County Stadium always was an acquired taste.
The drab decor and corrugated steel, exposed beams and
electrical wires. The black-and-white scoreboard that made instant
replays look like old newsreels.
Bernie Brewer's chalet and the huge brown beer barrel he'd slide
into. The splintered wooden seats with chipped green paint. The
Formica-topped concession tables.
The stench of beer nullified only by the aroma of sizzling
bratwurst.
It staged very few pennant races, but plenty of sausage races.
But what a view, and what a place to play.
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Stadium Comparison
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County Stadium
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Miller Park
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Year opened
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1953
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2001
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Cost (millions)
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$4.8
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$394
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|
Capacity
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53,192
|
42,474
|
|
Seating levels
|
3
|
4
|
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Suites
|
2
|
72
|
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Restaurants
|
0
|
2
|
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Parking spaces
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11,000
|
13,000
|
|
Area (acres)
|
84
|
265
|
|
Concession points
|
110
|
220
|
|
Elevators
|
1
|
9
|
|
Men's bathroom fixtures
|
456
|
309
|
|
Women's bathroom fixtures
|
250
|
320
|
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Source: Brewers & Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District
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"It's like putting on an old pair of shoes," said Gorman
Thomas, the Milwaukee Brewers' scraggly-haired slugger of the 1970s
and '80s. "The new place looks fantastic, but this place is
home."
At least for a few more days it is.
"You feel like getting rid of this," Brewers fan Eric Williams
said. "It's not aesthetically pleasing from the outside. It looks
like a garbage can. But that's why you like the stadium, because
it's half-baked."
Miller Park and its retractable roof are literally on the
horizon, and next year the Brewers will move into their $394
million palace with all its state-of-the-art amenities.
On Thursday, they'll play one last game at the nation's first
publicly financed ballpark, built in 1953 for a scant $4.8 million
– about what outfielder Jeromy Burnitz made this season alone.
Then, the wrecking ball will begin ripping down the old place
where the Braves won the '57 World Series, the Brewers won the '82
AL pennant and the Green Bay Packers played for 41 years.
"It's going to be very emotional for me," said baseball
commissioner Bud Selig, who brought the Brewers to Milwaukee in
1970, five years after the Braves bolted for Atlanta.
"It may not have the history and tradition and symbolism of
Wrigley Field or Fenway Park," Selig said. "But in the end, it's
where generations of people grew up. And it's where we'll always
have a lifetime of memories."
Hank Aaron. Warren Spahn. Lew Burdette. Eddie Mathews. Robin
Yount. Paul Molitor. Cecil Cooper. Jim Gantner. Jim Taylor. Willie
Davis. Vince Lombardi. Paul Hornung. Brett Favre.
"I'm a historian of the game," Cubs first baseman Mark Grace
said. "And I'm very proud of the fact I played where a lot of
great players played. I'm very nostalgic about the old stadiums."
And there's an abundance of memories at this one.
Aaron hit a game-winning 11th-inning homer off St. Louis' Billy
Muffet to clinch Milwaukee's first NL pennant here in 1957.
This was where, in 1959, Pittsburgh's Harvey Haddix pitched 12
perfect innings before losing both the no-hitter and the game in
the 13th inning. And two years after that, Giants outfielder Willie
Mays hit four home runs in a game.
On July 20, 1976, Aaron hit his 755th and last home run and a
grounds crew member retained the keepsake for more than 20 years
before cunningly getting Aaron to sign it at an autograph show and
later auctioning it off.
On Dec. 18, 1994, the Packers ended a 62-year tradition in
Milwaukee with a 21-17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons when Favre
dived into the end zone for the winning score in the waning seconds
to clinch a playoff berth.
|  | | The Green Bay Packers played their last game at Milwaukee County Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 18, 1994. |
"I have a lot of fond memories there," Favre said. "And that
one stands out. It was a pivotal play in our rise."
Safety LeRoy Butler said it's one of his best memories, period.
"That game put us on the map a little bit," he said. "I
remember coming back and Brett diving in. That was a great feeling.
The fans stormed the field and they were jumping all over us. I
thought, `Wow, this is great.' "
And then Butler said good-bye to the old ballpark, just like the
Brewers will do Thursday night after they play one last game,
against Cincinnati.
Two All-Star Games were played at County Stadium, in 1955 and
again 20 years later, when the players complained about a lousy
field after 60,000 music fans had trampled the grass at concerts
for the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd.
There was Yount's 3,000th hit and Molitor's 39-game hitting
streak.
Slugger Mark McGwire lost a home run here in 1998 when an umpire
ruled that a fan reached over the wall. But that didn't top his
list of memories.
"You now one thing I'll always remember? Those sacks of
`diamond dust' the ground crews piles up in the far corner of the
dugout. Sometimes those things take away two or three seats,"
McGwire said. "I remember a few times having to sit on that
stuff."
But the field itself was known throughout baseball as one of the
best.
"You rarely ever see a bad bounce," Burnitz said.
"Hopefully they can duplicate it" in the new place, shortstop
Mark Loretta added.
Miller Park was supposed to open this season but the project was
delayed when a crane collapse killed three workers on July 14,
1999.
Many fans are sad to see County Stadium go the way of Ebbets
Field.
Dick Joyal, a business and economics professor at Northland
College, said he wasn't happy about the Brewers moving into nice,
new digs.
"Just to tear it down and build a fancy new thing that looks
like a mall, to me that's not baseball," he said. "I understand
why they are doing these things, but I hate to see tradition case
aside for the sake of a new building.
"My God, that's where Warren Spahn pitched."
Jake Little of Milwaukee said he'd actually miss the rain
delays.
"You got to hang out, so obviously people drink more," he
said. "It gets a little crazy with all those people drinking. In
the new stadium that won't happen anymore because they'll go shut
the lid and it'll start right on time."
Fan Al McMurray said County Stadium represents can-do Milwaukee
better than Miller Park will: "It fits in with the people, the
general audience, the blue-collar town," he said.
And would he buy a souvenir?
Sure, he said: "I'm thinking a urinal maybe."
The Brewers are eager to play at Miller Park but they realize
their fans will miss the intimate, old place.
"It's going to be nostalgic for a lot of people," pitcher
David Weathers said. "It's a historic stadium and a lot of great
people have played here."
Chief among them was Aaron, who's glum about having to say
good-bye.
"When they tear this old place down," Aaron said, "they're
going to take a piece of my heart with it."
And he won't be alone.
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