Baseball Bucket List

(image courtesy of Baseball Bucket List)

Erik turned me on to a baseball podcast recently called "Baseball Bucket List," and I was recently a guest on the show!  My episode aired last Thursday 4/20 and is episode 095.  You can find it anywhere you get your podcasts but is also available at the link below:

https://baseballbucketlist.com/podcast/episode-095-peter-nagel/

It's probably not necessary to talk about this on the blog, since I'm guessing anyone who is bothering to read this blog probably ironically only knows about it because of the podcast, but I'll do so anyways, if for no other reason than to plug this fantastic podcast and website.  Simply put, Baseball Bucket List is basically like a Facebook for baseball fans. It serves as a repository for baseball fans to come together and document their travels, track their ballparks, share their "bucket lists" hence the name, share photos, and just generally to connect and engage in conversation.  A website of this quality has been long overdue in the ballpark chasing space, and I wish this existed years ago before I bothered with the clunky Google docs I have now.  A podcast component was added a couple of years ago, which is how I came to find out about the website.  Each week, the host Anna DiTommaso interviews a different fan and talks to them about their baseball journey, why they love the game, what some of their favorite baseball memories are, and what is left on their baseball bucket list.  Certainly there have been some semi-famous people on the show like Batting Stance Guy or the guy who invented Big League Chew just to name a couple, but by and large it is just regular fans, all of whom were nervous as hell to be on a national podcast for the first time just like me.  I literally applied to be on the show the day after Erik told me about it and I've been hooked ever since.  

It was so great to recall a bunch of stories from our road trips together, but I won't spoil any more here - please go to the link and check it out!

PS - I have found that the link has 404'd numerous times since it was posted on Thursday, but if that happens to you just check back later and it should work.

Neumann Family Baseball Field

All photos of Neumann Family Baseball Field available on Flickr.

I notched my first new ballpark of 2023 with a 10-minute jaunt to Wauwatosa to watch the Wisconsin Lutheran Warriors battle the Aurora (IL) Spartans on Saturday.  Wisconsin Lutheran College is a private liberal arts college only a few minutes from my house, but most of their athletic fields are situated near the Medical College as part of the Krauss-Miller-Lutz Outdoor Athletic Complex.  The athletic complex boasts a baseball field, a softball field, a soccer field, and a football stadium - all impressive for a school with an enrollment barely over 1,000.  Keeping in mind the athlete to student ratio of the college, I went in with very low expectations, as anyone should visiting any D3 program.  I arrived around noon with coffee, snacks, and seat cushion in hand on a typical dreary Wisconsin April day, and took my seat in the 2nd row behind home plate, directly behind two WLC bench players who were charting pitches (in case anyone wants a glimpse into the quality of Midwest D3 baseball, pitchers were topping out around 80mph with their fastballs).

I parked near the closest thing resembling a main gate I could decipher.  The field seemed unnecessary complicated to access.  Your parking options are either a parkway behind the field - which is at the bottom of a hill lined with trees and a fence and therefore impossible to walk directly from car to field - or you can utilize the I-41 Park & Ride across the street.  Driving to the field also involves a roundabout, which again seemed completely unnecessary.  Once you find a place to park, there isn't even really an "entrance."  You can either walk in through the vehicle service entrance in the left field corner, or there is an unceremonious gap in the fence behind home plate, right next to the "WELCOME - THIS IS AN ALCOHOL FREE CAMPUS" sign.  Between the weather, presumed quality of play, and overall effort to get there, I'm painting a picture that might make most people give up and go home, or at the very least make them seriously doubt their life priorities.  But a ballpark tallied is a ballpark tallied, and I constantly remind myself in these types of situations that any day at the ballpark is a good day.  I was probably one of only 40 or so spectators there (plus 2 dogs), and I was literally the only person there who did not have a son or a friend on the team.  That is the thing I love most about these lower level collegiate or amateur type of games - they have a real community atmosphere and the only reason most people go to these games is because they have a vested interest in the kids playing in them.  You will hear the constant "baseball speak" uttered by parents the entire game, the kinds of phrases you might hear in little league - "Good eye" or my personal favorite "wait for your pitch" come to mind.  It kind of makes someone like me feel a little like an outsider being there not knowing any of the players, but it also makes you realize that every small team of every talent level playing in every insignificant game truly does matter to somebody.

Existential emotional blabbering aside, the nuts and bolts of the park are about on par for what you might expect at more of a high school level.  Not much more than a couple of dugouts, a simple tally scoreboard, a couple sections of metal bleachers, and chain link fence wrapping the entire field.  Most people there brought their own chairs and food and there was not much to speak of beyond the dugouts other than a makeshift batting cage and a portable toilet.  Certainly this was not as nice as the MSOE field I went to last year; however, I pleasantly surprised that there was a concessions table.  They really put their players who aren't playing in the game to work, as two of them were manning the food stand, and another was operating the scoreboard.  I got an enormous hot dog out of an Instant Pot for $3 and it paired nicely with the bag of Cheez-its I stole from my daughter's snack jar.

Wisconsin Lutheran entered the game with a 3-20 record and matched up against the #11 ranked Aurora Spartans, so I knew I was in for a treat.  Over half of their losses this year have been by double digits, including an astounding 32-8 loss in Chicago a couple of weeks ago.  This game was a more modest 13-3 loss.  I only attended the first game of the doubleheader that day, but they ended up of course dropping the second half of the twin bill as well.  They say that you see something new almost every time you go to a ballpark, and I saw two things that I had never seen before - an 8-inning regulation game, and an infield double.  Most doubleheaders at this level are 7-inning games, so when the teams came back out for the 8th I figured they were playing full 9-inning games.  But nope - with a 10-run deficit, the Warriors had seen enough and substituted another merciless inning with a team prayer circle in the outfield instead.  As for the infield double, it was a play where an Aurora batter squibbed a grounder to short, and it either went off his foot or hit a rock or something, because the ball shot up and over the fielder's head, and when the second baseman ran behind to retrieve the ball, the batter easily waltzed into second with nobody covering the base.  It very easily could have been the team's 6th error, but I suppose that is an advantage of operating your own team's scoreboard.  Jacob Ambuel went 4-5 with 2 doubles and Nico Bermeo hit his 1st homer of the season for the visiting Spartans, and Lucas Oswald gave the Warriors the early lead in the 1st with a double before the wheels came off.  Tyler Danko fell to 0-6 on the season, giving up 9 runs to just 24 batters faced.

Saturday marked the final NCAA ballpark I had yet to see in the Milwaukee metro area, which was the main reason I went.  I'd also like to make every effort to see UWM play at their new home of Franklin Field next year before we move to Minnesota.

park rankings and statistics: 

aesthetics - 1

views from park - 3

view to field - 5 (thick netting behind home plate but open down the lines)

surrounding area - 3 (freeway, hospitals, sports complex)

food variety - 7 (major points for just having food honestly)

nachos - 2 (chips and cup o' cheese)

beer - n/a

vendor price - 10

ticket price - 10 (free)

atmosphere - 4

walk to park - 1

parking price/proximity - 7 (adjacent road for free but points deducted for confusion)

concourses - 3

team shop - n/a

kids area - n/a

best food - dog

most unique stadium feature - dugouts

best jumbotron feature - n/a

best between-inning feature - n/a

field dimensions - 330/400/330

starters - Jack Fisher (AU) v. Tyler Danko (WLC)

opponent - Aurora Spartans

time of game - 2:30

attendance - I counted about 40 humans and 2 dogs

score - 13-3 L

Brewers score that day - 5-4 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/24/23:

Brewers 15-7; 3 v. Tigers, 3 v. Angels

Twins 12-10; 3 v. Yankees, 4 v. Royals

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 3

Twins Opening Homestand 2023

All photos of 2023 Twins Opening Homestand available on Flickr.

The Nagels are back in Minnesota this week, because it only makes sense to go somewhere colder over Spring Break, right?  In all seriousness, the weather has been amazing thus far during our visit, and literal feet of snow have melted off of the grass since we've been here.  The weather even got to the point where I decided it wouldn't be a crazy idea to go to an evening Twins game in April.  My father-in-law and I made the trek down to Minneapolis for Tuesday night's game, and left about 3pm with the mercury approaching 80°.  We were hoping to catch some BP, but we were very disgusted upon our arrival to find that gates do not open for Twins weeknight games until 1 hour before first pitch, so we instead took a couple of laps around the stadium before entering right at 5:30.  We couldn't help but notice all of the Washington Senators World Series champion banners along the back side of the stadium that neither of us had noticed previously, but otherwise not much new on the outside from last season.  We grabbed a couple of beers at the Gray Duck bar in left field and watched the end of batting practice before heading down to our 3rd row seats in the left field corner.

It was not lost on me how fortunate we were to have such beautiful weather this early in the season in a colder climate city like Minneapolis, and that was certainly the buzz around the stadium even more so than the game itself.  Paid attendance was only about 16,000 and I was honestly shocked it was not higher given this rare occurrence.  As a Brewers fan, I try not to take our retractable roof for granted and how invaluable it is in horrible weather, but it's nights like last night that make it worthwhile to sit through a few 40° days and a few snow-outs to get to enjoy an entire season of outdoor baseball - the way the game is meant to be experienced.  Target Field is still in my top 3 of favorite MLB stadiums, and that just wouldn't be the case if it had a roof, no matter how gorgeous it was.  Being an hour away from Target Field is one of many things that is helping settle my anxiety of moving to small-town Minnesota next year.  We didn't get to walk around the inside of the park too much yesterday, but neither of us really wanted to.  We were more than content enjoying a tall, cool glass of Mich Golden and soaking in the sun as much as we could.  I cannot wait to be spending more time at this ballpark in the coming years and I will have plenty of time to explore in coming visits (including dropping an unreasonable amount of money at the team store on newly branded gear).

The game was a very exciting win for the Twins on a very brisk evening, both in terms of the breeze and the pace of play.  Had the game not gone into extra innings, the game time would have only been about 2 hours, but 2:23 for a 10-inning game still would have been unheard of last year.  I've been very pleased with the increased action in the couple of games I've been to this year, outside of the lesser time to buy beer which some teams are now starting to address.  The Twins defeated the White Sox 4-3 on what might have been the first walk-off sac bunt I've ever seen.  I've definitely seen a walk-off squeeze a few times, but this was a situation where Michael A. Taylor was merely trying to advance the "ghost runner" to 3rd in the bottom of the 10th, and the charging 3rd baseman errantly threw to 1st on the bunt, allowing the runner at 2nd to round all the way home.  It was a rough game for Hanser Alberto, as he grounded out as a pinch hitter in the 10th for Chicago, and then essentially lost the game on his first fielding opportunity in the bottom half of the inning.  The two stories of the game were the dominant pitching performance of Pablo Lopez, and Byron Buxton's 100th career homerun.  Lopez was the key piece in the offseason Luis Arraez trade and was stellar after a 1st inning hiccup, striking out 10 White Sox in 7.2 innings and only 98 pitches.  Had this been a July game, I'm sure Lopez would have been allowed to finish the game.  Fireballer Jhoan Duran gave up the lead on the very first pitch of the 9th inning just as most of the patrons in attendance were starting to file out, but as I've said a hundred times - you never know what you're going to see at the ballpark, so never leave a game early!  Lance Lynn got the start for the White Sox and sneakily struck out 10 over 6 - about as sneaky as a 270 pound man can be.

We'll be back in Minnesota for a couple of weeks in June, and I am looking forward to returning to watch the Twins battle the Crew!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/12/23:

Brewers 8-3; 4 @ Padres, 3 @ Mariners, 3 v. Red Sox

Twins 7-4; 4 @ Yankees, 3 @ Red Sox, 3 v. Nationals

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 2

Roster and Concessions Turnover for Brewers in 2023

All photos of 2023 Brewers Home Opener available on Flickr.

I attended my 14th consecutive (excluding Covid-impacted seasons) Brewers Home Opener with Megan yesterday in what amounted to one of the more exciting regular season experiences I've had at AmFam Field in a number of years.  It was about as "average" of an April weather day as you could ask for as we left our house around 11:00, with 45-degree cloudy skies and on-and-off rain showers.  In a way it feels weird that we haven't tailgated much since we moved within a mile of the ballpark, but I will also say that the ceremony of the procession to to the ballpark on Opening Day is unmatched and is something you miss from just waiting in line to get into a parking lot.

Opening Day always comes with its standard fanfare and pomp given what the game represents, and for the last several years there has also been a lot of hype over new concessions offerings which I'll get to in a bit.  But this year also had the added layer of the roster turnover.  The Brewers have a crop of young positional prospects that are finally starting to make waves at the big league level, the likes of which has not been seen in nearly 20 years when guys like Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, JJ Hardy, Ryan Braun, and others were all getting promoted for a sustained period of success.  It's been a remarkably pitching-heavy farm system for most of Craig Counsell's tenure as manager, but now that tide is slowly starting to turn back to hitting.  At the same time that the long term futures of homegrown rotation aces Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff hang in the balance, and with an almost completely revamped bullpen, we have some stability hopefully forthcoming with who the Brewers have dubbed "The Freshmen" - middle infielder Brice Turang, and outfielders Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, and Joey Weimer.  Mitchell was the first one who got a bit of a taste at the end of last year, Turang made the opening day roster as a 2nd baseman, and Weimer joined shortly thereafter for Game 2.  They have all made a huge impact already this year with something the Brewers have not had for as long as I can remember - SPEED.  These kids can flat out run, not only in terms of sheer sprint speed, but baserunning, on-field awareness, and just in general HUSTLE.  Homeruns and steals are the sexy stats that show up in a scorebook, but things going 1st to 3rd on a single, outfield assists, running down fly balls, and legging out routine grounders to 2nd, are what endear you to the front office, the manager, and most importantly the fans.  It's a roster that has me equally if not more excited than any of our playoff teams over the last few years and I can't wait to see what they can all do over the course of an entire season, in what might amount to our last real chance to win it all for awhile.  It's scary to think Frelick is still in AAA and I have not even mentioned the #8 prospect in all of baseball, Jackson Chourio, so this lineup will in theory only get better in 2024.  Sadly, one disappointing part of the roster that I need to mention is that Keston Hiura did not make the team.  Fortunately he cleared waivers so he is still with the organization in AAA, and I know I speak for all Brewers fans when I say that I'm rooting for him to figure his swing out.

Moving from the roster turnover to the concessions turnover, there are two major changes to the ballpark this year in terms of vendors.  One is J. Leinenkugel's Barrel Yard in the left field corner.  This occupies what was originally a TGIFriday's when the park opened, and was semi-remodeled as "Restaurant to be Named Later" the last few years.  Well, it is now officially "later," and from what I saw, it was worth the wait.  The former lackluster, unmemorable restaurant space has transformed into a brewpub for Wisconsin's own Leinenkugel's, one of the largest and oldest craft breweries in the nation.  It features a small pilot brewery that will actually brew a few beers on site that will only be available at the ballpark, including the resurrection of long dormant favorites like Leinie's Red and Northwoods Amber.  The fact that a city with the beer heritage it has - with a team named the BREWERS for God's sake - did not have any sort of space like this until now is atrocious.  It reminded me a lot of the Terrapin Brewery inside of Truist Park in Atlanta, and is on par with other similar brewery type spaces in other major league parks.  They gave away souvenir aluminum cups on Opening Day which of course Megan and I acquired, and I'm excited to actually eat there as well at some point in the future.  We have tickets with my brother and sister-in-law at one of the outside tables for a game in September and I can't wait.  The second, more minor change is that the Brewers are finally spending money on decent food in the club level.  For the life of me I never understood why the biggest private area in the stadium had the fewest number of food options, but that has now been rectified with a local restaurant coming in and supplying a new menu.  I don't think the new menu items are quite as good as the other levels of the stadium (who similarly have restaurant-inspired menus), but anything would have been an improvement.  Megan and I both had the muffuletta - which was tasty - but the rosemary ham panini looked incredible and we will definitely be getting that next time we have tickets up there.

After devouring our sammiches and 22oz Leinies, we took in the opening ceremony and player introductions, which sadly did not include any of the Attanasio family for the first time since Mark bought the team.  I'm not sure if I should be reading into that, but it just made it feel like they forgot about Opening Day this year.  We then settled in for a wild 10-0 victory over one of the favorites to win the NL Pennant, the New York Mets.  The Crew chased Carlos Carrasco in the 5th and proceeded to ruin reliever Tommy Hunter's day, plating 7 runs in the inning, the parting shot of which was Brice Turang's grand slam for his first career homerun!  Unfortunately Megan and I were taking a lap around the stadium at that time, but it sent the entire 42,000+ in attendance into a frenzy and it was so cool to be there for that moment.  Fun fact: prior to Turang, the last Brewer to salami for his first career HR was none other than Shaun Marcum - hey, remember when pitchers used to hit?

I've got a full slate on the ballpark chasing front this year, and it should be another competitive year for the Brewers, so stay tuned and Go Crew!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/4/23:

Brewers 3-1; 3 v. Mets, 3 v. Cardinals, 3 @ Diamondbacks

Twins 4-0; 3 @ Marlins, 3 v. Astros, 3 v. White Sox

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 1