The Baseball Zealot

Gene Mauch died of Monday August 8th after a long battle with cancer. Mauch won 1,901 games as a manager and was named NL Manager of the Year three times, but is more noted for his losses. He was the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964 when they had a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 games remaining, but lost ten in a row and the pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1982 he managed the California Angels to a 2-0 lead in the ALCS versus the Milwaukee Brewers before losing the final three games in the best of five series. Then in 1986 his California Angels were one out away from advancing to the World Series, when Dave Henderson’s home run off Donnie Moore put the Boston Red Sox into the Fall Classic. Moore never recovered, committing suicide in 1989. In 2002 during the Angels’ playoff series against the Minnesota Twins Gene Mauch said, “All I did for 50 years was study the game day and night. And I will forever, for however long ‘forever’ is.” Gene Mauch will be missed. He may be gone, but he will not be forgotten. A Big Salute to the Little General!

There is a very nice little league ballpark in the parking lot outside of Miller Park in Milwaukee. The home plate from old County Stadium is on exhibit by Helfaer Field for all the little leaguers to see.

Two little league teams from Kenosha wrap things up.

Here is a nice view from the outfield.

 

Miller Park features the Sausage Race at the bottom of the 6th inning of every ballgame. We even observed a sausage in the parking lot. The Italian Sausage has a four link lead over its nearest competition in the season long standings 16-12-11-11. The Sausage Race gained nation wide fame when Randall Simon whacked a wiener that was racing by the dugout a while back

There was even a Sausage tailgating in the parking lot.

 

And they’re off.  

Here are the Sausages are approaching the finish line.

 

While tailgating before my first ever game at Miller Park in Milwaukee we met Katie Simon. Ms. Katie is an arm artist who also paints faces. She charges whatever you’d like to pay, which makes it all legal. She once painted over 400 mostly shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day. Ms. Katie has been a fixture at Milwaukee ballgames for years.

Here’s a nice picture of Arm Artist Ms. Katie.  

Ms. Katie in action.

 

I recently went to Miller Park in Milwaukee. Here is my review of the “new” park. Hadn’t been to a game since the old County Stadium. In fact the first MLB game I ever attended was a benefit game between the White Sox and the Cubs in 1968 in County Stadium. Miller Park does tailgating up right as the parking lots open three hours before game time, they give you plenty of room to barbecue, and plenty of receptacles for dumping hot coals. It’s a very nice park with lots of room around the park with beautiful landscaping. They needed to build this ballpark with a retractable roof to prevent rainouts with fans coming to the park from all over Wisconsin. But the retractable roof in my opinion gave me the sense more that I was inside a shopping mall rather than a ballpark.

Walking to Miller Park.  

Almost at the Ballpark.