For the uninitiated or those who didn’t listen closely to Bob Uecker’s voice when he called Brewer baseball for over fifty years, he described a perfect strike as being “right down Wisconsin Avenue.”
Throughout the Brewers’ championship stretch in the World Series, baseball is truly overtaking our city, and not just with good vibes among ecstatic fans. Wisconsin Avenue is home to four separate baseballs that have now become pieces of public art, including love notes to the Crew, messages for friends, fans and family.
Celebrate this year’s winners of the Betty Awards!
No one’s exactly sure when the messages started, but each of the baseballs are bursting at the seams with notes to the Brewers, many of which are inscribed with tributes to loved ones. My wonderful partner and I strolled Wisconsin Avenue late Sunday afternoon and immediately encountered the Humphrey family, who had surrounded the baseball on 4th street, right in front of The Capital Grille.
These baseballs are becoming a living, breathing tribute to baseball in our community. We bumped into a family part of MLB’s Playball initiative, who were in town due to their daughter/granddaughter’s incredible skills on the diamond. The switch-hitting phenom plays second base on a travelling team and was honored on the field prior to game two of the World Series, on Saturday night at American Family Field.
Further east along Wisconsin Avenue, we found another pair of baseballs, one positioned in front of the Pfister Hotel, well known for providing the Brewers with a phantasmic home-field advantage (thanks to the ghost of Uncle Charlie). Right across the street sits another ball, around which huddled a group of four, all clad in Brew Crew gear. They share some stories of County Stadium’s unique glory, of family members long gone to whom they dedicate the hopes for Brewer immortality.
No matter if you’ve been a fan since the 1957 Milwaukee Braves won it all with Hank Aaron, since 1982 with Harvey’s Wallbangers or you just realized that Jackson Chourio is the next gen Robin Yount, the Brewers have room for you in their blue and gold hearts. And so do the baseballs on Wisconsin Avenue, but hurry before your message must be written in microscopic font as the city reflects on their World Series victory.
