Strong support:
Fans brave cold for tailgating fun
Despite chilly temperatures and the Brewers undergoing a major roster reconstruction, fans like Osseo’s Thomas Smith (above) still enjoy the atmosphere at Miller Park.
The tailgating started early in the morning, beginning outside the parking lots as fans waited to enter, and continued for several hours after they set up more permanent camps. The brave fans battled the cold, bundling up for the worst as the temperature hung around freezing and snow flurries intermittently swept through the lots.
While this scene may describe the experience at a Green Bay Packers game, the setting wasn’t Lambeau Field in January. It was outside Miller Park on Monday ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2016 season opener against the San Francisco Giants.
“Wisconsinites are a hearty stock; this is nothing compared to Green Bay,” Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said.
Cold weather on opening day is nothing new in Milwaukee. In 1973, the home opener was postponed due to snow. In 1994, the Brewers took on the Oakland A’s at Milwaukee County Stadium when the temperature was 31 degrees with a 29mph wind.
Thomas Smith, who lives in Osseo, was at the game in ’94, part of an opening-day attendance streak that he extended to 34 years on Monday. As he made the three-plus hour trip to Milwaukee, the forecast — for Monday’s weather as well as the season — never played a part in his decision.
“I ain’t gonna break this streak,” he said, decked out in Brewers gear and wrapped in a blanket. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. This is tradition.”
Smith wasn’t alone, as thousands filled the parking lots, which opened at 9 a.m. — an hour earlier than posted. There was plenty of grilling, eating, drinking, games and even a wedding before the festivities moved out of the cold and into the warm confines of Miller Park.
Inside, the temperature was a balmy 65 degrees as the teams were introduced ahead of the national anthem, which would be sung by Attanasio’s sons, Dan and Mike.
From 2005-’14, Attanasio’s father, Joe, sang The Star-Spangled Banner on opening day each year. Joe passed away in January 2015, and the Brewers honored him at last year’s opening day by airing a recording of him singing the national anthem.
This year, Dan and Mike decided to pay tribute to “pop-pop” the best way they could, by grabbing the microphones and picking up where Joe left off.
“Apparently they talked to my dad several times, and actually not when he was ill, about taking over his tradition, his wonderful performance and what became a family tradition,” Mark Attanasio said, mentioning that he doesn’t know if it will become an ongoing tradition or not.
“But it kind of bubbled up organically from them. . . . I insisted that last year that they do at least one game, and they did the last game against the Cubs. I figured if they could handle the Cubbies crowd, they could handle this.”
Following the Attanasio brothers’ performance, Beckum-Stapleton Little League founder and former Negro League player James Beckum delivered the ceremonial first pitch. Moments later, the season officially began with the Brewers sitting the Giants down in order in the top of the first.
Things didn’t go so well for the Brewers after that as the Giants chalked up seven runs by the end of the fifth inning on the way to a 12-3 victory. The Brewers’ sellout crowd of 44,318 — their lowest at a home opener since 2005 — filled the concourses, creating consistently long lines at every restroom and concession stand, but overall was subdued for most of the day.
By the eighth inning, when the Giants scored five runs on back-to-back-toback home runs, the crowd thinned out significantly in what could be a sign of things to come. Many of the fans that made the pilgrimage to Miller Park for opening day were there for the tailgate, spectacle and pageantry, not out of optimism regarding the Brewers, which are in the midst of a total overhaul of their organization.
But dozens of fans waited in line to buy tickets for future games. Some wanted to secure seats for specific dates, some were interested in promotional days and others just wanted to avoid paying online handling fees.
“We expect very good attendance this year,” Attanasio said. “We all know we are at the beginning of something here, and we’ll all be able to look back on this and say, ‘I remember when.’”