hawing

I'm semi-perversely looking forward to commenting on this when I have more time, which is not right now. Watch this space for what's bugging hawing!

This year's sale was the most underwhelming I can recall. There was markedly less variety than I've ever seen, at midday Friday, which as I mentioned above is our customary arrival time. If you liked the Pennant Pursuit or Chasing H18tory postseason logos (as opposed to Defend MKE or Our Crew, Our October), you were in luck as shirts and hoodies with those logos pretty much filled the clubhouse. It would help if you wore size M or smaller. The lockers surrounding the clubhouse were nearly empty, save for some Spring Training 2018 shirts and other odds and ends. There was not a player shirsey to be seen, anywhere. The visitors' dugout, and hallway between the clubhouse and dugout, had the authentics and I would say more interesting merchandise. 2018 postseason banners, some with a player's face and some merely saying Our Crew, Our October. Those large photo signs that used to be displayed for the day's starting lineup by the home plate entrance. A rack of game-used jerseys, mostly for also-ran/barely-were players and former coaches. A table piled with more such jerseys (mostly BP), for even lesser known players. A modest selection of locker nameplates, not really for big names. Some batting helmets and cracked bats, which I didn't peruse. The most interesting jerseys left over were big ticket - like a Gatorade-stained Aguilar Milwaukee Bears jersey for $1000 (less a 35% discount!). I heard enough reports (besides OldSchoolSnapper's above) of the crowds and lines and long waits for SSHs so I don't regret waiting for Friday to make the trip. It's still always fun to have a day off and a reason to visit Miller Park, and I enjoyed spending some time in the dugout (though with the roof open it was literally as well as figuratively cool). They hadn't even taken down the NLCS signage in the dugout. I'm used to seeing super pricey big ticket stuff, and used to seeing weird leftovers. But every other year we've gone there has been "in-between" merchandise that makes the sale worth our while - the $5 shirseys to wear with ironic pride, general fashion merchandise that works for holiday gifts, etc. This year there was not. So although I'm still glad we missed the Thursday night crowdedness, 2018 is the first year I wondered how much better the selection was on Thursday night.

Copy editing reduces Gannett's profits! (Apologies to any Gannett fans out there, and they're certainly not the only ones skimping on that activity)

For what it's worth, the hawing household is eligible to go during the SSH presale on Thursday evening, but we generally opt to take Friday off and make a day of hanging out in Milwaukee. We usually get to Miller Park late morning or around the noon hour, but I've never walked away empty handed. I'm sure there's cool stuff we miss out on, but on the up side there's rarely a long wait when we are there.

I saw at least one shot glass design (pretty sure it was NL Central Champions) at the terrace level team store during the postseason. The field level stores were constantly jammed whenever I looked so I didn't venture there. I didn't see pint glasses, which is a bummer because I would have got some to go with our 2011 set.

They'll be all set for Mother's Day with the pink accents.

I'm marveling that this thread is nearly five years old!

Me imagining Yelich as a Cardinal:

My credit card does show a refund now, though it's less than the cost of the WS tickets we didn't use. I'm going to have to locate our invoice tonight and crunch the numbers to see if that's "all" we're due back.

My eyeroll is reserved specifically for the Maddon voter. Ultimately, I'm accepting of Snitker getting the nod, as the Braves were likely perceived as going nowhere in 2018 and they went...somewhere. I'm glad Craig was a close second. If Baez is named MVP over Yelich...riots.

I won't completely hate the idea of that coinciding with the holiday shopping season. Not that I spend like a drunken sailor. Apologies to any thrifty drunken sailors in the audience.

Has anyone who paid for the full strip of postseason tickets been refunded for the unplayed games yet? We put the 2018 tickets on my card this year and I covered the balance, but I'm looking forward to what should be a hefty credit. I wasn't expecting a refund immediately, but it's been a bit over three weeks. The cost of our WS tickets exceeded the cost of our 2019 tickets, so applying the overage to next year should still result in a refund. The SSH information on the Brewers' website is all about 2019 now.

I probably should have mentioned that above, but I don't.

Only barely related: The small file cabinet where we keep our Brewers records (like SSH invoices and such) is covered in old magnet schedules. I could have spray painted it a Brewers color but I like the magnet collage better.

One of our 20-packs is also in 217 (not the same package as Patrick425's, otherwise we'd see each other all the time). For the just-completed postseason, we were moved to 218, row 10, and it was glorious. Middle of the row, but since it was the back row we could just climb over to get in and out as needed. We were in front of the radio booth, so there were no SRO fans behind us (instead, photographers, MLB security and at least one "FBI Bomb Tech" - at least that's what his hoodie read). In 2017 and 2014 we would have sat in different parts of 217. In 2011 we were in 222. Those years (and this) were all four-seat blocks because they consider our two 20-packs to be four total seats. We sold the other seats at face value to friends and family. In 2008 (the first year we had two 20-packs) they handled it differently and seated one of our pairs in the terrace box - but really nicely centralized at 421 or so - and one pair in like 211.

That reminds me of the 2007 season (which looked playoff hopeful for a while). The SO's sister-in law was all "hey, if you guys have any playoff tickets you're not going to use..." and my thinking was THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BREWERS PLAYOFF TICKETS I'M NOT GOING TO USE. In 2008 we added a 20-pack (giving us two), which means we're now offered four seats for the postseason. We did bring brother and SIL to one of the NLDS games this year.

Maybe. You can't exchange for absolutely any game. The options are mostly Monday-Thursday games. The Brewers supply a list of eligible games with your season tickets. So if you want to bring 20 people to a Saturday game or all-fan giveaway on a Sunday...it won't work. The other thing is the tickets you exchange can't be for an earlier game in the season. You can't turn in all of your September tickets for a July game, for example. If your group could all come on a Monday - Thursday game, relatively late in the season, with no huge draw like a Cubs opponent or a giveaway...then I suppose you could. When we've done it, it's been with a smaller group (like adding four exchanged tickets to our regular tickets for a game, thus accommodating six people total).

Also if you value having the same seats every time. For some parts of the ballpark it's not super difficult to get the same seats for regular games, but for others your best bet is to lock in a preset plan. If you don't expect to make all 20 games in a package, remember that you can trade unused tickets ahead. There are years when we've done that with multiple pairs and used them on a single game for a bigger group. And I'm going to verify the "king if they make the playoffs" part. I really, really, really liked our postseason seats this go-round. That was the result of 20+ years of having one or two 20-packs.

We're in the back row of a loge section for this postseason and I anticipated having people tower over us (or me at least, since I'm not tall). But we're in front of the press box and radio booth, so the standees we've seen so far have been photographers, MLB security people (per one of the nametags I saw), people in suits who look like they're there to work - and on Saturday a guy whose hoodie read FBI BOMB TECH. So we can stand as often as we want, because we're not blocking any fans; and so far I've felt pretty safe. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For Monday's Game 3, I suspect the more I stick to Bob and Jeff instead of the national media, the closer to fun it will be. The Brewers don't seem to fit the national media narratives, so their usual talking points are just annoying. Plus Joe Buck, man.

I'm not good at selfies. I think I'd have more of a chance if my arms were longer.

Tonight's game kicks off my fall vacation, so I'm at least as excited about some time off work as I am these games. I was oddly not nervous at all about the NLDS (except a bit in the 9th of Game 1), but the NLCS has me a little jittery before we even leave for Milwaukee. Let's have fun!

If you're in Madison and see any Metro buses with GO BREWERS on the marquee, you can partially thank me. We frequently see the Metro administrator on our bus ride to work and in 2011 I asked him why GO BREWERS couldn't be an option while GO PACKERS was. (GO BADGERS has been an option even longer, not surprisingly.) So he made it happen. It is extra satisfying to see interest in the Brewers increase in Madison, which is normally so football crazed. It's one of those nice periods where I don't feel like quite as much of an outlier as usual.

Take that away and they will lose about half their accounts. The way you are awarded your playoff strip doesn't really seem fair to SSH anyway, to be honest. My seats are in the terrace, 421 basically all year. They stick me in 414 for the playoffs. Yet when I go into the presale or even the WI sale, suddenly the best available terrace seats are where I was sitting all year. SSH willingly overpay on regular season tickets to get their privileges. I had a bunch of games with $18 face value ticket that were $6.32 on StubHub. Non-SSH are never complaining about that, only when it works in reverse. The only SSHs who get their regular seat in a postseason are full season ticket holders, because 20 pack customers share each seat they have with up to three other SSHs. That's when they take SSH longevity into account (and it has to be consecutive years; we'd go back to 1993, but we sat out 1995 because of the strike, so the Brewers consider our "rookie season" to be 1996). Why some of those seats are then available is a puzzler, though. I'd guess it's SSHs who were ahead of you in longevity but then didn't buy the strip? Or seats they set aside for possible new SSHs? Maybe assigning those directly to new SSHs is more efficient than checking back with existing SSHs to see if they want to upgrade. I don't know. At the risk of rubbing anything in, which is not my intent, I'm going to echo Patrick425 on the overall benefits of SSH longevity. I've always felt reasonably valued as a Brewers customer, despite not being a top-dollar spender. The perks of recent years are pretty cool (we went down Bernie's slide in April and last year did a Family Play Day that got us access to interesting parts of the park). But last week's NLDS games were literally the first time I found myself thinking "man, all these years of support are paying off." I like our postseason seats that much. They're in the center of the loge within about 15 feet of the TMJ radio booth, so we're about as centered behind home plate as Bob and Jeff are.

Ridiculous. Would serve them right if no one would buy them. I got one on the last SSH discount day of the season...otherwise I'd be waiting too.