"Miller Park" by User Grassferry49 on Wikicommons.
"Optimistic" was the word to describe the fans, players and front office of the Brewers on Opening Day...until the game started. How quickly the enthusiasm faded. After Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies flied out to Kris Davis in left field to lead off the game, it was all down hill. Kyle Lohse got rocked in the first inning, giving up four runs, and every subsequent inning it seemed the Rockies had runners on. The fans desperately awaited something to cheer about, but it was not to be.
Bernie Brewer was kept in check and looked antsy in his dugout in left field. Some of the more vocal fans looked on in disbelief, asking "Is this it? This is what we waited all spring for?" One fan complained as he flagged down the beer man to drown his frustration with a High Life. Fans were chanting "Let's go Badgers!" by the middle of the sixth inning and roared when the sausages made their way on to the field, with the Polish taking the first race of the season.
Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin and Ron Roenicke were telling us before the game that the Brewers will be competitive if they stay healthy, but they were quick to point out how loaded the rest of the National League Central is this year. Attanasio gives a lot of credit to the Brewers training and conditioning staff, which won the Martin Monahan Award for Best Medical Staff, for coming out of spring training with hardly any injuries.
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As a small market, the Brewers need to embrace their young players and stock their farm system—a farm system that has been depleted the last few years, but is being restocked.
Reonicke mentioned before the game that Lohse looked strong and focused coming into Opening Day. He felt that of all the Brewers' starters, Lohse gave them the best chance of winning. It was a terrible outing and one that he needs to put behind him quickly. However, the silver lining is that Lohse does lead the Brewers in batting average after going one-for-one, lining a solid single ;to right field.
The Brewers lost 10 to nothing and they didn't look sharp, but the season is a marathon, not a sprint. Let's not forget that this organization led the NL Central for over 150 days last year. They do have some talent.
In other Brewers news, Melvin is in the last year of his contract and needs to decide how long he wants to continue doing his job. Attanasio says it is up to Melvin. He says in a $9 billion industry there is no downtime and Melvin deserves some downtime after 25 years of being a GM. Brewers are 20th in payroll this year compared to last year when they were 13th. Even with $110 million in salaries, Attanasio says that it is a great concern of his and figuring out ways to compete is a priority.
Bud Selig speaks to reporters.
Bud Selig threw out the first pitch to Attanasio. Afterwords, Selig talked about what he has been doing since his retirement: teaching at UW-Madison and Marquette and writing a book. He also said that he was practicing throwing, since he had to throw out the first pitch again in the evening in Arizona. He joked that Uecker would have never let him forget it if he bounced the ball in. Selig said it was an emotional time for him being honored in Milwaukee and expressed what Milwaukee and the Brewers mean to him. He touched on how long it took to get a team in Milwaukee when the Braves left—five-and-a-half years—and that it was a long shot.
The "Selig Experience" will be a state-of-the-art attraction located on the Loge Level in left field corner. It will be a multimedia presentation that tells the story of Selig's role in saving Major League baseball in Milwaukee, his successful efforts of bringing the Brewers to the city from Seattle and his efforts to promote and grow the game of baseball in his hometown.
I got my through my first Opening Day with the Brewers. It was exciting to be able to walk around the stadium and talk to fans, see the excitement and hear from the people that put the whole thing together. The Brewers are in a very tough division but the fans feel that they will be in contention. I asked a number of fans how many wins the Brewers will have this year and the response averaged out to 84. This, of course, was prior to the game.
Brewer Notes
The Brewers opened their 47th season as a franchise and 18th as a member of the National League. As a franchise they move to 25-21-1 all time on Opening Day, going 10-7 at home (4-3 at Miller Park) and 15-14-1 on the road. The Brewers are now 9-8-1 on Opening Day since joining the National League in 1998.
Opening Day attendance (46,036) was the third highest attended game in Miller Park history. The largest crowd at Miller Park occurred on Sept. 6, 2003 (46,218), followed by the second largest crowd on Opening Day 2012 (46,086).
Brewers Fan of the Week
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Clarence Franklin, 81, Milwaukee
Clarence Franklin, who is a Korean War veteran and will be on an honor flight in August, has attended between 30 and 40 Opening Days of the Brewers. He hasn't kept track—"Too many," he laughs. He also has been to Spring Training in Arizona five times. Franklin says he didn't play ball much when he was younger. "I was more into cars and girls, now it is just girls," he says with a chuckle. He says he loves the excitement of the crowd and attends roughly 25 games a year.
Franklin predicts that the Brewers will win 160 games this year. "Sounds good on paper!" he muses. Well, Clarence, at least they got one of your two losses out of the way. Now they can focus on the 160 wins.
