52,496 Reasons to love Milwaukee

It was the fall of 1995 when I was transferred to Milwaukee, by my (then) employer. People kept asking us, how do you like Milwaukee? Is it very different from Toronto? How do you like the Midwest?

My answer to the question is that we immediately liked living in Milwaukee. I describe it as a little big city. It has major league baseball, basketball in town, and our beloved Green Bay Packers, just a couple of hours drive away.

Traffic is virtually non existent (as compared to Chicago or Toronto, my former home town).

But the real reason we like Milwaukee so much is the people who live here. And nothing exemplifies this fact better than the past three days.

The week, Miller Park, home of the Brewers, hosted a three game series between Cleveland Indians and the Angels of Anaheim. On extremely short notice, Cleveland called the folks at Miller park and asked to borrow the venue for their home opener series, because the weather was just too crappy in Cleveland to play baseball. Rather than try to reschedule the entire series, they opted to play three "home games" at Miller Park, while the Brewers were on the road in Florida.

Without hesitation, the folks at Miller Park said yes, then immediately went about trying to make it happen. That's the kind of people we have here.

With virtually no prior warning, the games were placed on sale with all tickets $10 and preferred parking for $8. They sold the field level seats first, then the loge (second level seats) next, trying to sell the venue from the bottom up, in order to run the concession stands effectively and to minimize post game cleaning efforts to those levels where seating was sold.

No one knew whether anyone would show up. With virtually no warning, on a Tuesday evening in April at 6:05pm, 19,031 fans arrived to root for the "hometown" Indians. On Wednesday evening, literally minutes after a record breaking April blizzard blew through town, 16,375 fans enjoyed the second game. Just minutes ago, I returned from the third "getaway" game. The 12:05pm Thursday start garnered 17,090 fans.

Total attendance for the three games was an astounding 52,496. And that's why I love Milwaukee.

Getting to Fourth Base

Yesterday, some friends asked me to meet them for a couple of beers after work, at a small hole-in-the-wall sports bar called Fourth Base.

Before yesterday I didn't even know the place existed.

As it turns out, Fourth Base, which is located just south of Miller Park, (here in Milwaukee) is a Brewer fan favorite. Its walls (and ceiling) are completely covered in sports memorabilia. The televisions constantly broadcast all things sports related. The cramped quarters and noisy atmosphere are augmented by a tremendous staff, surprisingly great food and of course, cold beer.

It's the last place you'd consider high tech.

By complete coincidence I had downloaded Google Earth yesterday morning just to play around with its features and functionality. So when I got the call to meet up at Fourth Base, I decided to see if I could find it using Google Earth.

I launched Google Earth, clicked on "Find Businesses" tab and typed "Fourth Base, Milwaukee".

Lo and behold I was presented with a satellite photo of the area, with a red "push pin" identifying the very building on National Avenue. Clicking on the push pin presented me with an option of driving directions, showed me it had been rated "5 stars" and hosted links to 3 reviews of the place.

I never got the chance to ask the staff whether they knew they were listed on Google Earth, but after sampling the food, beer and service at Fourth Base, I have resolved to do more restaurant research from 200 miles up in space.