On Sunday, I traveled to Madison Wisconsin for my first baseball game. Having never been to Madison before, I had hoped to scope out the scene, but scheduling dictated I grab a wonderful pregame brunch. Note to travelers visiting state capitals, not much is open on Sundays.

I was curious about the past tenants of (The Duck Pond) Warner Park, the Madison Muskies (1982-93) and the Hatters (1994). The former team was the low-A MWL affiliate of the Oakland A’s and the latter, the Cards affiliate. For a few years, Madison was a member of the independent Northern League. Currently, the Madison Mallards are a member of the Northwoods League (a summer collegiate league). The Night Mares (a women’s softball team calls Warner home. Note: the only time I saw the Muskies play was in Rockford and Ben Grieve was the only prospect of note.

The Mallards have been playing in the NWL since 2001 and have made numerous improvements to the facilities, yet it retains most of the small town, midwestern minor league charm. While waiting to enter the park, the current iteration of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was positioned outside of the park. Even though they no longer hand out whistles, families took advantage of some games and photo ops.

Upon entering the first thing one encounters is a bevy of carnival like games and attractions. Think county fair in the good way. Staffed to the gills with young interns and eager seasonal workers, the Mallards are on top of their marketing game. Placing all of these distractions as you walk in is like placing the sugary cereal on the bottom shelves at a grocery store. Unlike most modern minor league parks, there isn’t a newly built front office. The nicest structure in the underbelly/concourse is the Team Store which is replete with every jersey/cap variation available including the Hatters and Muskies. As is the case with ballparks of this ilk, one can’t view the game from this lower concourse and all but two food and drink options are on this level. They have a wide array of dining and beer options, most being reasonably priced.

With a nod to Wisconsin, the only two stands on the real concourse are a giant ice cream cone and a beer stand directly behind homeplate. Like the zipline that introduces fans to Maynard the Mallard, the stand uses a zipline to service customers. Think the duck from Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life.

Despite their best efforts, the Mallards don’t do as good a job of highlighting how wonderful Warner is. The website and stadium diagram for ticket purchase doesn’t properly portray the many wonderful seating options. Aside from GA and box seats in the bowl, there are several and different group areas with different amenities. I couldn’t have a better seat, a box seat in the first row behind the home manager and coaches. Both coaching staffs are seated on the field adjacent to their dugouts on the homeplate side behind a screen. This allowed me to chat briefly with Donnie Scott of the Mallards, more on him in a subsequent post.

Given all the good things they do, I was disappointed with their media relations. They did provide a four-page guide with both teams’ rosters and scorecards but little in the form of player bios.

One of the things I enjoy most about minor league baseball is the connection between team and community. Every team tries to connect with the larger community and in the case of affiliated ball, the team often gets a helping hand from their ML partner. Summer collegiate teams with a past history to affiliated ball seem to have a better sense of community. Three of the things that really resonated with me were the Hall of Fame, located on the side of the front office. There are dozens of local characters that have somehow impacted Madison baseball, including civic leaders, team employees, fans or players and coaches. Secondly, there are a handful of photos of honored characters posted on the upper concourse. Finally, the team/community annually awards an intern with a $1K scholarship. While most ML teams honor season ticketholders with all sorts of crap, most people wouldn’t recognize them on the street. However, the local color of minor league ball is made of notable characters.

To the game at last.

The division rival Green Bay Rockers sent West Texas A&M, junior, Gavin Brummund against Ty Brooks, a freshman from Indiana State University. Other than some brief research of the Mallard lineup, I entered the game blind and sat back and enjoyed.

After allowing a first inning double to Rockers catcher, Collin Helms, Brooks got out of the inning. The Mallards got things started immediately scoring two runs in the bottom of the first. One run was the result of aggressive baserunning and a stolen base, but the inning was cut short by a caught stealing and a nice catch by the center fielder.

The lady sitting in my row is the co-owner of Maverick the Bat Dog. For the first three innings, Maverick would pick up the bat after every Mallard at-bat. Other than a few between inning games, there weren’t as many on-field interruptions.

Madison tacked on another three runs in the second inning. This is when the game started getting sloppy as the Rockers booted a couple balls, and Brummund threw a couple wild pitches. While there is a pitch clock, the person in charge wasn’t pay too close attention. And while I never minded when pitchers threw over to first with a purpose, I have gotten used to the new rule governing throws to first. Both pitchers took advantage of this exception to the ML rule. Staked to a 5-0 lead, and other than some command issues, Brooks’s only concern was Helms who squared up a fastball for a solo shot in the third inning.

Collin Helms’ solo shot and second of three hits on the day.

By and large the fans were interested in the game, never more than when Humphrey came to the plate. The opposing centerfielder was selected the strikeout victim beer guy of the game. Each time he struck out fans could get 2/1 beers for the rest of the inning. Seasoned vets that they were most of the fans hung by the various beer stands at the start of the inning when he was due to bat. Even the youngest fans were chanting, “Strike him out!” I know they didn’t benefit directly from the strikeouts although the free beers might have taken the edge off of dad.

The specifics of the game weren’t especially interesting as the errors and misplays mounted. I appreciated that the Mallards stole four bases in the first four innings, but were thrown out twice as well. What did keep my interest was watching Brooks battle himself in the top of the 5th inning. After getting the first two outs quickly, he hit a batter, walked a batter and allowed a single. It was a matter of whether he’d escape unscathed or get the hook. I heard Scott mention to his pitching coach that the next batter would be his last. Fully aware of what was being discussed he retired the batter on a routine grounder to third. He was greeted by the entire team who appreciated his grit almost as much as I did.

I felt as if I had escaped a bases loaded jam and warranted a walk around the park. Unfortunately, the different sections prevent one from enjoying a 360 degree of the field. However, I did make it to the left field patio where the stools and four tops are at field level. I left the game sometime in the 8th inning but still considered the game to be a most enjoyable vacation with 5525 of my closest friends.

Incidentally, I love the caps and neon green jerseys that the Mallards sported, but still favor the old school Hatters logo.