For Love of a Ballpark

The Milwaukee Brewers are sponsoring a contest asking fans to let the team know what they love about Miller Park. The winner gets season tickets for next season. It's a nice way to celebrate the stadium's 10th anniversary.

I don't live in Milwaukee anymore and haven't for the better part of more than three decades, but I make it to one or two Brewers' home games a year. There's a lot to love about the new ballpark. The wide concourses and seats closer to the field are a big improvement over County Stadium. Without a doubt, the thing I love most is the retractable roof.  Nobody likes a rainout, but it's even worse if you have only one day to see a game. I shake my head at the two new stadiums in New York that neglected to this feature.

Still, the contest started me thinking about what inspires love for a ballpark. For me it's not the amenities or the design. It's the memories of what happens there.

The picture I have in my mind of sitting in the upper deck at County Stadium with my Dad watching the early, bad Brewers teams are priceless. So, too, of seeing Robin Yount mature from the reed-thin rookie into the franchise's greatest player. And nothing tops the summer of '78 when the Brewers made the leap from perennial doormat to contender. (Although '82 is obviously the Crew's best year, I had to follow the thrills from far away in South Carolina.)

I am sure for a new generation of fans Miller Park is making indelible memories that pack the same emotional wallop as County Stadium does for me.

I didn't shed a tear when County Stadium was replaced. I knew it was time. But I'll always love the old stadium and the memories it left with me.

Oh, Those Slings & Arrows

Cold weather is a fact of life
in many World Series games.

It's not always easy being a displaced Brewers fan living far from Milwaukee. Today is a great day to root for the Crew: Prince Fielder is the hero of the All-Star Game; and the team made a statement by trading for high-priced closer Francisco Rodriguez to add depth to a sometimes shaky bullpen.

Still, that didn't stop an announcer on WFAN from bashing my hometown. It's a common occurrence around here (Yankees' announcer Suzyn Waldman once whined for 10 minutes about having to accompany the team to Milwaukee. She complained about there being nothing to do. She's such an awful, biased commentator I was thinking she might use her off hours to practice.)

So there I was again in the car hearing an announcer talk about how horrible it will be for him to have to be in Milwaukee in November for the World Series. November! The very idea! The temperature, he said would be 29 degrees (The average high in the city is 46 degrees, the low 31. And in the early part of the month I am sure it's higher.) I guess he hasn't heard about the retractable roof over Miller Park. He needn't worry about frostbite.

I was talking to a friend about it and he mentioned that going to the Series is all about hanging outside and partying. I must have missed that memo. The World Series usually has a cold weather team involved (like the New York Yankees who win more than their share).

Aside from that, the Milwaukee bashers should think about leaving their hotel rooms and exploring the city. There's a world-class art museum, a fine museum and other things to see. And if drinking is the goal, um, Milwaukee has a reputation in that area, too.

If that isn't enough to do, they could always console themselves that they lucky to see the Series for free. That's not a bad job.

Choosing the Best Ballparks

Miller Park is among my favorites, but maybe I am biased.

The New York Times has a new post rating the ballparks. Nate Silver, who famously used sophisticated formulas to predict the 2008 elections at his fivethirtyeight.com, used ratings from Yelp.com to determine how fans feel about major league stadiums.

It's not scientific, and Silver has no information regarding why PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, rates as the best stadium.

Silver speculates that teams that spent money for a retractable dome might regret it because those parks didn't rate well. But I bet if you asked fans at those ballparks on a cold or rainy day their ratings would skyrocket.

Silver's sole basis for his ratings is an analysis of yelp.com stadium ratings. Other than being good for bar (and blogger!) talk, I'm not sure Yelp's ratings are meaningful.