hawing

I just want to give clancy a little shoutout for referring to Sharpie in this post. BF.netters of the mid-2000s will recall that was our nickname for Doug Davis once he showed up with facial hair that appeared to be drawn on with a Sharpie.

https://twitter.com/AdamMcCalvy/status/1648371615879823360 Looks like the Brewers are at least trying to address the gate gridlock situation. Or trying to increase pregame concession sales. Or a little from each column. Having experienced big giveaway games on Sundays from 2008-2022, I suspect that no giveaway on this year's schedule will result in as much mania as the Giannis jersey did. Guess we'll start to find out this Saturday!

It's the longest western trip of the year. The Brewers travel to Colorado (not so late) and SF (on a weekend at least) in early May, and then to Dodger Stadium midweek in August.

I saw some tweets bemoaning how long it took to get into the park Saturday night, and every Brewers employee we know and encountered at today's game commented on what a zoo it had been. (It made me feel better about the Brewers switching most of the big fan giveaways from Sundays to Saturdays this year.) I'm guessing the Brewers grew tired of having to store thousands of unclaimed bobbles and other all-fan giveaway items when a full house did not turn out - so they started limiting most giveaways to the first 10K or 30K ticketed fans. Then they sold enough SRO tickets for this game to total 43K. Anything Giannis should probably be made available to all fans, though. Same with like Ueck or Yount or Molitor. Another thing that might help would be to have one entrance designated as No Giveaway. Imagine if you're just going to the game because you like baseball and you'd like to get in the park without having to wait 50 minutes in line. At the last home game of 2019, amid a 10K winter hat giveaway, we got in the right field gate line at noon for a 1:10 game, and barely got inside before first pitch. That should not happen. (It was also raining that day, which really added value to the PA announcements of fan appreciation weekend.) For fans who were at the Giannis jersey game, did you notice a lot of customers (I'm reluctant to say "fans" in this instance) getting their jersey and immediately leaving? On TV the seating bowl looked pretty full. That would bug me on Sundays as we were walking toward the gates and encountered people walking away with their item (sometimes multiple items) in tow. I'd always say something to the SO like "Wow, we must have missed the game."

After the walkoff call, when Bob was reading the list of radio network sponsors, he casually dropped in "Garrett Mitchell" among the Usinger's and Cedar Crest and West Bend The Silver Lining. 😄

WOOOOOO A GAME THREAD

The video production crew (pun unintended) of the last few years is a quality group.

I have *thoughts* on national anthem performances. I suspect I'm an outlier on them, so I won't share them here. I agree that some performances of the Star Spangled Banner are cringe inducing.

25 and under? Wouldn't that include a majority of people not old enough to even start college?

We used to hit up the tundra territory once a year or so, just for a different POV. I think it's now reserved for groups. Womp womp. Somewhere in the MLB dot com archives is FSWI footage of a first inning home run hit to just below our seats in the Territory. If you know where to look, you can briefly see us cheering.

I don't know how active @kalle8 has been on here since the site change, but you gents might have some stories to swap. He's in Italy and his only visit to Milwaukee (to date, she said hopefully) was a 7 game homestand in 2012.

I'm late to this topic, but it's been on my mind for much of this offseason. It feels like there's been less overall communication and outreach from the Brewers - definitely since the 2022 trade deadline, but even before that it hadn't felt the same to me as in recent (let's say pre-covid) years. Does that indicate a waning interest in baseball on Mark A's part? Maybe. Or maybe he decided to lay low after the '22 trade deadline went and was received the way it was. That he branched out into football club ownership contributes to my suspicion that he's not as engaged as he once was. On the other hand, he has expressed an interest in keeping the Attanasio share of the Brewers in the Attanasio family. If you look at the Brewers' current Front Office Directory (https://www.mlb.com/brewers/team/front-office), under Marketing, Mike Attanasio now appears as the Vice President - Fan Engagement, which is a title I have not seen in past media guides (online or print). That appointment would line up generally with the notion of keeping the share in the family. On yet another hand - before I was aware of Mike A's new title, I noticed this tweet from him: Most of the responses he received are from NCFC folks, and he interacted with some of them (replies such as Thanks for the tip!). I noticed few if any Brewers responses, so I sent one (naturally including @brewer_fanatic as a quality follow), and Mike didn't respond to that at all. I guess overall I don't have much new to add to this topic, but I'm noticing less overall fan engagement from the Brewers recently (despite their apparently having a new VP of fan engagement). I don't know what it means, but it makes me uneasy. I do feel like average fans (if not also some diehards) currently have decent cause to ask "if the Brewers aren't coming across as enthusiastic about their product lately, why should I be enthusiastic about supporting them?"

Usher Bill IS the best. He at least used to read this site too! *waving*

I'll admit that the hawing household has scaled back how much ballpark food we eat, mostly because my partner is diabetic and a lot of ballpark staples are not diabetic friendly. We have also continued to mask at games, so we are more likely to stop for Cousins subs or the like en route to the park. Having said that, when I do eat at AFF, I enjoy the baked potatoes, the big warm pretzels (greatly improved since they switched to Milwaukee Pretzel Co products) and (betraying my Madisonness) Ian's Pizza. There's a grilled cheese stand by the hot corner team store which I've also enjoyed, but it was frequently closed during our games in 2022. For beverages, I bring in water or a soft drink and Tom gets a designated-driver voucher. We're rarely in the club seats, but when we have that access, we've had success with the taco bar. You choose your fillings and can ask for enough lettuce to basically have a taco salad instead of a taco. For seating (besides first-base side to stay mostly shaded, because I have two skin settings - pasty and crispy), I love love love our seats in the central loge, below the press box. We've become acquainted with several of the press box regulars and some of the announcers, and I like being able to hear the press box announcements. We also have a 20 pack in the terrace box, and I think it's a best kept secret in terms of the view you get for the price. The key is to land in the sections closer to home plate. Having said that, most of our terrace games are weeknights, which tend to not be super rowdy. Terrace boxes are small enough for guest relations staff to actually be able to keep an eye on things and nip unruliness in the bud. The terrace reserved sections are so much larger that there's no way an usher can see everything. Both our loge and terrace seats are in the family sections. We originally got family section seats when they were designated at County Stadium, because it was the only place in the seating bowl where you couldn't smoke - but we got to appreciating the relative lack of rowdiness/fighting/puking. In both of our family sections, the ushers are attentive, which we also appreciate.

Vinny seems like a no-brainer for a fantasy camp coach type of role.

owbc, if you get there and Vinny Rottino is still on the coaching staff, tell him you know me. Vinny'll take care of you. 😀

Unless he makes a splashy mid-season reacquisition to show the fanbase how cherished we are...no - he will have to find another creative way to stretch the budget.

At least Cutch can't torture the Brewers more than *checks 2023 schedule* 13 MIL-PIT games!

The Brewers gave out 2023 ticket vouchers during Fan Appreciation weekend, and there were enough left over for our guest relations pals to beg us to take more during the season-ending Diamondbacks series. I could mail you one, though the soonest it would go out is Tuesday 1/3. Let me know if that would interest you, either here or on Facebook. ETA: Try emailing the Authentics folks to see if anything from the clubhouse sale stash is still available. gameused at brewers dot com was the contact before, but it may now be teamstore at brewers dot com. (Note that the store is closed for the holidays until Wednesday 1/4.)

Nope, Freddy is Mr. April this year!

Hey, I'll start. For the umpteenth consecutive year, I have a Brewers wall calendar - the kind for which the players to spotlight are chosen months in advance of the actual year, which means there's always someone on the new year's calendar who is already off the roster. The 2023 calendar starts off with Kolten Wong for January, Hunter Renfroe for February and Josh Hader for March. ?

Random, pointless, dumb, or any combination thereof!

The year may be new, but the potential for life to bug us is timeless - so have at it!

https://youtu.be/yD67ClenBEY I thought of this clip just about every time Brad pitched.

If/when they resume the On Deck/fan fest practice, they'll start advertising it before the prior season ends. The 2020 On Deck was advertised at September if not August games in the 2019 season. What doesn't help matters right now (besides covid/finding enough employees to staff it/other Brewers poverty issues/what have you) is the Wisconsin Center is under expansion construction: https://www.buildingmore.com/ The last few were significantly crowded. It would be nice if they'd commit to a Sat/Sun or even Fri/Sat/Sun event so the crowds might be less intense, but I imagine that getting players to spend a full winter weekend in Milwaukee may be a stretch. (Plus imagine thousands of Joe Fans interacting with Mark A right now. Might not be pretty.)