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Miller Park- Mount Rushmore Games in its history (2001-2015)

rickh150

By rickh150,
in Milwaukee Brewers Talk

rickh150 Carolina Mudcats

rickh150

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I like to tell people that I saw THE best game in the history of Miller Park when Nyger Morgan singled in Carlos Gomez in the 10th inning of Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS against Arizona. The atmosphere was electric and tense! The whole game from start to finish was close. One swing, one wild pitch, one error, and the Diamondbacks could have easily won..... hence a pretty great game. Plus, it gave the Brewers its first playoff series win since Pete Ladd finished Games 5 against the Angels in the ALCS of 1982. Throw in that it was a walk-off win, it tops the list for me.

 

I got to thinking of what would be the #2 game in Miller Park's history... and #3, #4. I immediately threw out Zambrano's no hitter because of the team he is affiliated with, needless to say. I looked at the 2008 playoff win and the 4 2011 playoff wins. I remembered back to big moments in the regular season, walk-off wins, big end of the season wins, and great Brewer performances.

 

Here's my top 4:

 

#1 2011 NLDS Game 5 (Besides the point, I caught a BP home run ball in left field; sat with my dad)

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/17343/frantic-finish-brewers-win-thriller

 

#2 2008 Last game of season vs. Cubs-- CC goes distance, Braun hits go ahead 2 run HR in 8th, and Brewers get to playoffs (after watching Marlins beat Mets on scoreboard) for the first time since 1982. To say Brewers fans were excited..... is a severe understatement.

 

#3 2011 NLCS Game 1 For me this is the height of the Brewers 2011 season..... well, the height of the Brewers history from 1983 to 2015. They are beating the Cardinals in a playoff series, a series that, if won, would get them to the World Series. The game? Brewers are down 3 (Greinke pitching) when they explode to take the lead in the 5th with 5 extra base hits (only 2nd time done in MLB postseason history). Fielder's ROCKET HR pulls the Brewers ahead, and the Crew goes on to win 9-6. Unbelievable offensive output against a great Cardinal staff.... Comeback win... Wow.http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011/story/_/id/7082787/brewers-strike-fast-nlcs-game-1

 

#4 2011 NLDS Game 2.... Much like the previous game listed, the Brewers explode in one inning, the 6th.. Lucroy really got Miller Park rockin' with a safety squeeze that proved as good as a double when current Arizona close Ziegler threw the bunted ball away behind home.... A progression of hits (after a bizarre walk of the pinch hitter with only one out) by Hart, Morgan, and Braun put the game about out of reach. Another offensive storm.... wow... Brewers fans are on cloud nine, going up 2-0 in the series

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011/story/_/id/7052891/brad-ziegler-gets-lit-key-spot

 

 

My apologies if this was a topic somewhat recently... Overall, through this picking of games process, in a season of blaaaah, it was very good for a Brewer man's heart to take a walk down memory lane.

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Bikeage77 ACL Brewers

Bikeage77

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I was at all those games except #1. We thought about going, but were stuck at an all day staff meeting. By the time it was over, we decided to just go to Point's East and drink cheap beers and get wings. The energy there (and probably every other popular bar) was electric though.
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BuckyBrewer61 Draft Eligible

BuckyBrewer61

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Hard to argue with any of those, and I was at them all. But if you made me list my personal favroties, I'm putting the 2008 wild card clincher at the top.

 

It was absolutely surreal, an entire generation of fans (myself included) had never even been alive for a Brewers playoff berth, and could hardly remember them being even respectable. The idea of the Brewers in the playoffs was like a fantasy. It felt wrong. Unrealistic. I hung on every pitch, both in Milwaukee and in New York. Never been so excited for a bases-loaded walk in my life. Was at a TV watching the Mets game when...Wes Helms goes deep to take the lead??? It's all falling into place... And when the ball left Braun's bat in the 8th...I lost it. More than I ever have before or since, including Morgan's walkoff. The Brewers are going to the PLAYOFFS?!?! I still get chills thinking about that day. Awesome.

I am not Shea Vucinich
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Outlander ACL Brewers

Outlander

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For me all the games come in the 2008 season. I went to a lot of games in September and going into that last week the odds were against them still to make the playoffs and the feeling at the time was they could maybe lose one game that week.

 

9/22/2008 - Prince Fielder with a walk of home run against the Pirates

 

9/25/2008 - Ryan Braun with a walk off grand slam against the Pirates in extra innings.

 

9/28/2008 - Brewers beat the Cubs, lead by CC Sabathia and Ryan Braun to clinch a playoff spot for the first time in 26 years. As an added bonus pretty much everybody stayed to watch the Marlins beat the Mets on the bid screen.

 

10/4/2008 - It was a great atmosphere at Miller Park as the Brewers beat the Phillies in game three of the playoffs led by Dave Bush.

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reillymcshane Nashville Sounds

reillymcshane

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For me, the 2008 Wild Card clincher was the best because I was there with my son.

 

The day before the game, some friends of ours (die hard Cubs fans) stopped by our house and handed us two tickets to the game. They had won the tickets a few weeks before at a raffle of some kind. They said, "This means a lot more to you guys," or something like that. I took my son, who was nine at the time. Needless to say, it was pretty amazing. Braun's homer in the 8th - I can still watch the video and get chills. Then watching the Mets lose on the big screen - again, pretty amazing stuff. I saved a handful of confetti from the game, but I don't think it survived after we moved a couple of years ago. Still an extraordinary moment.

 

My son doesn't remember a lot of details (again he was nine) from the game - just the thrill of it - the confetti dropping, the place going wild, sitting an watching the Mets/Marlins game, etc.

 

I will never forget it.

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folly412 First Round Pick

folly412

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April 27, 2004 is up there just because we had a guy (Chad Moeller) hit for the cycle and the first time it was done by a Brewer at home. The biggest part of MLB history I've attended.

 

Just realized it was the same series as the 9-0 comeback I posted above. Would have been a treat to experience that.

 

Strange cycle history for the Brewers - Moeller's is still the only one out of seven to be at home. And the last three: Moeller, a backup catcher who normally couldn't record one hit, backup outfielder Jody Gerut, and George Kottaras, another backup catcher who couldn't hit and is still serving as a backup catcher for AAA Charlotte.

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jjgott ACL Brewers

jjgott

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Hard to argue with any of those, and I was at them all. But if you made me list my personal favroties, I'm putting the 2008 wild card clincher at the top.

 

It was absolutely surreal, an entire generation of fans (myself included) had never even been alive for a Brewers playoff berth, and could hardly remember them being even respectable. The idea of the Brewers in the playoffs was like a fantasy. It felt wrong. Unrealistic. I hung on every pitch, both in Milwaukee and in New York. Never been so excited for a bases-loaded walk in my life. Was at a TV watching the Mets game when...Wes Helms goes deep to take the lead??? It's all falling into place... And when the ball left Braun's bat in the 8th...I lost it. More than I ever have before or since, including Morgan's walkoff. The Brewers are going to the PLAYOFFS?!?! I still get chills thinking about that day. Awesome.

 

Seconded. Also had lived my entire life (21 at the time) without the Brewers being in the playoffs. Still have Ueck's call etched in my mind: "SWING AND A DRIVE! LEFT CENTER AND DEEP..."

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BrewCrew8682 Prep Ball

BrewCrew8682

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Thirded. I was 21 at the time as well, living in Madison in an apartment with no baseball fans. I remember watching with the balcony door open and hearing the screams as they clinched it. It was the most excitement I'd seen or heard from Brewer fans outside the stadium in my life. Me, I wanted to be out there screaming with 'em, but I was doing my best to hide the tears welling up in my eyes. Very emotional moment. Wasn't sure I'd ever see it happen.
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trwi7 Nashville Sounds

trwi7

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I was 21 in 2008 too.

 

A couple regular season games that didn't have playoff implications but were awesome. Rick Helling's immaculate inning against the Tigers in 2006 I think. The Brewers got blown out in that game but seeing something that rare happen at a game is pretty cool.

 

The Brewers scoring 8 runs in the 2nd inning off Carlos Zambrano in June 2005. That was extra sweet considering all the crap Cubs fans were talking before the game.

 

July 5th, 2006. Brewers beat the Reds in 13 innings. Adam Dunn hit a monster homer in the 10th to give the Reds the lead. Jenkins led off the bottom of the 10th with a homer off the facing of the 2nd deck in right field. The Reds scored in the 13th and then Rickie Weeks doubled home two in the bottom half to win the game on what is still the hardest hit ball I've ever seen.

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WinkelsasVsSoriano Draft Eligible

WinkelsasVsSoriano

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April 27, 2004 is up there just because we had a guy (Chad Moeller) hit for the cycle and the first time it was done by a Brewer at home. The biggest part of MLB history I've attended.

 

Just realized it was the same series as the 9-0 comeback I posted above. Would have been a treat to experience that.

 

Strange cycle history for the Brewers - Moeller's is still the only one out of seven to be at home. And the last three: Moeller, a backup catcher who normally couldn't record one hit, backup outfielder Jody Gerut, and George Kottaras, another backup catcher who couldn't hit and is still serving as a backup catcher for AAA Charlotte.

 

Those games were back-to-back, if I'm not mistaken?

 

I remember them really well, especially the Chad Moeller cycle game. He came up to the plate in the bottom of the 9th, already 4-4 with the cycle in hand. The Crew were down two runs with two outs and Helms on third. Chad had a chance to add to his already ridiculous game and tie it up homer. However, he hit pretty much the most routine grounder to third as possible. Somehow, and fortuitously, the third-baseman managed to short-hop the throw, and Moeller reached on an error, bringing them within a run. Bill Hall pinch-hit next, and hit one of the hardest balls I've seen for a walk-off homerun just over the Brewers' bullpen. Then, the next day, they have the monster comeback, and he has the walk-off suicide squeeze. That was a helluva two-game stretch...

 

Edit: And another interesting(?) note: Those two games were a couple of the least attended in Miller Park history, if I'm remembering that correctly as well. I know the Chad Moeller game had under 9,000, and the Bill Hall suicide squeeze game wasn't much better.

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WinkelsasVsSoriano Draft Eligible

WinkelsasVsSoriano

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And I know it wasn't a MP game, but I will forever remember Richie Sexson hitting and permanently denting that (stupid) flagpole on Tal's Hill in Houston. That was a monstrous shot, and surely the longest (and unluckiest) double ever hit. I really wonder what the distance would have been on that, 'cause it was well up the pole, and it's already 435 to center. I remember the Brewers losing that game, and I think it may have been by just the one run that Sexson should have had.

 

Edit: If anyone has video of that, I'd love to see it! I've been searching on-and-off for what seems like forever, but I could never find anything.

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NYChez First Round Pick

NYChez

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I'll throw in 2005 and Prince's first home run, against the Twins on a Saturday night I believe. There was also a game against the Phillies where Prince I believe hit an 8th inning home run against Cole Hamels to take the lead - that was super electric.
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