Read the Dog Blog

• Home
• Dog Blog 2025
• Dog Blog 2024
• Dog Blog 2023
• Dog Blog 2022
• Dog Blog 2021
• Dog Blog 2020
• Dog Blog 2019
• Dog Blog 2018
• Dog Blog 2017
• Dog Blog 2016
• Dog Blog 2015
• Dog Blog 2014
• Dog Blog 2013
• Dog Blog 2012
• Dog Blog 2011
• Dog Blog 2010
• Dog Blog Singapore
• Family Photos Archive

Brewer Baseball Weekend

Sandy and I are both big Brewer baseball fans. We subscribe to MLB.TV to stream Brewer games and usually watch about 150 games out of the 162 game major league season. Besides that, we usually go to a couple of games in person each year. So we count as pretty serious fans.

After winning the NL Central Division the past two years, this was predicted to be a down year for the Brewers. They lost their home run leader, Willy Adames, to free agency. They also traded their all star closer, Devin Williams, during the off season since he had only one year left before he bacame a free agent. Meanwhile, the rival Chicago Cubs made two major additions. They acquired Kyle Tucker from the Astros and also signed Shota Imanaga, the most sought after pitcher coming to the US from Japan. Most baseball analysts predicted Milwaukee finishing no better than third. It certainly looked like the experts were right, as they started the season getting swept by the Yankees in three blowouts. That was followed by a terrible stretch in early May when they were shut out six times in fifteen games. Meanwhile the Cubs were rolling and the Brewers fell to six and a half games out of first place.

As the season went on the Brewers got better and better. Around the All Star break, they put together an eleven game winning streak and caught up to the Cubs. Sandy suggested that we take a quick trip to Wisconsin to see the Brewers play a series with the Marlins. I agreed as long as we could make a trip to Barbiere's Italian Inn, my favorite restaurant in Milwaukee. Fortunately we were able to arrange a dog sitter for a long weekend on short notice.

We flew to Chicago on Thursday afternoon (an off day for the Brewers, of course) and drove up to Stoughton, Wisconsin. I was a little worried about traffic near O'Hare but it wasn't bad. Friday morning we were able to visit with Sandy's mom and sister before leaving for the drive to Milwaukee. The game started in the middle of the afternoon, an unusual start time, due to a special event. There were a bunch of Brewer alumni players who came to participate in a home run derby which was held after the "real" game.

The series didn't get off to a good start. The Brewers lost 5-1. They had only four hits and their only run came on a solo home run by Jackson Chourio. Not a very exciting game. After that, we didn't feel like sticking around for the home run derby. Instead we went to Barbiere's and had a glass of chianti and some excellent pasta. That made us feel a little better. A stop at Gillies for frozen custard helped even more. It claims to be the oldest frozen custard stand in Milwaukee.

Saturday's game was in the evening so we had some free time before we had to get to the ballpark. We started the day by walking to a George Webb for breakfast. Pretty much anywhere you are in Milwaukee, there is a George Webb in walking distance. On the way back to the hotel we checked out Aggie's Bakery for doughnuts but didn't really find anything that we liked. They featured mainly cakes, cookies and cupcakes. We had to settle for a stop at the Dunkin Donuts right next to the hotel. Oh well. You can't always get what you want when you are traveling.

We still had time to kill so we took a trip downtown. First we went to the Historic Third Ward. When I was growing up in Milwaukee it was just an old industrial area south of downtown. In recent years it has been renovated with new restaurants, shops and apartments. We visited the Milwaukee Public Market, which is filled with specialty food vendors. It looked like there was a lot of cool stuff there, but it was so crowded that we could barely move. We didn't stay long. Big crowds aren't our thing.

The area had a lot of upscale restaurants and bars which had nice patios and sidewalk seating. It would be pleasant to stop for some food or a drink on a nice sumer day like today. Unfortunately they were already packed even though it was just late morning. Sandy was surprised by how many people were doing serious day drinking since it wasn't even noon yet. I wasn't. I grew up in Milwaukee.

Next we took a short walk north of downtown to visit St. John's Cathedral. Although I lived on the far southwest side when I was growing up, our local church had a deal with an inner city parish school and I was bussed downtown for second and third grade. I went by where my old school was. And when I say old school, I mean old. The building was over a hundred years old when I was a student. The school is long gone. There's just a parking lot where it used to be. A block away is Cathedral Square, a small park that we used to go to for our lunch recess. Somehow it seemed a lot smaller than I remember it. Maybe I'm just bigger. Across from the park is St. John's Cathedral, where we used to go for mass. The corner stone was dated 1847, so the church was old even when I went there as a kid. We looked inside and it was quite beautiful. It is still functioning as the seat of the Milwaukee Archdiocese. There were quite a few people inside. It looked like a wedding had just finished.

On the walk back to our car we passed the Pfister Hotel. The most famous hotel in downtown Milwaukee for many decades, it's where most visiting teams stay when they come to play the Brewers. Sure enough, there were three coaches lined up waiting outside, and two guys in Marlins gear were chatting next to the buses. If we had hung around we could have seen the Miami Marlins heading to the stadium for the game. Would have done it for the Brewers but I'm not even sure I would recognize any of the players on the Marlins.

Just before we got back to the car we made one more stop at the Historic Milwaukee shop. They had various Milwaukee souvenirs as well as books on Milwaukee history. The one that caught my eye was Milwaukee Frozen Custard. Frozen Custard is a big deal in Milwaukee and this had the history of some of the famous custard stands in Milwaukee, like Leon's, Kopp's and Gilles. Of course I had to get the book. And then since we wanted to get a snack before going to the game, of course we had to go to Gilles again.

Saturday the Brewers showed a little more life but still lost 7-4. So far the baseball weekend wasn't going as well as we had hoped. The Marlins were supposed to be easy pickings after the tough teams the Brewers had been beating. But every major league team is dangerous.

Sunday was an afternoon game. It looked like more of the same as the Brewers were down 2-1 going into the late innings. But they scored a run in the eighth inning to tie the game and another run in the ninth to win 3-2. An exciting game to finish our trip. Next would be a big three game series with the Cubs, who the Brewers were tied with for the division lead. But we would have to watch those on tv at home.

After the game we stopped at Ned's Pizza. It's another one of my old favorite spots. Whenever I would visit my parents, my dad would always get pizza from Ned's. When we got there we learned that they no longer had a dining room - only carry out. Bummer. So we went across the street to grab some snacks at WalMart for the drive to Chicago. We got in and out pretty quickly as the neighborhood definitely seemed kind of seedy. That was kind of sad, as the area was one of my old childhood haunts where the Southgate mall used to be. I went to summer school at nearby Pulaski High School. I went to St. Luke's Hospital when I broke my arm in sixth grade. Leon's was just across the street, our go to place for custard when I was a kid. The neighborhood had definitely gone down hill though.

After that we drove to Chicago. For a Sunday evening, I was surprised at the amount of traffic. We made it without incident. We stayed at the O'Hare Airport Hilton so we would be in postion to catch our flight home the next morning. We had dinner at the hotel and even though I just had a pizza and Sandy had a salad, it was the most expensive meal that we had on the whole trip. Everything is more expensive in airports, and I guess that goes for airport hotels too.

Next day our flights home were uneventful. As always, Abby was glad to see us.