Brewers Happy In New Home

MILWAUKEE â€”  The roof leaks and the grass is a mess, but hey, it’s home.

And after 31 years at County Stadium, the Milwaukee Brewers don’t mind a few glitches to go with all that glitter at Miller Park.

In their first season since moving to baseball’s upper middle class, the revitalized Brew Crew has one of the best home records in baseball at 18-8 and is on track to challenge the major league record for home runs in a season.

Never mind the buckets of rain that splash down on the dugouts, behind home plate and at various spots in the undulating outfield grass that’s more suited for a golfing green--the Brewers dig their new digs.

They won 18 of their first 26 games at The Keg, including all 10 in the day before a 7-4 loss to St. Louis on Thursday.

“It’s the polar opposite of County Stadium,� shortstop Mark Loretta said. “I think it’s just the bigger crowds, the amenities here, just getting off to a good start has given us a lot of confidence. We feel like we can win any game here. We’ve just got to improve our road record a little bit and we’ll be fine.�

Away from Miller, the Brewers dropped 13 of their first 20 games, which gave them even more reason to want to play at their $400 million retractable-roof stadium that has something for everyone.

The tattered infield was replaced last week after the Kentucky bluegrass didn’t take root following Milwaukee’s harsh winter. Next up are parts of the outfield where crews have had to roll up the grass and scoop gravel underneath because the ground thawed unevenly this spring.

Mitsubishi, which built the $85 million roof, is still working on ways to patch the leaks along the slits between the five movable panels and its giant pivot, said Scott Jenkins, vice president of stadium operations.

Those annoyances notwithstanding, the Brewers are delighted with their new stadium, where average attendance has increased 61 percent, from 19,919 to 32,131, a number unthinkable before they had a roof over their heads.

The great thing for the purists is that this isn’t a dome. The grass is real, the sun and shadows come into play, just like at Fenway or Wrigley.

“It’s like you’re outside,� said former Brewers infielder Jim Gantner. “It doesn’t have that closed-in feeling like most domes do. They brought the outside in.�

And the crowds, too.

With more money, partly due to a 55 percent increase in the average ticket price, from $11.72 to $18.12, the Brewers are no longer the penny pinchers who had to stamp “BREWERS� across their batting-practice balls in the late 1990s--in case they got mixed up with those of the visitors.