More is Less

Last night's venture into Cheeseland was unsuccessful on multiple levels. Mark Prior lost again (I've witnessed one of his wins, both of his losses and Carlos Beltran's no decision), which was bad enough. But then I had to endure Miller Park. My thoughts?

A $400 million waste of space. With lousy food.

For those of you who have never been there, don't bother. Let's start with the good:

1) The field of County Stadium has been converted into a little league park. How cool would it be to bat at the same exact spot where Hank Aaron and Robin Yount hit? And there was an actual little league game last night before the main event.

2) There is a designated scalping area. If you stand between two signs, you can sell extra tickets for face or less. But everyone scalps anyway. We were able to get great seats on the 200 level on the first base batting circle for less than we expected.

Thus ends the good stuff.

Now for the bad.

1) Food was atrocious. The kosher dog was bland. The pizza was dry. Choices were too few. This is Wisconsin, right? Shouldn't there be lotsa cooked cow and pig varieties? With fresh CHEESE to slather on? Nope.

2) The architecture was bland: Brick and glass, open in the back and arch-shaped trusses supporting the roof. But inside was a maize of exposed air ducts that made me think, "Why not a few ceiling tiles to cover this mess?"

3) In game entertainment was minor league quality. Everyone knows the sausage races. They are (obviously) much better on the 4 second replay than the actual event. But every other half inning was some not-so-hot babe on the centerfield screen talking to fans and doing trivia contests. I haven't seen that gimmick used so much since I went to a Delaware Blue Rocks game. Here's a hint. Play music and do nothing with the chick. Either that or much, much, MUCH more cleavage.

4) Scoreboard updates for away games? Every three innings. On the plus side, we didn't learn the Cards had taken the lead until nearly 10:00.

5) Parking we circled the whole park to get to our space. Which was "Preferred"! Then again, it was only $12, so, at least it was cheap.

There's more, but that's enough. Save your bux. Go see the Cubs at Wrigley. Don't line Bud Selig's pockets any more than we already do.