Brewers fans hang on each pitch at Game 1
Brewers send sellout crowd home happy with thrilling victory in 10 innings over Rockies
Two hours before the first pitch was thrown at Miller Park on Thursday, Jody Szudajski guided her mother, Dolores Malonee, to her seat in the loge section.
Malonee, 96, of South Milwaukee, was happy to get to the ballpark early, settle in and have some chips and a sub sandwich that the two trucked in. Clearly, these are experienced Brewers fans.
“It’s the postseason, and there have been so few of these games,” she said before Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Colorado Rockies.
“We’re finally at one of them.”
Her daughter chimed in: “Every pitch, every out matters.”
Malonee looked around at the already-building crowd and cracked a smile: “They’re coming out of the woodwork!”
Indeed they were. And the fans were dialed in, just as Szudajski suggested.
They roared when catcher Manny Piña threw out DJ LeMahieu to end the Rockies’ first inning. They exploded when Christian Yelich crushed a two-run homer to break a scoreless tie in the third. They cringed when reliever Jeremy Jeffress gave up three hits and two runs in the ninth, allowing the Rockies
to tie the game at 2-2.
And then in the bottom of the 10th, they seemed to raise the Miller Park roof when third baseman Mike Moustakas singled home the winning run.
The crowd was announced at 43,382, a sellout but shy of the record of 46,218. Prices for the game slid after the Rockies eliminated the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night, ending the possibility of Miller Park becoming a Wrigley Field North.
Standing-room tickets were at about $40 Thursday morning — before addon fees. A day earlier they were $70.
The average sale price was $179, up 5% from Tuesday, according to StubHub.
Some people got into the game for nothing, thanks to the kindness of a friend.
That was the case for Chad Levandowski of Sheboygan who sprung his son, Owen, 9, from school a little bit early.
“He got a couple of hours in,” Levandowski said, laughing. “And it’s my wife’s birthday. She’s home with our daughter. They’re going out to dinner and getting their nails done.”
It was an especially meaningful father-son outing. Owen was diagnosed with cancer last December.
“He’s doing well now,” Levandowski said.
The Miller Park Team Store was swarmed before and after the game, with people lining up by the dozens to get in. Tables were heavy with postseason merchandise.
“We had to come today,” said Nicki Schroeder of Rockford, lugging an impressive haul of gear. She came to the game with son, Cayden, 15.
“My husband is home with our daughter,” she said. “He couldn’t get off work. I could.”
Schroeder said she spent about $250 at the Team Store but put things in perspective.
“We only paid $40 for our tickets.” The difference between Thursday’s gathering and, say, opening day stood out all afternoon. Sure, thousands tailgated like pros, but many fans headed inside for the 4 p.m. game at 1:30 p.m., and almost everyone was in their seats before the first pitch.
As Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Thursday afternoon, this is a new “five-game season.” Not many two-fisted slobbers seen in this throng.
“This is a baseball crowd all the way,” said a vendor on the main concourse. “I haven’t seen anything like this since the ‘82 World Series.”
Sam Kaufmann got called out of high school by his dad, Bruce. And they traveled to the game from Waunakee.
A group of students from St. Norbert traveled for the game. It’s their fall break and they got standing-room-only tickets online.
Tom Race of Cedar Grove swapped shifts at the firehouse with a co-worker. He reminisced about games past.
“I was at the last game at County Stadium,” he said. “My first game was with my godfather when I was 7 years old.” Now he’s 51.
And then there was one couple who saved a bit of special news for this special early October afternoon.
In between innings, during the “Show us your signs” segment played on the stadium scoreboard, a camera captured them holding up this message:
“Surprise, we’re expecting!”
The crowd was announced at 43,382, a sellout but shy of the record of 46,218. Prices for the game slid after the Rockies eliminated the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night, ending the possibility of Miller Park becoming a Wrigley Field North.