By RANDY BRUSEWITZ
Special to The Gazette
They say you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Miller Park made a great first impression on me.
Awesome. Breathtaking. Spectacular. Beautiful.
Any such adjective you can conjure up would certainly apply to the ballpark that now stands next to the hole in the ground that was once County Stadium. I remember when Miller Park itself was once a hole in the ground. I watched in April of 1997 as the earth was being compacted for the new park, not really knowing what would rise from that hole in the earth. I watched year by year as the stadium took shape. I saw the aftermath of the destruction of "Big Blue." I watched the first televised games from Miller Park, but I wasn't fully prepared for what I would be witnessing on Saturday, April 7.
I was a wide-eyed child of 10 when I first attended a game at County Stadium in 1960. I'll always remember my first glimpse of the stadium, a huge structure in the eyes of a little boy. The first view of the playing field so green and well manicured, and the pungent smell of cigar smoke, hot dogs and beer will always remain in my recollection as well as the home run Red Schoendienst hit early in the game to give the Braves a lead they would never relinquish. (The Braves had to spoil it by trading the "Red Head" back to the Cardinals a week later).
Forty-one years later I am - well you can do the math. My expectations and excitement ran high with all the hype, but my expectations were more than met. The red brick and glass structure is simply beautiful. The roof is an engineering marvel. The fact that Bud Selig paid homage to the past by placing the beautiful bronze statues (that he donated) of Hank Aaron and Robin Yount at the entrance of the park meshed well with the theme of combining high-tech with tradition. The scoreboard and Smartvision color video board in center field are products of our most recent technology, and they truly are a spectacular sight. The hand-operated scoreboards in the left and right field fences harken back to the simpler times of baseball in the 1950s and before. The stadium with all its nooks and crannies reminds of a ballpark from that era. But all you need to do is look up (and see the roof) to remind yourself that this truly is a 2001 space odyssey.
The thing that impressed me the most was that, although the roof was kept closed (due to wind gusts of up to 63 miles per hour), I did not get the feeling of being indoors, unlike the Twin Cities' "Metrodump." With the height and color of the roof, the natural grass playing surface and the ambient light from the glass panels on the north and west sides of the park, an aura of being outdoors was created. That, in and of itself, is another awesome engineering marvel. I sat in the last row of the terrace reserved seats (the uppermost row in the stadium) directly up from the first base bag, but I did not feel removed from the action on the field. Because the seating bowl is situated so close to the playing field all of the seating in Miller Park has great sight lines and good proximity to the field of play. The upper level seats are not at a nauseating angle like the upper grandstand at the old stadium, thank goodness.
I knew my way around County Stadium quite well as I sat in nearly every area of that structure. It was comfortable and familiar, like living in an old house for 40 years. I obviously have a lot of memories of the games and the players of County Stadium. It's impossible to forget Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn of the Braves. I'll always remember a home run I saw Joe Adcock hit in 1962. It sailed right over the 0 in the 402 sign in straight away center, probably never got more than 12 feet off the ground, just a line drive bullet. I'll always remember the two home runs Rico Carty lofted into the left field bleachers in a game in 1964 (his first home runs at County Stadium) that made him the hero of all the fans in those bleachers the last two years the Braves were in Milwaukee.
I have great memories of Yount, Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper and all the Brewers of the 80s and 90s as well. I attended the game when the Brewers retired Yount's jersey and he gave that very emotional and unforgettable speech. It seems like nearly every game I attended Molitor would start the winning rally. He truly was "The Ignitor." I saw a game in 1983 where Yount, Molitor, and Cooper were each one hit away from the cycle. Those were some fantastic ballplayers! I attended what was supposed to be the last Opening Day game at County Stadium in April of 1999. It was 35 degrees with cold winds blowing off Lake Michigan. The Brewers pulled off a triple play and a fan jumped out of the stands and did a head first dive into second base that day. I began to appreciate the idea of a retractable roof.
We are so fortunate to still have Major League Baseball in Wisconsin. If the Miller Park referendum had not passed the Brewers would already be playing in Charlotte or some other such city eager to have a Major League ball team. I am thankful that I will have many more opportunities to create new memories in the new ballpark. As much as I hated to see the old stadium abandoned and demolished (I went to one of the last games in September of 2000 for one last look), those memories of great games and great ballplayers in County Stadium will last forever.