In case you missed it, the big news for 2018, thus far, was the announcement of the Milwaukee Brewers’ first Pride Night. Made possible through the efforts of Aurora Health Care in collaboration with the Brewers Baseball Club (and a special thanks is due to both), Milwaukee joins 18 other Major League Baseball franchises celebrating the LGBTQ Community. Of those, a dozen hold their Pride games in June, Pride Month. Logically, Milwaukee should follow suit.
As of yet, no date for this momentous occasion has been selected. So, let me suggest one. There are three home games scheduled against the Chicago Cubs in the week following Milwaukee’s PrideFest weekend (June 8-10). Riding on the post-PrideFest afterglow, it would be an absolutely perfect time to have a Brewers Pride Night. For one thing, it would be a game against our favorite regional rival, the Chicago Cubs, the 2016 World Series champions. It would also acknowledge the Chicago team’s long history (in fact, the longest) of Major League Baseball Pride events—it celebrated its first Out at Wrigley nearly two decades ago in 2001.
In fact, Cubs’ co-owner Laura Ricketts is lesbian, married and a leading Democratic Party donor and LGBTQ activist. She serves on the Lambda Legal National Leadership Council and has long been a leader on the forefront of LGBTQ rights. Maybe someone will have the forethought to invite her to throw out the first ball. For that matter, she should be the Pride Parade Grand Marshal and make an appearance at PrideFest’s Opening Ceremony. A June date would also mark the first anniversary of the Milwaukee Brewers membership in the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Milwaukee’s MLB club became the 500th member of the LGBT Chamber, joining as a gold founding member, on June 27, 2017. Coordinated with the Brewers, PrideFest and the Chamber, along with the support of Cream City Foundation, it should be easy enough to sell thousands of tickets as a two-fer admission package for PrideFest and the Pride Night game. And I can well imagine loads and loads of LGBTQs coming in from the Windy City.
Of course, I’d expect one of our talented singers would be invited to sing the National Anthem. I’m thinking of one who has sung there already, maybe with backup of our local men’s and women’s voices. Mayor Tom Barrett would be in attendance in the VIP box along with our LGBTQ political representatives, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Tim Carpenter (an accomplished softball player, btw), JoCasta Zamarripa, Kenosha County Supervisor Dayvin Hallman as well as other personalities and leaders, past and present, like Saturday Softball Beer League (SSBL) Commissioner Eric Peterson along with that organization’s Hall of Fame members. In fact, SSBL has been a leader in relations with the Milwaukee Brewers, having long served in Miller Park’s pool of concession staff volunteers. It goes without saying SSBL, with the support of our bars and organizations, would throw an epic blowout tailgating party, perhaps with music by DJ Chomper. Just imagine it!
This could certainly be an opportunity to galvanize community solidarity, LGBTQ and other, around America’s favorite pastime. I can’t wait.
