American Association All-Star Break

All photos of AA HR Derby available on Flickr.

This past week was the 11th installment of the American Association All-Star Game, and I attended the Home Run Derby portion at Franklin Field, home of the Milwaukee Milkmen.  A lot of baseball purists tend to shun the derby as frivolous entertainment and a publicity stunt, but I've long held the view that it is the most exciting part of any baseball league's all-star break.  A lot of fans tend to agree with me as the numbers bear out that these events draw way better, both in terms of attendance and television ratings, than the actual All-Star Game.  Many years in fact I will only watch the HR Derby and won't even watch the ASG.  I've attended all sorts of homerun derbies, from the 2014 MLB version at Target Field, to the Northwoods League Derby at Kenosha Harbor in 2016, and even an impromptu exhibition derby featuring Jose Canseco in Madison, and these were all some of my most vivid baseball memories outside of the Tour.  So I of course jumped at the opportunity to see a derby in my own city.  It was not a promising forecast for the evening when I approached the gate to find people buying walk-up tickets with ease, but I pressed on and met a group of my friends inside.

We had tickets in the first 3 row of a section in right field.  It was evident pretty soon after we sat down that about 90% of the fans would be sitting in the outfield, which was a super weird juxtaposition particularly in a smaller independent league ballpark.  The format was very similar to the MLB version of the derby, in which participants faced off against each other based off of seeding, rather than just taking the highest totals of the group.  It was also the same timed format as MLB - each batter got 2 minutes and could take one timeout per round.  When you remove the "bonus time" and all of the TV timeouts, it makes a big difference, because the entire 3 rounds with 8 batters took barely over an hour.  The hometown participant was Cam Balego of the Milkmen, but given where we were sitting, the only batter we really cared about were the two lefties - Conor Panas of the Lincoln Saltdogs, and Chris Herrmann of the Kansas City Monarchs.  The majority of their homeruns launched well over our heads and landed on the concourse and tents behind us, as there are only 3 rows of actual seats in right field.  But by the later rounds when the batters started getting more tired, our prospects of snagging a homerun grew - and I caught one!  On the fly!  I should probably remember which of those two men hit me the homerun, but sadly I don't.  I almost caught a second homerun as well - I leapt and it hit my glove, and fell down into the row behind me (which means that at least somebody in our party got the ball).  It was much more difficult to track the baseballs than I thought it would be.  For almost the entirety of the first round, the sun was setting directly into our faces, and also there were many times when multiple balls were in the air at the same time, as the pitcher does not wait for a ball to land before throwing the next pitch due to the timed format.  I'm sure most dads would probably give a ball they caught to a kid in the stands or to their own kid at home, but screw that - it is proudly sitting in a baseball display case at my house.

Zach Nehrir of the Cleburne Railroaders ended up taking home the hardware.  He put on quite an impressive display and his round totals actually grew as the event went on.  Most of the batters struggled to get into the double digits in the first round, but after that, I think the remaining participants knew not to worry about any strategy and just swung as hard as they could, as many times as possible.  Zach defeated the aforementioned Panas in the final round, so it was exciting that we got to see at least one lefty make it through to the end.

I had a blast at this event and I'm glad I went, especially with the impending move to Minnesota.  But I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with the fan turnout and the lack of energy in the ballpark.  The Milkmen consistently put out a great product - they won a championship in 2020 and also produced a back-to-back MVP in Adam Walker - but the few times I've been there, the general lack of atmosphere was a common theme.  I hope that the lack of attendance at this major event is not reflective of the fan support and appetite for baseball in suburban Milwaukee, because indy baseball is just the best, and Milwaukeeans should be very blessed to have multiple professional ball options in a market of our size.

HOMERUN DERBY PARTICIPANTS: 
East Division
Cam Balego, Milwaukee
Josh Altmann, Chicago
Zach Nehrir, Cleburne
Hill Alexander, Cleburne

West Division
Connor Panas, Lincoln
Chris Herrmann, Kansas City
Nick Anderson, Lincoln
Vince Fernandez, Sioux City

winner - Zach Nehrir
score – 16-14 final round, 43 total
stadium - Franklin Field

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 7/23/23:

Brewers 55-44, +1.5; 3 v. Reds, 3 @ Braves, 3 @ Nationals, 4 v. Pirates

Twins 52-48, +2.0; 3 v. Mariners, 3 @ Royals, 3 @ Cardinals, 3 v. Diamondbacks

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1

Peter - 13

Wrigley Field Renovation

All photos of Sturtevant, Wrigleyville, and Wrigley Field available on Flickr.

I crossed another baseball item off of my "Pre-Move to Minnesota" checklist on Saturday with my dad, as we made the trek down to Chicago to see the newly restored Wrigley Field.  This massive 5-year undertaking is known as the 1060 Project (referring to the address of 1060 West Addison) and cost the Ricketts family over $600M.  This multi-year renovation certainly did have a lot of aspects to it that were solely built to increase revenue, but I also don't think it's hyperbole to say that this renovation's primary goal was to save Wrigley Field from ruin.  I was last down to Wrigley Field in its 100th Anniversary Season of 2014, and I noted at that time that I was not coming back until the stadium was repaired.  There was falling concrete, rust and chipping paint, out of date plumbing, huge accessibility issues, structural vulnerabilities, and just general disrepair, and I was saddened that such a historic park was allowed to crumble this badly.  I hate to say this as a Brewers fan, but my dad and I were both very impressed with Wrigley Field and the surrounding area now.  I would dare to say that the ballpark is even - gulp - NICE now.  It made a huge leap in my rankings from this visit and strictly as a baseball fan, I left very happy to see that such a huge part of baseball history was not only properly restored to preserve the character of the stadium, but also brought in many amenities and gameday experiences that baseball fans in the 21st century expect.

My dad and I took the Amtrak down to Union Station and it was an easy hour long ride down, with a 20 minute ride up to Wrigleyville on the subway.  We emerged from the Addison stop on the Red Line at about 10:30, and we had a lot of walking to do before gates opened.  Immediately getting off of the train platform, the entire neighborhood was a night and day difference from what was there during my last visit 9 years ago.  There is a huge new apartment building on Addison that spans the entire block between Sheffield and Clark.  The building is lined with ground floor shops, including a Baseballism store which unfortunately we did not have time to stop in.  Across the street from this building, we noticed the new sportsbook addition onto the stadium.  Wrigley Field was one of the first if not the first stadiums in the country to allow sports betting inside the ballpark, and this is a massively popular space that is accessible from both the stadium and the outside.  It's designed very appropriately so that it looks new and glassy, but also respects the scale and color of Wrigley.  As we made our way towards the corner marquee, an entirely new gameday area emerged, all owned by the Cubs.  There is a new hotel across the street on a site that was formerly just a McDonald's and a bunch of rinky-dink temporary team stores (don't worry, the McDonald's has been relocated into the hotel building).  Thankfully, with all of the changes, the Cubby Bear still exists, so we first popped our heads in there for a beer.  I am now in my 40s and beyond the time in my life where I want to deal with massively crowded bars with loud music, so we quickly left and instead started our pregaming at Swift & Sons, which is a new bar on the ground floor of the hotel.  From there, we walked down to Gallagher Way, which is the other huge new addition by the Cubs to the Wrigleyville area.  This is a public plaza that is reserved for ticketed fans on gamedays, but otherwise is open to everyone when there is not a game.  It is bookended by the new 6-story Cubs office building, which features some team stores, a golf simulator, the Budweiser Brickhouse Tavern, and a massive 2-story television mounted onto the side of the building.  All of the team statues have also been moved to this plaza, with the exception of Harry Caray who is still prominently displayed on Clark & Addison as he should be.  We grabbed another beverage from one of the outside beer tents in the plaza and hung out until gates opened.  Outside of the game itself, this was my favorite part of the day and I thought the coolest new addition to the stadium.  We then walked in just before noon to see if the inside renovations were as good as what was done to the outside.

Upon entering, one immediately noticed the restored brick walkways, the crisp new concessions stands that are orderly and well marked, and most importantly - repainted, clean, and repaired.  We both were amazed by how quick and easy it was to order concessions as compared to AmFam Field, and I think that ease made us forget that we were paying $15 for Old Style.  Even later on in the game as the narrow concourses cramped up a bit more with the crowd, we never waited more than 5 minutes for anything, and I never felt like I had to shove my way through a sea of people.  Besides the obvious refreshing of the interior and the concessions, one can't help but notice how many new team stores have been added.  With what the Cubs are doing on the outside, as well as adding a huge extent of merchandising on the inside, they are really trying to capture more revenue for the team rather than losing it to neighboring bars and stores, and they are doing this quite successfully I might add.  I can't speak to how this may or may not be affecting other neighboring business, but it's pretty smart on the Cubs' end.  The only failure to me by the Cubs inside the park is that there used to be a bar above the marquee on the 2nd level that was accessible to all fans and is sadly now a private area called the Catalina Club.  That used to be my favorite part of Wrigley, but I can understand that the Cubs are trying to capture a few private areas, which before the renovation they had almost none.  There is at least a new standing area with bars that overlooks Gallagher Way from above that I really enjoyed.  They need to put some tables or drink rails up there and I would have hung out there much longer.  After confirming that yes the pee troughs do still exist in the men's rooms, we made our way back down to the first level.  We sat pretty close to the bleachers, and we noted that you are now able to walk a little bit underneath the bleachers, which is really cool since you are only separated from Waveland Avenue by a 2' thick brick wall with a few apertures, but unfortunately there is still the rule where only fans with bleacher tickets can access the bleachers.  The partial walkway underneath the bleachers dead-ends with some new Cubs history and Cubs Hall of Fame display areas.  We checked those out and then turned around and headed back to our seats, which were the 6th row of the 100 level, between 3rd base and the foul pole.

The most obvious part of the extensive renovations that slaps you in the face right when you emerge into the seating bowl are the two jumbotrons.  The hand-operated scoreboard still exists in dead-center, but there are now added jumbotrons in left-center and down the right field line.  These were hotly contested by the rooftop owners across the street when they were first proposed because they were afraid they would block views into the ballpark, so they are certainly not as large of jumbotrons as most teams have, but they are much better than nothing.  The Ricketts family alleviated any problems by settling a few lawsuits out of court and proceeding to buy up about a dozen of the rooftops for themselves.  Another significant change to the field is that the bullpens were moved underneath the bleachers, sort of like how the Madison Mallards did it.  The areas down the foul lines that formerly held the bullpens in the field of play were of course infilled with more seating.  Arguably some of the biggest parts of the renovation we did not get to see and probably will never get to see, and those are all of the work done underneath the stadium.  Clubhouses were expanded, batting tunnels were added, and several private clubs were added including the Makers Mark Barrel Room.  This operates sort of like the club tickets we had in Texas or the Champions Club in Minnesota, in which fans with a particular ticket have access to a club beneath the grandstand and then a private seating section close to the field.  I think this type of seating is a fantastic trend going up in ballparks now as it is a way to add private areas without compromising usable space above ground.

The game itself pitted two of the most storied franchises against each other, as the Cubs played the Red Sox on this day in an interleague matchup.  You wouldn't know from how the Cubs played that they are a sub-.500 team as they walloped the Sox 10-4.  Boston was somehow only charged with 1 error in the game, but they had some of the worst defense at the major league level I've ever seen.  There were a couple of quick scoreless frames to start the game, but Chicago put up a 6-spot in the bottom of the 3rd that was capped by a Cody Bellinger grand slam, and they never looked back from there.  I was actually shocked to see that Belly is having a pretty decent season as I assumed he was still horrible - him and Christian Yelich must have worked with the same coach in the offseason.  Staff ace Marcus Stroman picked up his 10th win and gave the Cubs 6 solid innings.  One of the few lone highlights for the Red Sox was Tristan Casas' 2-run homer in the 7th.

As I mentioned earlier, all in all we were both very impressed with Wrigley, and it takes a lot for me to say that for as much grief as I've given this park over the years.  It was so cool to be there in front of a packed house in this historic ballpark.  I went on this trip expecting this would be my last hurrah at Wrigley before we moved to Minnesota, but I left convinced that I absolutely need to return with Erik and/or Molly someday on one of our future ballpark trips.

park rankings and statistics
(see most recent post from 8/14/14): 

aesthetics - improves to 6
views from park - 7
view to field - 4
surrounding area - 10
food variety - improves to 6
nachos - 8
beer - decreases to 5 (very expensive but bonus points for Old Style and souvenir bat cups)
vendor price - 7
ticket price - decreases to 1
atmosphere - improves to 10
walk to park - improves to 10
parking price/proximity - 2
concourses - improves to 5
team store - 10
kids area - n/a didn't see one

best food – Chicago style dog
most unique stadium feature – hand-operated scoreboard, ivy on outfield wall
best jumbotron feature – American Airlines player interview segment
best between-inning feature – celebrity leads crowd in "Take me out to the Ballgame"

field dimensions – 355/400/353
starters – James Paxton (BOS) v. Marcus Stroman (CHC)
opponent – Boston Red Sox
time of game – 2:35
attendance – 40,224
score – 10-4 W
Brewers score that day – 3-0 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 7/17/23:

Brewers 52-42, +2.0; 3 @ Phillies, 3 v. Braves

Twins 48-46, +2.5; 4 @ Mariners, 3 v. White Sox

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1

Peter - 12

Another A's Update

(Athletics new Las Vegas Ballpark rendering per Oakland Athletics)

I was hoping to be writing today about a visit to Joseph P. Riley Park in Charleston, but alas the weather was working against us on a family vacation this past week, so unfortunately I did not get to go.  So what better topic to talk about in a pinch than the baseball story that has been in the news all year - the pending Athletics move to Las Vegas.

Just about all of the logistics of the proposed new A's ballpark and move have changed over the last 3 months, including the site, the timetable, the financing, and the design.  Here is a brief timetable of what has transpired so far:

• April 20:  Athletics announce a "binding agreement" to purchase 49 acres of land for a $1.5B stadium on the site of the former Wild Wild West Casino, across the interstate from T-Mobile Arena, which I wrote about in May.  The A's would own all 49 acres and develop a "ballpark district."
• May 4:  Governor Lombardo announces legislative package for said ballpark with intent of getting the legislation passed during the regular Nevada state legislative session.  The public financing portion at this time was proposed to be $500M.
• May 9:  Athletics shift proposal to a site on the Strip, at the current home of the Tropicana.  The plans would call for Bally's (owner of Tropicana) to demolish the current casino, lease 9 acres to the A's to build a 30,000 seat ballpark, and maintain the rest for a new casino/hotel.
• May 26:  Preliminary renderings released by Schrock KC Architecture
• Memorial Day Weekend:  A's officials in town to discuss ballpark package
• May 29:  New financing legislation introduced, this time for about $380M.  A's are a no-show at a joint committee meeting of Senate and Assembly members.
• May 30:  New ballpark opening announced to be no sooner than 2028 (originally 2027)
• June 6:  Financing package is not voted on during regular legislative session as the state budget was deemed to be a priority over ballpark financing, of which some polls reported up to 80% of citizens were against.  At this time, the state leadership announces no intention of bringing this to a vote in a special session.
• June 7:  Governor Lombardo calls for a special session to reconsider ballpark funding
• June 15:  Legislation passes in a special session and is signed into law by the governor

It was surely a grind for all parties just to get to this point, and arguably the public subsidy is going to be the easiest part of all of this.  Now the Athletics have to basically start all over with a ballpark design (which includes how to magically fit a stadium and a roof on 9 acres), find a shady financial institution that will finance John Fisher's portion of the ballpark, gain all necessary building approvals, and not to mention convince 23 of the other owners to approve this move - which, for how much shared revenue the A's have been gobbling up the last few years, is anything but a slam dunk.  There is also the matter of finding a suitable temporary home for the A's for at least the 2025-27 seasons after their lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires.  The Las Vegas Aviators ballpark has been floated a lot and seems to make the most sense since they are the current A's AAA affiliate and they do not intend to move their AAA team from Las Vegas even after the major league team moves there.  However, it also regularly hits triple-digit temps during summers in Las Vegas and this is not a covered stadium, and it obviously does not currently meet MLB standards, so the MLBPA would surely have a say in any move to a non-MLB ballpark.  All bridges might be burned to do something as simple as extending a lease at the Coliseum.  So this will definitely be a significant hurdle.

Commissioner Manfred has publicly stated that the A's will cease receiving shared revenue payments if a concrete plan is not in place by January 1st, 2024.  So the clock is ticking and this saga is far from over.  As I have stated before and I'll state again - I will not believe this move is actually happening until all financing is in place and there is a shovel in the ground.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 7/10/23:

Brewers 49-42, -1.0, -0.5 WC; 3 @ Reds

Twins 45-46, -0.5, -5.0 WC; 3 @ Athletics

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1

Peter - 11