Miller Park - Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Day 18

What's the best way to say this - Miller Park ain't cheesy?

This is a day late, but yesterday the entire family got up and we made a visit to my favorite place to go in Chicago - the Museum of Science and Industry.  Most people don't know that the Museum is also the most popular tourist attraction in Chicago.  We spent the morning and early afternoon there and it didn't disappoint.  It was nice to be in there on a hot and muggy day in Chicago.  Without a doubt, the most popular attraction was the Chick Hatchery for the kids.

I, however, prefer the cool model train set – something I made my dad spend hours at the museum just so I could watch when I was a kid.  The space exhibits were very cool as well.

That's one giant step for Michael.

Anyway, after we left the museum, Michael and I bolted up I-94 to Milwaukee to catch the Brewers and the Mets at Miller Park.  This was clearly the toughest day of the trip.  We had to be back to our hotel in Chicago after the game for a 4 am drive to Cincinnati to catch the Cubs and Reds play at 12:30 the next day.   To put it shortly, I thought Miller Park was about as close to Chase Field in Phoenix as it gets.  They’re both retractable domed stadiums and with the same enclosed outfields.  Both have huge center field scoreboards/video boards, and both have TGI Friday’s Front Row Grills.  Judging by the look of the attendance, that was about the same too (not very good).   It was nice that the roof was open.  That doesn’t happen too often after mid-June in Phoenix.

Our seats were nice – middle level half-way down first base.  The fans were great.  They definitely know their baseball in Milwaukee.  We even managed to meet another guy (John) who was traveling around the northern part of the country to take in baseball games.  We exchanged stories and he was cool.  We have to give him a shout out since he promised to check out the blog. 

Our new baseball road trip buddy John

 Anyway, the highlight of the night was the sausage races.  You can’t go to a Brewers game without hoping to catch a glimpse of five guys running in huge ethnic sausage outfits and running around the edge of the field in a race.  Just for the record, Hot Dog won.

They just added the Mexican sausage guy in the middle.  His name is Chorizo.
The race was way too European until  he joined the lineup.

We also managed to see Bernie Brewer their mascot slide down from his perch after Prince Fielder launched a mammoth home run to straight away center field.

Overall, I really liked the park.  But because it does remind me so much of Chase Field and because I’m a Diamondbacks fan, I have to give Chase the slight edge, but would highly recommend going to see a game there.  Here’s Michael’s take:

Hey everyone, it’s Michael.  I liked Miller Park too.  I loved the sausage races like my dad did.  The huge video screen in center field was awesome.  It was also really cool seeing Craig Counsel (a former Arizona Diamondback player) get into the game in the seventh inning.  I can’t believe he is still playing, but he was one of my favorite players.  I give the park a 7/10. 

Anyway, there you have it.  Up next – Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.