I miss County Stadium.

[docduany]

I was thinking of County Stadium last night, Major League was on. It makes me sad to think of that great ball park and how I'll never get walk through those hallowed halls again. Miller Park is great, but it won't hold the same place in this fan's heart as County Stadium did.

[BraunFan08]

I do believe that a newer upgraded stadium like Miller Park was probably necessary for the team. However, there are a few things that I really miss about old County Stadium. First off, I really miss the bleachers. The left field bleachers was the place to party and even though I was a little kid back then and it got pretty rowdy, my family and I always sat there. The experience in Miller Park's bleachers isn't even close. I'll never forget some of those games at County.

I also really miss the grass at County Stadium. It was kept in excellent condition compared to the grass at Miller Park.

[BrewCrewRising]

I agree with the poster who said County Stadium was a dump. It was, and should have been blown up twice, and never mentioned again. I mean it was dumpy because Bud and Co. let it dwindle into ruins and never revamped it. With good reason though. Who does want to remember Matt Mieskie, Warren Spahn, Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Eddie Matthews, Hank Aaron and Bill Travers?

 

I also wish that they would have torn down Lambeau and have built SUPERPACKERPARK where you could have bought PACKER $8 DOGS or something really, really cool. That would have been awesome. Lambeau is a dump.

 

I was also thinking as I drove to St. Louis last year that there was another structure that needed to be taken down: the Cahokia ruins. C'mon, it's already 1,000 years old or something. So stupid and old.

[bball123h2]

The thing I miss most about County Stadium was that the emphasis was where it should be, the field. I cannot help but feel bombarded with advertisements and sideshows every time I step foot in Miller Park. And while I do understand that MP was absolutely necessary for the existence of the Brewers in Milwaukee, I miss the game being the focus, and not the 97.3 brew crew, the arcade, the pizza toss, the 2008 chevy tahoe...

 

And I agree with a previous poster. The aroma of County Stadium is the scent I to this day associate with baseball (FWIW, RFK has that scent too, when in DC i felt like I was having a flashback). And the MP grass will never be as green as the County Stadium field.

[pitchleague]

Things I miss:

- The smell. Hard to describe other than 'musty', but that distinct odor let me know that yes, I was at a Brewers game.

When I visited Miller Park this summer on our trip from AZ, when we walked next to the ballpark before parking lots opened (we hit the team shop first) I could smell that County Stadium smell again. That smell will always be in my mind as Brewer's baseball.

[hawing]

The thing I miss most about County Stadium is the grass. As a kid, it was the greenest grass I had ever seen. The grass at Miller Park cannot hold a candle to the grass at County Stadium.

I also miss the scoreboard at County Stadium.

 

TracyThom is spot on about the impossibly green grass at County. Even after years of attending games there, a little part of me would thrill just upon catching sight of it. This seems to always be mentioned when a County Stadium nostalgia thread develops, and with good reason.

 

Also (shameless plug), the Braves/Brewers exhibit at the Wisconsin Historical Museum includes a few artifacts from County: the microphone used by Earl Gillespie during the 1957 season (y'all know how that turned out) and a piece of the pre-1980s scoreboard, the part that says AT BAT. For some reason, the latter piece just fascinates me, even though I never saw the early scoreboard in person. (/shameless plug/)

 

Getting back to razzzor's original post...I agree with JimH5 on getting Brewers staff assistance when the seat on your ticket is being used by someone else. The Brewers keep displaying on the videoboard that they want you to get the full value of your investment - call them on it.

 

I also wouldn't hesitate to contact the Brewers over poor employee conduct, and in fact have done so several times over the years. I like emailing because it gives me time to create a level-headed statement, instead of ranting over the phone (which I'm sure is never what JimH5 does); plus I have a written record of what I said, and a written record of the response. I have always received at least one response to the comments I've sent. And to show I comment from both sides, I've sent compliments along as well.

[BrewCrewRising]

...the impossibly green grass at County...

And remember that groundskeeper who eventually left for his hometown of Boston? There were some great patterns out there.

 

I miss County Stadium. I am fine with Miller Park though. However, here's a few things I wish:

 

1. Get rid of the ivy in center field. Grow some hop leaves or barley out there instead. Be original in your rip off.
2. Leave the roof open more often. I'm sorry, but I hate it when it's 65F and the roof is closed and there are three clouds in the sky. C'mon.
3. I want the old Keg and Slide to come back. I know it won't happen. I also wish Bernie Brewer was just a real guy and not a styrofoam head.

4. I want the microbrews sold by the seat beer vendors as well. I don't like Lite and GD all that well. I'd take a high life if I had to, but I like to get the New Glarus and Sprecher when I can and I'm tired of standing in line for it.

[fstorm1]

I miss County something fierce, have ever since they tore it down. Now, granted, I love M.P. Loved it when I had season tickets, and love it now that I (sadly) don't. It truly is something for everyone to see. But I spent the best years of my life in County, and had waaaaaay too many great memorable days and nights there (and quite a few that I don't remember). It was a dump, to be sure, but it was our dump. One man's garbage is another man's treasure. Miss ya, C.S. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

[fstorm1]

1. Get rid of the ivy in center field. Grow some hop leaves or barley out there instead. Be original in your rip off.
2. Leave the roof open more often. I'm sorry, but I hate it when it's 65F and the roof is closed and there are three clouds in the sky. C'mon.
3. I want the old Keg and Slide to come back. I know it won't happen. I also wish Bernie Brewer was just a real guy and not a styrofoam head.

4. I want the microbrews sold by the seat beer vendors as well. I don't like Lite and GD all that well. I'd take a high life if I had to, but I like to get the New Glarus and Sprecher when I can and I'm tired of standing in line for it.

Good call on all of those. http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/happy.gif

[razzzorsharp]

I'll back up those that recalled the grass at County Stadium. It was a site to behold and it made that old stadium look so much better.

[jhart05]

I'm with JimH5 on this one. You pretty much said everything I was going to say. I was shocked by a couple of those points razzzorsharp made.

 

And about missing County Stadium, I'm only 36, but I went to several games as a kid, then in college, and after. I don't miss CountRy Stadium one bit.

[2hoophead]

Thanks for the Memories' from WISN Milwaukee CH12

Actually, the closing ceremonies were on MSN and were wonderfully done. Matt Vasgersian and Bill Schroeder said next to nothing and let the show take over.

 

Miller Park's opening, however, was covered by Channel 12, and it was horrible. We had to listen to their dumb reporters babble about stuff that had been covered by every other channel previously, and they completely cut out Robin Yount's speech. It reminds me of when they did Monday night Packer pregame coverage; they simply wanted to 'show off' every reporter they could.

The last game ceremonies for four hours leading up to the game was on ESPN Classic hosted by Linda Cohn. She actually looked fairly hot back then, at least to me. Part of the open had some announcer saying as they showed video of these players, "Wouldnt it be grand for Bob Uecker in his 30th year as Brewer's announcer to say, 'With Spahn on the mound, Crandall behind the plate, Cooper at first, Molitor at second, Mathews at third, Yount at short and an outfield of Aaron, Thomas and Oglivie, "You must be in the front row!' And farewell to Milwaukee County Stadium."

 

The game itself, against the Reds, which Cincy won 8-1 was started by Elmer Dessens(11-5) against D'Mico(12-7)

 

Actually, the closing ceremonies were on what was the last baseball season of Midwest Sports Channel. It was wonderfully done and Matt and Bill always seemed to speak after Uecker, Gillespie, or Harmon finished introducing people. When Uecker was finishing up and then the lights slowly being turned off there was not a dry eye in my house.

 

I must have not recorded any pregame before that first MP game but just the game(exhibition) against the White Sox as I just got home from work right after the game started was the first year of Fox Sports Net. Starting pitchers were Paul Rigdon against Cal Eldred. Announcers for the Brewer's were Len Kasper and a bad facial hair Schroeder.

 

And there was a 45-50 min. show later that evening, I believe, called Thanks for the Memories' (from WISN Milwaukee CH12) hosted by Dan Needles and Tom Sutton.

 

[DuWayne Steurer]

the impossibly green grass at County.

That is EXACTLY the words I've used to describe the field at County myself.

 

Man, I loved that first site of the grass coming up out of one of the tunnels into the seating area.

 

 

But yeah, other than that, the place was a dump.

[owbc]

I agree that the place was a dump--and after the ballpark building boom, there is no place for a ballpark like that in the 21st century.

 

However...I still liked the place.

 

-Bernie's slide was awesome and the new one really needs to be replaced. This would go a long way toward erasing the nostalgia.

-I liked feeling a part of a select group of fans who were crazy about the Brewers no matter how they played--now I overhear people talking Brewers everywhere.

-The scoreboard was terrible, which was why I loved it

-Back then, losing 9-0 was much more fun, because it didn't really matter anyway if they won or lost, that wasn't the point as much as today, when we boo Turnbow for giving up one run and such

 

Most of all, though, the place reminds me of my childhood--deciding to head out to the ballpark with Dad and my brother only an hour before the game started and still getting a good seat for cheap--and always being in awe of how big it was and how green the grass was--and the feeling, with Miller Park in the background, that someday 1982 would be overshadowed.

[ccbrew]

When I visited Miller Park this summer on our trip from AZ, when we walked next to the ballpark before parking lots opened (we hit the team shop first) I could smell that County Stadium smell again. That smell will always be in my mind as Brewer's baseball.

 

It's getting there, I think. At least the sterile 'new stadium smell' is gone from Miller Park now.

 

It's 2:04am and I'm waxing poetic about the aromas of buildings. http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/indifferent.gif

 

Man, I loved that first site of the grass coming up out of one of the tunnels into the seating area.

 

oo, forgot about this part. Although the ability to see the field from any where on the concourse is obviously nice, having the first view of the field being as you walked up the tunnel in the lower grandstand was pretty neat.

[bobskube]

I have some really great memories there at MCS that I will always cherish. I loved that special "smell" there too. I also enjoyed how the mezzanines used to shake when a big things happened there. (Except now I realize we maybe could have had a major structural issue with a disaster at our feet.) I used to not be able to sleep at night as a child before my pops brought me to the game.

 

That being said, MCS was a toilet. Everything was old and needed to be made new. Heck, Major League was a movie making fun of an old, crappy stadium in Cleveland for god sake.

 

Let's enjoy the memories...but let's not be too nostalgic here. Miller Park is far better than MCS as a total entertainment experience.

[BCZF]

Meh, I loved CS for the field and nothing more... The narrow concourses, the lack of bathrooms, the scoreboard - all reasons not to miss it.. The damn scoreboard was in fact obsolete from the very first time it was switched on (I'm old enough to remember the one it replaced, now that's nostalgia). In fact, there was one guy who knew how to fix the thing and he lived in Sweden and had to be flown in every time it malfunctioned.. Anyone remember the temp scoreboard they used to haul out when the main one went down?

 

They used part of the old main scorebaord for the MP freeway sign, but it finally went caput and was replaced by the new led board.

[DuWayne Steurer]

-I liked feeling a part of a select group of fans who were crazy about the Brewers no matter how they played--now I overhear people talking Brewers everywhere.

 

I'd rather have the bandwagoners than not. They allow us to have a payroll that's at least above the "embarrassing" level.

 

With winning comes bandwagon fans. I don't think it was so much the stadium that gave people this feeling you describe, so much as it was that outside of a few years here and there, the Brewers were perennial losers during their tenure in County Stadium.

[DuWayne Steurer]

The scoreboard was at least a source of humorous diversion during the last season. A friend and I went to a weekday night game later on in the year vs. the Cubs. It was cold, rainy, and we were a few of a handful of die hards hanging out in the bleachers that night. The scoreboard was operating horribly, and I think I remember hearing that during that last season, they weren't going to bother with repairing it that late in it's final season.

 

Anyways, the Mets were playing the Marlins that night, and of course with the rain the scoreboard was operating rather terribly (as I said). At one point we looked up, and it was showing out of town scores, and with the bulbs burnt out and acting screwy, this is what it looked like it said.....

 

HATS -- 70

BERLINS -- X

 

Yes, the Hats were beating the Berlins, 70 to X. (Roman Numerals perhaps?)

[BCZF]

Lol... "The hats win the pennant! The Hats win the pennant, the Hats win the pennant!"

 

And don't forget the sausage race started out as a bit of the old CS scoreboard animation..

[BuckyTuba]

my father is a first year usher, and he tells me all about the policies that they have to adhere to. miller park officials are very strict because of the amount of drinking that happens inside and outside of the park. a small argument can escalate extremely quickly, and you need to manage situations with a conservative manner.

 

you need to remember that it is a family venue and a fight or altercation could scar a child. of course, i'm the kind of guy that my dad would be trying to stop. (6 pack before the game!)

[pitchleague]

It's funny how you guys and gals commented about the closing ceremonies for County Stadium on ESPN.

 

I watched and recorded those 4 hours but had to wait for the actual game being recorded up in Wisconsin (I didn't have Directv that year so I couldn't see it here in AZ.)

 

Regardless, the ESPN thing was awesome. And maybe I missed it, but I don't recall ESPN doing any other 4 hour thing for any of the other parks that were closed down. Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Philly, Detroit, etc. etc. etc. I don't remember it. The only thing I DO remember is Kenny Mayne making a big deal of the Kingdome Imposion. But that's because he was from Seattle or something.

[tomwopat]

but I like to get the New Glarus and Sprecher

They removed Spotted Cow out of the Loge level beer vendor on the 1B side... is it gone everywhere?