit in the outfield of a football stadium for $5 in a cold August mist.  Ok, so maybe that last one I won't miss at all, but I do hope the "Fuckin' A's" van makes its way up to Sacramento (see photo on left from The Tour).

UPDATE: Erik and I are heading to Seattle bright and early tomorrow for Tour 2024!  Come back next week to read all about it!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/27/24:

Brewers 48-33, +6.0; 3 v. Cubs, 4 @ Rockies

Twins 44-36, -8.0; 3 @ Mariners, 3 v. Tigers

Orioles 50-30, -1.0; 4 v. Rangers, 3 @ Mariners

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 15

Tour 2024

It's been unseasonably mild and dry in our first winter as Minnesotans (hold on let me knock on my desk), which has only gotten me that much more excited for baseball this year as it feels right around the corner.  This is usually the time of year I am getting into full season prep mode - scouring local collegiate ball schedules, purchasing Opening Day tickets, and as an added bonus now as a Minnesota resident, I get to layer in Town Ball schedules, which affords me a nearly boundless opportunity to take in more baseball and new ballparks along with that.  Just the county I live in has 30 teams alone.  However, as much as I love all my local options, it's my ball travel slate for the year that is still and will always be the most exciting.  It is with great anticipation that I announce Tour 2024 will be a return to Seattle, Washington the weekend before the 4th of July.

With no imminent or realistic new major league parks on the horizon (I'm still not convinced the A's will be moving until I see a shovel in the ground), Erik and I had a lot of different ideas for 2024 and free reign to go just about anywhere we wanted.  Baseball outside of our continent is still always in the back of my mind and at the top of my bucket list, but we're still a few years out from being able to take a longer trip that far away due to the young age of our kids.  So, we decided on a formula we have employed a few times in the past when we're in this situation - revisit a major league ballpark that has had extensive remodeling since The Tour and see some minor league ballparks around that.  We've been back to Kansas City, Chicago, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh since the OG Tour, and all of those trips were a blast and cool to spend a little bit more time (and money) in the parks than we could afford in 2007.  Even though we were in Seattle for multiple days on The Tour, it still felt rushed and felt like we didn't get a lot of quality time there, mostly because we were so exhausted by the time we got to Seattle.  That was at the end of Week 6 following a sprint from Texas to Washington in less than a week, and we honestly spent a lot of our time in Seattle catching up on boring things like sleep and laundry.  So we're both excited to explore more of the city and the ballpark, which has since changed names to T-Mobile Park and undergone $30+ million in renovations, including the Trident Deck pictured above.  It looks kind of like The Rooftop at Coors Field that Megan and I hung out at a couple years ago, and much like in Denver, the higher you're up in Seattle the better the view of the skyline, so I'm pumped to check out that area and see if T-Mobile Park is still a top 3 ballpark in my rankings.  We have a framework of an itinerary beyond a Mariners game that I'm confident will include some nearby minor league ball and national parks, and hopefully a ferry ride to Victoria for Canada Day!

My other major ball trip this year will be Year 4 of Tour Molly, which as of now I plan to be a weekend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which is about a 3-hour drive from Cold Spring.  Now that we live 7 hours further west, I have an opportunity to see so many states and teams to the west that previously would have been at worst unattainable, and at best ridiculous to visit from where we were in Milwaukee.  I've never been to either of the Dakotas and there are several independent and summer collegiate teams in those states, and not to mention Thunder Bay and Winnipeg are a shorter drive than going back home to Milwaukee, so I have many years of ideas with Molly and the family as well.  Beyond my two main trips, I look forward to a full summer of Town Ball and my first year as a partial season ticket holder of the St. Cloud Rox of the Northwoods League.

Pitchers & Catchers report in two days!!!  Play ball!

Twins End Postseason Win Drought

All photos of AL Wild Card Game 2 available on Flickr.

The Brewers had a disappointing early exit in the playoffs yet again, but I at least got to witness history in Minneapolis a few weeks ago.  The Twins hosted the Blue Jays in the Wild Card round, and their Game 1 victory was their first playoff win since 2004.  I attended Game 2 with my father-in-law, and they completed the 2-0 sweep for their first playoff series win since 2002.  Over the 19-year span in between playoff victories, it was certainly not for reasons of futility, as they made the postseason in 6 of those years including 5 AL Central titles.  This amounted to a total of 18 losses, 13 of which were at the hands of the Yankees, a long-time "white whale" of the Twinkies.  To put this drought into an even more startling perspective, all 29 of the other teams in baseball not only made the playoffs in that span, but each won at least two postseason games.  In 2004, smart phones didn't even exist yet.  Their current manager Rocco Baldelli was a 22-year old rookie.  Erik and I were just starting grad school and hadn't even begun planning The Tour yet.  I could go on.

Game 2 was an energy that I've not experienced at a baseball game since the Brewers won the NL Wild Card in 2008, themselves snapping a 26-year drought.  The crowd noise was palpable and we were standing for nearly the entire game.  Most games I go to, I'm eagerly awaiting the end of an inning so I can go walk around or grab another beer, but I didn't even want to leave my seat to go to the bathroom for this game.  I've been fortunate to be able to go to a fair number of playoff games over the last 15 years, but it was my first series-clinching game, and it was incredible to be in attendance.  It's not lost on me that two months after my wife and I moved here, the Twins decided to win their first postseason game in 19 years, and I received many texts from coworkers alerting me to that.  It makes me excited to be a good-luck charm and to just continue following this team more and more now as Minnesota residents.

I'm crossing all of my fingers and toes that I get to attend one more playoff game yet this year.  Erik and I are going to Phoenix next week for our Tour 2023 trip to the Arizona Fall League, and I actually decided to fly in a day earlier just to use up some extra vacation (and watch more ball).  The day I fly in happens to be Game 5 of the World Series, so if by some miracle the D-Backs can win two games in hostile Citizens Bank Park, and also not get swept in the World Series, I have my $300 upper deck ticket ready to go!  Regardless of the outcome of the D-Backs season, stay tuned to read all about our trip in a couple of weeks.

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 4

Peter - 22

2023 MLB Postseason

Unlike last year's playoff field that was one of the more predictable in recent memory, the 2023 season featured a flurry of twists and unlikely stories.  The top 3 payrolls in baseball - Yankees, Padres, and Mets - not only missed the playoffs, but were largely embarrassing for a good chunk of the year.  The Yankees were ravaged by injuries and really started to show their age, and Aaron Boone is probably cussing out an umpire somewhere as I write this.  The Padres were in the top 6 in just about every NL pitching and hitting category and still somehow needed until the final inning of the final game to even make it above .500.  And the Mets were, well, the Mets.  The Houston Astros swept the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend and the Texas Rangers lost 3 of 4 to the Seattle Mariners, which propelled Houston to its 6th division title in the last 7 years.  Despite getting swept, the D-Backs still snuck in as the #6 seed due to the Chicago Cubs' complete collapse over the final week.  The Miami Marlins made the playoffs for the first time in a full season since they won it all in 2003.  The Orioles went from losing 110 games just two years ago to winning 101 games as the best team in the American League (with the 3rd lowest payroll).  The Atlanta Braves shattered all sorts of offensive records on route to a 103-win season, including Ronald Acuna's 40-70 feat that might have all but cemented his MVP award.  And against all odds and seemingly every baseball pundit's preseason pick, the Brewers won the NL Central and will be in their 5th postseason in the last 6 years, which was only made sweeter by the Cardinals coming in dead last.

I picked the Yankees and Padres to go to the World Series, so that's about all you need to know on how well I predicted the postseason this year.  I'm super excited to go to a Twins playoff game on Wednesday in my first year as a Minnesota resident, and I hope to witness history as they have not won a single postseason game since 2004 (and yes I mean GAME not series).

PLAYOFFS START 10/3/23
NL Wild Card Round - #3 Brewers host #6 Diamondbacks, #4 Phillies host #5 Marlins
NLDS - #1 Braves v. 4/5 Winner, #2 Dodgers v. 3/6 Winner

AL Wild Card Round - #3 Twins host #6 Blue Jays, #4 Rays host #5 Rangers
ALDS - #1 Orioles v. 4/5 Winner, #2 Astros v. 3/6 Winner

World Series Prediction: Brewers defeat Astros in 6
Rooting for: Brewers v. Twins

Preseason Predictions:
#1 Braves
#2 Dodgers
#3 Brewers
#4 Mets
#5 Phillies
#6 Padres

#1 Yankees
#2 Astros
#3 Guardians
#4 Blue Jays
#5 Rays
#6 Mariners

Preseason World Series Prediction: Yankees defeat Padres

FINAL STANDINGS AND SERIES:

Brewers 92-70, +9.0, 1st NL Central; NL WC v. Diamondbacks

Twins 87-75, +9.0, 1st AL Central; AL WC v. Blue Jays

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 4

Peter - 21

Tour 2023

With pitchers & catchers reporting next week, the snow continuing to melt here in Milwaukee, and Serie del Caribe playing in the background on my TV, all are sure signs that another spring and another baseball season are rapidly approaching.  After three consecutive years affected by Covid and a lockout, I'm feeling more rejuvenated than I've felt in a long time for a new season.  And with that rejuvenation comes one of the more exciting days on our early baseball calendar - the announcement of our 2023 ball trip slate!  This year, Erik and I have decided to cross off an item that has been on our list for probably the entire existence of "The List" - the Arizona Fall League.  I've probably mentioned this league as our "backup plan" at least 10 times over the years, so to say it's long overdue would be an understatement.  The AFL is primarily an instructional/showcase league for top prospects, and each of the 30 MLB teams send representatives that are dispersed into 6 teams in the league, who play roughly a 6-week schedule that begins at the conclusion of the MLB regular season.  So it's basically like a spring training vibe, except it is entirely made up of prospects and much smaller crowds.  They don't use all of the parks that the Cactus League uses - only the 6 - but there are a number of them that Erik and I have not yet been to, and I'm excited to cross some more off of my list.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that, while for MLB and the baseball world it might be a "normal" offseason," it certainly is not in the E & P world, as Erik is preparing to welcome his second child in March.  While obviously very exciting, it does inherently make anything we plan this year far less than a guarantee, as you can never really plan too far ahead with small children.  We originally toyed around with the idea of doing a trip closer to home, centered around the new Beloit ballpark and the Wrigley renovations, just to give Erik an opportunity to visit his family here with the baby, but the summer just proved to be too difficult to count on, understandably.  So, we're pushing our chips in on the AFL, and we're cautiously optimistic that we will be parked behind the dugout, frosty beverage in hand, heckling players and shoving children out of the way for foul balls in 8 months.  The AFL also allows us to not have to commit to any sort of flights or accommodations until August or September when the schedule is normally released, so we shouldn't have to scramble to cancel anything like we did in 2020 and 2021 for Texas.

I mentioned Beloit and Wrigley Field in the last paragraph, and I do still fully intend on going to those ballparks this year.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on the blog before, but my family and I are planning to move to Minnesota in 2024 to be closer to my wife's family, so these are a couple of ballparks I'd like to get to before we move, possibly for the last time in a very long time if not ever.  I swore after we stumbled out of Wrigley in 2014 when we were there for its 100th Anniversary celebration that I would not be setting foot back there until all of the renovations were complete, and I have held true to that, and am eager to see what the remodeled ballpark looks like (and if there are still pee troughs).  As for Beloit, I have not been there since 2016 and it's still hard for me to even fathom that they actually got a new ballpark built in Beloit.  ABC Supply Stadium looks like a gorgeous addition to the stateline area and I can't wait to see it.

My other major trip for 2023 will be my annual trip with my daughter Molly.  This will be our 3rd installment of "Tour Molly" and I'm likely taking her to either Lansing, Michigan or Lafayette, Indiana for a weekend.  Again, after we move to Minnesota, it will be very impractical to get back to Indiana or Michigan anytime soon, so I'm heading out that way one last time this year.  As always, stay tuned throughout the year for ballpark reviews and visits, Brewers news, and general stadium news.  T-minus 50 days until Opening Day!

Banana Ball

The Savannah Bananas of the summer-collegiate Coastal Plain League announced a couple of weeks ago that they would be departing the world of organized league baseball altogether and will instead play their own brand of "Banana Ball" year round, traveling the country playing exhibitions of their wacky invented take on baseball.  The Bananas have essentially operated under two "modes" for the last few years while in beta testing for Banana Ball, playing under "normal' baseball rules in the Coastal Plan League while also playing a scattering of Banana Ball exhibitions.  With the popularity of this new sport rising locally, and even gaining prominence nationally as it was recently featured on ESPN+, the Bananas are now going all-in on their creation.  This also means that the Bananas can conduct themselves like an old barnstorming team, signing whoever they want and not being restricted to college players.

For those unaware of what Banana Ball is, you kind of have to just see it to fully grasp it.  But the crux of it is trying to keep the great parts of baseball and the base rules, but add more action.  So for instance, to combat what can be a very long game, there is a set 2-hour time limit and batters are not allowed to step out of the box.  Instead of walks, batters can try to "steal" first base after a 4th pitched ball.  There are certainly some quirky novelty type things like a fan catching a foul ball in the stands counts as an out, but most of the rules are an attempt to reduce the amount of times during a ballgame where nothing is happening.  The best rule is that teams try to "win" individual innings - so if Team A scores 3 runs in the top of the 1st, and Team B scores 4 runs, then Team B gets 1 point for the inning.  This creates a situation where every inning has the potential for a walk-off and lots more drama.  I for one think this is a great concept.  It creates something new rather than attempting to change the original game itself on the fly, and if it is wildly successful, likely it will foster some toned down version of these rules to be implemented in baseball itself.

Erik and I visited Savannah back on the O.G. Tour, back when they hosted the minor league affiliated Sand Gnats, and I'll always remember that game as being one of the hottest days on our trip as it topped out at 107°.  So understandably, I had little interest in going back to Savannah (at least to see ball), but now that Banana Ball will be a permanent fixture at Historic Grayson Stadium, we might just have to make another trip.

And speaking of Erik and I making a trip - Tour 2022 commences on Thursday, and we're finally making it to Texas!  Check back next week for our weekend in review.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 9/6/22:

Brewers 71-63, -7.5, -2.0 WC; 3 @ Rockies, 2 v. Giants, 3 v. Reds

Twins 68-65, -1.0, -6.5 WC; 4 @ Yankees, 3 v. Guardians

2022 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1

Peter - 15

Anaheim, KC Moving in Opposite Directions on New Ballpark Proposals

(image courtesy of from unsolicited study by Pendulum)

Other than the Brewers, I think I've probably written about the A's and Rays the next most on this blog, just because they have both been talking about new ballparks pretty much since we started this blog in 2007.  So long in fact that 7 new major league ballparks have opened in that span, and there is now at least one more serious contender that is throwing their hat in the ring as well: the Kansas City Royals.  It's been no secret and I've written before that the Royals owner John Sherman has made a new ballpark one of his top priorities since he took over the team.  Not necessarily because the Royals need one - fans, players, media, and myself included will all tell you that Kauffman is a gem - but because of a desire for surrounding development, a la The Banks in Cincinnati or Ballpark Village in St. Louis.  Kauffman Stadium is sited well outside the CBD amidst a sea of parking, not unlike American Family Field here in Milwaukee, with little to no opportunity for revenue streams outside of gameday operations, and the drive from many teams nowadays is to maximize profits and development any way they can, not just in baseball but in all sports.  More areas to shop and eat and drink means more fans and money for the team, and a larger tax base for the city on undeveloped land, so it's kind of a win-win for most people (save for gentrification and the poor, but I won't get into that here).

The team recently announced they had narrowed their new ballpark to two downtown sites, and with the NFL Chiefs also pursuing a move to the Kansas side of the city, it sure seems like the demise of the Truman Sports Complex is a matter of when, not if.  One of the sites would be in a neighborhood called the East Village, which is near the famed downtown Power & Light District, and the other site would be a mile further east in the Jazz District, near the Negro Leagues Museum.  Both have their pros and cons - the East Village site has existing infrastructure but is a much more confined area, and the Jazz District site is the current home to the KC Area Transportation Authority in a more diverse part of the city that could really use the development and help bridge the racial divide to downtown (i.e. - again, red flag for gentrification).  The Kansas City Star actually has pretty cool interactive maps of the sites that were put together by the Urban Land Institute and UC-Berkeley respectively.  If all goes perfectly and an eventual vote is approved by various entities to approve a share of public funding, the Royals could be playing ball downtown as soon as 2026.  However, it is worth noting that the city already just funded Kauffman Stadium upgrades barely a decade ago.  It's far from a given that citizens would have the appetite to extend a sales tax for a team that one could argue doesn't even need a new home, not to mention during a time in our country when it's pretty ballsy for a wealthy baseball owner to be walking into the capitol with his hand out.  It's also worth noting that the Royals are contractually bound to Kauffman through at least 2031 as part of the terms of said renovation.

While the wheels are in motion in Kansas City, they have come to a grinding halt in Anaheim.  If you would asked me a couple years ago, I would have said without hesitation that the Angels would be the leader in the clubhouse for next new ballpark.  Nothing like a good old-fashioned bribery scandal and the California politics to send things back to square one.  After the Angels had the framework of a deal starting through the chain of approvals that would have brought millions of dollars of development into newly acquired parcels surrounding a new stadium on the same lot, the California government stepped in with some concerns about the lack of affordable housing that is required by state law in any land transferred from municipal ownership.  Oh, and just one other small detail - the mayor of Anaheim resigned over allegations that he offered owner Arte Moreno a sweetheart deal in exchange for campaign contributions.  None of these allegations have been proven, and there is no indication that the Angels were in any way a part of this foul play, but the sale of the land was effectively cancelled and is now starting from scratch.  I still think it is inevitable that the Angels get a new stadium as, unlike the Royals, they are in desperate need of one, but this process is going to drag on for many years before we see any real traction.

It's always exciting to think about what new major league park Erik and I will be seeing after Globe Life Field, and as of today it certainly looks like Kansas City has pulled neck-and-neck with Oakland.  And speaking of new major league parks - we've settled on September 8-11 to make attempt #3 at seeing Globe Life Field!  Flights are booked as of this morning and here's hoping the country will not be in complete shambles by then.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/7/22:

Brewers 33-23, +0.5; 3 v. Phillies, 3 @ Nationals

Twins 32-24, +4.5; 3 v. Yankees, 3 v. Rays

2022 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1

Peter - 6

Tour 2022

Praying for baseball to start is not how I wanted to kick off the blog in 2022, but here we are.  Today should have been Pitchers & Catchers Report Day, one of the most joyous days on the calendar, but instead we are in the midst of what is now the 2nd longest work stoppage in MLB history, behind only the 1994-95 strike.  I was optimistic that it would not come to this, my thought process being that baseball as a sport could not stomach a 3rd consecutive financially strenuous season following the 2020-21 seasons severely impacted by COVID-19.  A sport that is already waning in popularity with major structural issues to solve couldn't possibly be dumb enough to self-inflict a wound from which it may never recover, right?   It should speak volumes to my indifference and confidence level that I'm actually wearing a hockey jersey as a I write this.  Even moreso than the PED crisis have I ever been this disgusted and ashamed by the greed and incompetence in the sport I love.  Or rather, the people that hold the sport in the balance.  I am exactly the type of fan that baseball can not afford to lose and I am praying that both sides can see the damage they are doing to the sport with this lockout, and for now all I can do right now is what I do every year around this time, particularly the last 2 years - cautiously prepare for the summer.

That being said, it should come as no shock that Erik and I are going to do all that we can to make a 3rd attempt at going to the new Rangers stadium.  If there is a "nice" part of the lockout is that we really even haven't begun to plan a trip other than take note of the dates the Rangers are home - which at this pace is soon to change anyways.  It's kept me from getting my hopes up from the other elephant still always lurking in the room - the pandemic.  If there was no lockout and if you asked us today, I'm sure we would feel comfortable with an April trip.  But who knows if Omicron was even the last variant.  This might just be a trip we throw together last minute and hope it works out.  I do feel more confident this year than last that we will be seeing ball of some kind - for Christ sake, Erik has not been to a ballgame in almost 3 years at this point, the poor guy!  We've discussed the AFL and Cape Cod League as safer backup options both in terms of sparse attendance, and trips that would be unaffected by the lockout.

And speaking of ballgames not affected by the lockout, I also feel pretty confident that I will be notching my 150th ballpark this year.  There is a new team starting up in nearby Oconomowoc that I'll for sure be getting to, and I am going to Michigan with my daughter this July for our 2nd annual Daddy-Daughter ball trip.  As a family we've got two years worth of pandemic-cancelled travel that we're making up for this year, and I can only pray that MLB will be a part of that.

More Than Baseball

My post today is more of a plug than it is any original thought.  I regularly listen to the Baseball American podcast, which I will honestly say is super dense and boring for the most part, unless you are the most devout of baseball fan.  But it is also one of the few podcasts that covers prospects and the minor leagues in great detail and BA has an industry-wide reputation as the best at what they do, so in terms of content it is great.  They had a guest on a couple of weeks ago, Jeremy Wolf, who founded More Than Baseball, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting minor league players and advocating for their rights and proper living conditions.  

I was made a little bit aware of what sort of hurdles these players have to jump to make a living during the MiLB contraction last year, and I've always known that they do not make very much money, but this podcast and organization really bring these things to light to the casual fan that may not know that much about it.  Unless a player has some sort of signing bonus or major league contract they are playing on with the 40-man roster, most minor leaguers make well below poverty wages, on average under $15,000 per year.  On top of that, they have to supply basically everything except transportation to games - housing, equipment, some meals, etc.  They also do not get paid during spring training or "extended spring," which explains the push for MLB teams to essentially replace Rookie level ball with the AZ and FL summer camp leagues.  For years I've used the cop-out of "I'm not going to feel sorry for somebody that plays a game for a living," but I had no idea that the situation was that bad.  This issue will certainly be at the forefront of the players' union negotiations with the upcoming CBA , and if it's not something is majorly wrong.

UPDATE: Given the dramatic rise of Covid-19 cases due to the Delta variant and the general lawlessness in Texas, Erik and I have made the difficult decision that our pending Tour 2021 trip to the new Rangers ballpark this week will have to once again be postponed.  Instead, we have decided to return to Cooperstown!  Read all about our trip next week.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 9/13/21:

Brewers 89-55, +14.0, magic number 5; 2 @ Tigers, 3 v. Cubs

Twins 63-80, -19.0, -17.0 WC; 1 @ Yankees, 3 v. Indians, 3 @ Blue Jays

2021 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 8

Tour 2021

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!

MLB Releases 2020 and 2021 Schedules in Same Week

While I and the entire baseball loving world have spent the last couple of weeks basking in the ray of hope that there will be a 2020 season, Major League Baseball and the major sports networks faced a extremely difficult task: put together an entirely new season schedule as quickly as possible.  Something that usually takes 6-12 months of planning now had to be turned around in matter of days, albeit about one-third of the size.  The updated 2020 schedule was released this week and as I mentioned in my last post, it features a 60-game schedule with teams playing entirely within their geographic divisions.  Opening Night on ESPN will feature the defending champion Nationals hosting the perennial favorite Yankees on July 23rd.  The Brewers will be opening their 2020 slate at Wrigley Field on Friday, July 24th with their home opener against St. Louis the following Friday.  I highly doubt that fans will at any point be allowed into games this season, and I doubt even more that I would feel comfortable enough to attend a game this year, but I now live a mile from the ballpark so you damn well better believe I will be there tailgating on Opening Day like I always am.

If you were caught up in the excitement of reviewing the 2020 schedule and were completely blindsided by the 2021 release, you were not alone.  MLB one-upped themselves by releasing next season's schedule at the earliest calendar date in history (historically it has been August or September).  It was certainly calculated to release the 2021 schedule this early in an effort to ride the high of excitement from fans now before they start losing them again during next year's CBA negotiations.  It did make me wonder how our shitshow government was able to release multiple coronavirus stimulus packages and MLB was able to release two schedules, both in a week span, but it took 4 months for the players union and owners to essentially agree to nothing.  It certainly does not bode well for the next couple of years.  But on the bright side, the Brewers open up the season next year against the Twins and that will be amazing!

Also on the bright side is that Erik and I are already able to start dreaming up our 2021 trip.  We are currently eyeing the 2nd weekend in April for a Tour 2020 Redux to see the Rangers and Astros, and we are both praying to the baseball gods that there is an available vaccine and the minor leagues still exist by then.

Tour 2020

(rendering credit: HKS)

It has been an active offseason, both for me personally and in the league.  My family and I moved into a new house in late September and also found out we were going to be an aunt and uncle once again.  Our daughter took one last free plane ride to Minnesota for Christmas before turning 2 last week.  Around baseball, the Yankees have signed about a billion dollars worth of players and left the last few slow offseasons lying in the dust.  The Brewers unveiled brand new uniforms and logos for their 50th anniversary season.  Rob Manfred also continued his unapologetic assault on baseball by introducing two more controversial measures at the minor league level: a full scale contraction and introduction of "robo-umps."  Look for more detailed editorials from me on these issues as the season progresses, but for now I want to talk about our first Tour trip of the new decade: the new Texas Rangers ballpark.

Globe Life Field will be the first new MLB park to open since Suntrust Park in 2017, and officially opens for business in a little over two months to host a - you guessed it - country music concert.  Erik and I have learned our lessons from our Miami and Atlanta trips in the dead of summer, and are planning on visiting Texas in April in hopes of some nicer weather.  The stifling heat is actually a major reason the Rangers are moving into a new stadium after just 26 seasons at Globe Life Park in Arlington.  The new stadium will feature a much-needed retractable roof, giving it an aesthetic that looks like a sort of mesh between their old park and the Astros' park.  Speaking of Minute Maid Park, as long as we have to go to Texas, we'd like to get to an Astros game as well.  There have been a fair number of renovations since our last visit during the O.G. Tour, including the removal of Tal's Hill in center field.  In true Tour fashion, I'm sure we will also be jamming as much minor league baseball and breweries as possible into this trip as well.  Stay tuned for more as the season starts.

Outside of our main trip, I never did make it to the new Green Bay Northwoods League stadium last year, so that is at the top of my list.  Megan, Molly, and I are also planning to visit Erik's new house in The Hampsh' this summer, and we would love to go see a game in Pawtucket while we're there, for the final season of historic McCoy Stadium.  Another trip that may be a long shot is attending the Field of Dreams Game in August.  I still have several friends in Iowa from when I worked there, including one who is a huge White Sox fan and has family in Dyersville.  So, if by some miracle we manage to swipe tickets to the 8,000 capacity game for less than a mortgage payment, we'll do it.

Pitchers & Catchers report in just 40 days, and as always, Go Brewers!!!

Kokomo Municipal Stadium

All photos of Kokomo Municipal Stadium available on Flickr.

An unexpected work trip this week provided me with an opportunity to notch my first Northwoods League game of the year and another ballpark off my list.  I drove down from South Bend to lovely Kokomo, which is between South Bend and Indianapolis in north-Central Indiana (and sadly not anywhere near Aruba or Jamaica).  Kokomo is the home of the Jackrabbits, who moved to the Northwoods League this year after 4 seasons in the Prospect League.  They are a product of another con job by Mike Zimmerman, who is the same owner as the new independent Milwaukee Milkmen.  Similar to the Milkmen, he somehow convinced Kokomo to finance over $10 million in a sleepy town of 40,000 people for a ballpark completely on spec while he himself contributed almost nothing.  Also similar to the Milkmen, a site was chosen that was completely unsuited for building.  Franklin's new team chose a landfill and the Kokomo project was within the 100-year floodplain, so an additional $2.5 million was spent on flood mitigation infrastructure.  According to Google Maps it also looks like many homes had to be cleared out for this stadium as well.  Whether because or despite these issues, five years into the experiment, Kokomo Municipal Stadium seems to be a success.  It hosts several high school and semi-pro teams in the area, civic non-athletic events, and also has the capacity to hold other sports.  It also won the prestigious Summer Collegiate Ballpark of the Year Award from Ballpark Digest in each of its first two years.  I don't know enough about Kokomo to see how positively it has impacted development, but hopefully the Franklin ballpark can achieve the same measure of success.

The stadium is nestled within the banks of Wildcat Creek, just south of "downtown" Kokomo, mostly within a residential area.  I parked in front of a new apartment building across the street for free and it was hard not to notice how convoluted the parking and site were.  There were at least 3 separate areas to park, and none of them were connected very well to the main entrance.  I had to walk up a hill on some makeshift pavers behind a rundown printing press building to get to the front door from my car.  The other disappointing thing about the site is that I hate when ballparks are on the waterfront or a nice trail and do not engage them in any way.  I'm not sure why the city would spend all this money on flood mitigation and not connect the creek to the stadium.  There is a pristine pathway behind the stadium that is under construction right along side the creek, but I saw no indication that this path would connect to the building.  That being said, there is an entrance back there that was pretty much just a couple of interns sitting at a folding table inside of a fence gate.  This was definitely a missed opportunity in my mind.

Putting aside the weird site, if I didn't know I was in a small town in Indiana and you told me this park hosted a AA team, I would have believed you.  It certainly doesn't compete with the charm of Athletic Park or the quirkiness of Warner Park, but in terms of just being a well-designed ballpark, Kokomo blows the rest of the league out of the water.  So many parks in this circuit are beefed up community fields, or renovated stadiums that hosted minor league ball decades ago and are no longer fit for professional baseball.  And quite frankly, it's these nuances and the history that make these parks and the league so great.  But Kokomo is a park that could step in and host minor league baseball today with very little change (outside of the 100% turf field).  It's a completely different animal in this regard, and actually its "plainness" that sets it aside from the rest of the league.  Whereas in the Midwest League this would be just another park, in the Northwoods League it is definitely a big fish swimming in a small pond in terms of pure aesthetic and design.  There are only a few new parks specifically built for summer collegiate baseball, and Kokomo is at the top of those by far.

As I mentioned, its "plainness" or in other words its familiarity is what make this park stand out in this league, so walking in provides a familiar setup for anyone well-versed in lower-level minor league parks.  It has a couple of concession stands down each line flanking a concourse with clear view to the field.  It has the partial second story above the main concourse that houses the press box and suites.  And it has the standard lawn/berm areas in the outfield with a children's area down one line and covered bar tent down the other.  This park does feature a 360° concourse that would have been much nicer if it engaged the creek in any way, but this may have been for reasons of the aforementioned flood plain.  For just a creek I will say that the water was quite high and rapid.  In terms of unique features, it's becoming less and less unique but the 100% turf is hard not to notice.  This is the only park I've seen other than Normal where even the mound is turf - most all-turf fields at least have dirt mounds and sometimes warning tracks.  The gross amount of foul ground was also similar to Normal, which tells me that this park hosts things other than baseball.  I thought that the canopies above the 1st and 3rd base seating were a nice touch as well.  So many times in parks of this size and smaller, there is no relief from the sun or elements, or if there is you can't see the game from where the cover is.  Concessions and team store were minimal and lacking, but overall I was quite impressed with the scale of this stadium.

The game itself was quite a poor showing for the opposing Battle Creek Bombers, who not surprisingly own the 2nd worst record in all of the Northwoods League.  I left after 7 innings for the 1.5 hour ride back, but at the time of my departure the Jackrabbits had 9 runs on only 4 hits.  Four of those runs scored on wild pitches (including 2 on one pitch), three were walked in, and one scored on a sac fly, which leaves only one run to score on an actual base hit.  Trevor Smisek received the brunt of the damage for Battle Creek, walking 5 straight batters in the 6th.  So you can't really say there was an offensive standout for Kokomo, but Vinnie Costello did go 1-1 with 3 walks to raise his average to .143.  Their starter Aaron Husson did very well, giving up only 2 over 6 and earning the win, and likely only coming out of the game because of NWL pitch count rules.  Vanderbilt 1B John Malcom had probably the most exciting offensive play of the game for Battle Creek with a nice opposite-field RBI triple in the 1st.

With this visit I am back up to 16 of the 22 current Northwoods League stadiums, and I'm also hoping to get to the new Green Bay ballpark before the end of the year.  Tour 2019 kicks off in Asheville next week, so stay tuned!

park rankings and statistics: 
aesthetics - 7
views from park - 2
view to field - 6 (lots of foul ground but no extended netting)
surrounding area - 3 (downtown Kokomo not exactly bustling)
food variety - 2 (burgers and dogs)
nachos - 5
beer - 3 (just macro beers except for one stand)
vendor price - 5 ($7 for hamburger)
ticket price - 8 ($12 behind home plate)
atmosphere - 4 (very small crowd)
walk to park - 2
parking price/proximity - 8 (adjacent street for free but confusing)
concourses - 9
team shop - 3

best food - Big Bunny Burger
most unique stadium feature - 100% turf field
best jumbotron feature - Hot Dog / Foul Ball animation and song 
best between-inning feature - playing of "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys during lineup intro

field dimensions - 330/400/330 
starters - Ty Shoaff (BC) v. Aaron Husson (KOK)
opponent - Battle Creek Bombers
time of game - 2:45
attendance - 624
score - 9-3 W
Brewers score that day - off

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 7/12/19:
Brewers 47-44, -0.5; 3 v. Giants, 3 v. Braves, 4 @ Diamondbacks
Twins 56-33, +5.5; 3 @ Indians, 2 v. Mets, 4 v. Athletics

2019 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 2
Peter - 10