Opening Day Returns to Normalcy in 2022

All photos from Brewers 2022 Home Opener available on Flickr.

Yesterday was my first Opening Day attended since what I now call "The Before Time" in our slow, arduous crawl towards normalcy in the post-pandemic world.  It was also my first home opener attended since we moved about a mile from the ballpark nearly 3 years ago, so we decided to walk to the game on what ended up being one of the oddest Opening Day forecasts I've experienced.  Anybody who's been to Opening Day in Milwaukee knows to expect anything running the gamut from 30 degrees and snow to 70 degrees and sunny.  This particular day was right about in the middle of that range temperature-wise, but with 40+mph sustained winds it felt like the dead of winter.  The team actually issued a warning for people not to use tents or small grills for tailgating due to the high winds, which was about as futile as asking people not to drink alcohol.  The slap of meat smells across my nose was even more prevalent than usual as we trudged to the gates among the swirling derecho of grill smoke.  We made it inside about a half-hour before first pitch and headed up to our seats in the RF Loge bleachers.

On our way to the seats, we soaked in the full-scale concession overhaul that American Family Field underwent this past offseason.  It was only a few years ago that then-Miller Park underwent a massive concessions transformation by building two massive bars on the main level and bringing in lots of local vendors including Zaffiro's and AJ Bomber's to liven up the offerings more so than just the smorgasbord of sausages.  With how fast the stadium experience changes around the game and Milwaukee always seeming to be a few steps behind, that recent overhaul was already getting a little stale.  It got to the point where it seemed like almost every stand served the same handful of things.  Black Shoe Hospitality has taken over the food in the entire stadium now, which should excite any Milwaukee resident.  For those who don't know, this is a restaurant ownership group whose holdings include Blue's Egg, Story Hill BKC, and Maxie's - all of which are within 5 minutes of our house and we frequent quite regularly.  The food items were not necessarily things that are just pulled from these restaurants' menus, but rather the chefs created an inspired new menu that is ballpark-specific but with the flair of these particular establishments.  Blue's Egg is mostly known for its brunch and homestyle food, Story Hill for its upscale Americana, and Maxie's for Southern comfort, and that is all reflected in the menus.  You can now get everything from a fully-loaded brat with apple sauerkraut, a chorizo breakfast sandwich, and a honey buttermilk fried chicken sandwich just to name a few things.  Whereas the Brewers in the past may have erred more on the side of redundancy in the past, you can also run the risk of making your ballpark offerings so specialized that you can only get one particular thing at one particular stand and it makes wayfinding and lines very difficult to navigate, so I think the Brewers have struck a nice balance.  This is the most excited I've been to actually eat at AmFam Field in quite sometime because I am just so eager to try as many of the new foods as I can.  And perhaps it is a coincidence or maybe it was a strategic plan to roll this out this year amidst the historically high inflation in our country, but one cannot help but notice the large spike in prices this year.  By flipping those price hikes on its head and coupling it with a 100% new menu, it gives the entire concession experience a perceived higher value than if they were to just raise the price of a regular old hot dog a dollar (which they also did do).  It is a very smart and very well thought out new experience this year that will not disappoint.

The one new concession stand that did disappoint was the new Cream City Cocktail Bar in right field, near the Craft Beer bar and the right field bleachers.  They took what was basically the only standing room area in the park where you could watch the game, and completely blocked the view of a field with a bar.  I've been very vocal about my beef with the lack of social spaces at AmFam Field, and the Brewers have taken a major weak point and made it worse.  The least they could have done is pull the bar away from the railing so that you can sit at the bar while watching the game - that would have made this a truly unique experience that you literally can't find anywhere else in the park.  I will say that this bar does further reinforce the right field bleachers as the best place to sit in the park besides the club level.  You have the best two bars, a hot beef stand, and a secluded sausage stand that never has a line, with one of the few areas you can actually sit and catch a homerun.  Just temper your expectations before you go with what a "craft cocktail" means at a baseball game - you're going to get Jim Beam and canned juices and $15 neon green overly sweet drink mixes, not a guy in an apron muddling an orange with a charred cinnamon stick garnish.

On to the game itself, the Brewers defeated the Cardinals 5-1 behind a gutsy outing from Brandon Woodruff.  He had a pretty rough shortened spring training and a horrendous first start, but bounced back to toss 5 shutout innings to a very-old-but-still-potent St. Louis lineup without even having his best stuff.  If I had to guess I'd say there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 players in MLB that are still older than me, and the Cardinals had 3 of them in their lineup on this day - the ageless Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, and all 680 homeruns and 42 years of former Brewer killer Albert Pujols.  This was the first or second time I think I've seen Pujols in person since he left St. Louis and it's pretty incredible how decent of a hitter he still is.  He had a nice single to the right side and hit a couple of loud outs to the outfield, even though he can barely walk and is probably much older than birth certificate says.  Christian Yelich is certainly not all the way back to 2018-19 form, but in the opening week of this season he does seem to be driving the ball more and going up the middle and to left field more, and seems promising.  It is still a major red flag to me how much less he has elevated the ball the last few years and consistently beats it into the ground, and I hope he can rectify that this year.  He did had a ringing double in the 3rd that gave a glimpse of vintage Yelich and just missed a homerun by a couple of feet.  Newcomer Andrew McCutcheon continued his early season onslaught with an RBI single, and Omar Narvaez had his first productive game of the year with a homer and 2 RBI.

It was great to be back at the ballpark on Opening Day where I belong, and I already can't wait to return!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/15/22:

Brewers 4-3; 3 v. Pirates, 3 @ Phillies

Twins 2-4; 3 @ Royals, 3 v. White Sox

2022 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 2