Miller Park Firsts

[hawing]

At the Fan Fest game Saturday night, the group had some questions about various firsts recorded in Miller Park. For example, I couldn't remember which Brewers pitcher had the first start in MP (it was Jeff D'Amico).

 

Here's a link to a jsonline list of firsts from the Miller Park opener in 2001.

 

First home run - Michael Tucker of the Reds. First Brewers home run - Jeromy Burnitz. (I liked the "first home run ball thrown back on the field", which followed the Tucker HR.)

[bigbrewkahuna]

First fan to trip and fall down in the $5 left field seats,bruising his right elbow while spilling his soda all over others. Me.

[MBHA]

Technically, the very first home run in a game was in the Friday night exhibition game off the bat of Sandy Alomar Jr. of the White Sox. The Brewers first also occured in that game and it was none other than Henry Blanco. The next afternoon the Brewers played the Red Sox in another exhibition game.

 

Interestingly during those two game the Brewers occupied the RF bullpen, and after finding that too confining they switched to LF for the regular season opener and all games thereafter.

[dadofandrew]

FYI, they played the White Sox in both exhibition contests.

[Vgmastr]

No, they played the White Sox on Friday night and the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon. I was at the Red Sox game, it was my first time at Miller Park. We got there two hours early and just walked around the stadium in astonishment that a stadium that nice was ours.

[MBHA]

I beg to differ. I have the tickets for both games and a t-shirt noting the same opponents and I distinctly remember those games. Pedro Martinez of the Red Sox got a decent amount of boos, and Trot Nixon had a good game for Boston.

 

The Brewers played the White Sox in a pre-season games in 2005, which may be what you are remembering.

 

Also Jeff D'Amico has the distinction of the first triple in Miller Park the next time he pitched on the Thursday afternoon game vs. the Astros. You can win many bets on that one.

[brewcrewkid14]

Yeah, it was definitely the Red Sox and White Sox becuase I went to both games. The Red Sox were the better of the tickets, but I remember the White Sox game to be much more exciting than the second one.

[1992casey]

My memory worked on this one without proof. After being at the game, I distinctly remember watching the Red Sox feed on video tape. One of the announcers would refer to "Mark Loretter" and "Milla Park".

 

Anyway, here are the box scores:

• Brewers 5, White Sox 4
• Red Sox 7, Brewers 2

[kgbaseball]

I'll always remember the snipers littered all over Miller Park at Miller Park's opening when Bush threw out the first pitch.

[brewers4eric]

My best man gave me a panoramic print of the first pitch at Miller Park as a wedding gift. The pitch from D'Amico is in flight midway between the mound and home plate. The print hangs above the desk in my home office. On the opposite wall is a shadowbox with my program from the last game at County Stadium.