So Much For Opening Day Celebration

It's Thursday, March 26th, 2020.

There should have been a huge party at Miller Park today, celebrating the 50th Opening Day for the Milwaukee Brewers. It would have been the 26th with my oldest son, and probably close to 35 for me.

It would have been a BIG party, too, with over 40,000 of my closest friends. Smoke from hundreds of grills hanging in the air. Team owner Mark Attanasio's sons singing the national anthem, following in the tradition of Mark's father doing the honors (wonder if Mark can sing?). A special celebrity tossing out the first pitch. The teams lining up on the first- and third-base sides to be introduced.

And we would have been there in the log infield box, section 213, row 17, seats 10-11-12. Cheering the Brewers on along with long-time friend (and long-time Opening Day participant Stevie), booing and heckling the hated Chicago Cubs.

Instead, baseball at the major and minor league levels is closed until further notice. That not only sucks for fans, but for all the thousands of stadium workers (not to mention ancillary businesses AROUND those stadiums) that suffer. And while MLB teams have allotted $1 million per team to help out, it still won't be enough.

Let's say baseball shuts down until May 17th (picking an arbitrary date here).

Milwaukee would lose 48 games (23 home, 25 road) from the current schedule. That leaves 114 games to play. Roughly 70% of the schedule. Or say baseball comes back, does a brief "spring training" to get back into shape, and returns with 81 games to play -- 50% of a normal schedule.

Either way, easily enough to determine division winners and wild card teams. Or a revamped, just-once playoff scheme.

Meanwhile, the other city's major professional team, the Milwaukee Bucks, is doing what it can to help. After Giannis and Middleton each donated $100,000 to Firserv Forum employees, the ENTIRE TEAM kicked in money to help them.