Actually Scott just looked it up on line. The Mallards are a collegiate summer baseball team in the "Northwoods" league. Well, there you go.
Someone I work with had told me about the Mallards last year. Scott and I love to go to baseball games and we aren't going to get to see a pro game this year, so we decided to check out the Mallards last night.
It was so fun.
We just decided that same day to go to the game. When Scott tried to get tickets, all the general seating tickets were sold out. I was more than a little surprised by that. I didn't think Mallards games were that big of a deal. Even though there was no general seating, what they did have available were tickets to the "Blind Duck" area of the ball park. The tickets were $27.00 each, and it included all-you-can-eat and all the beer you can drink.
All you-can-eat and all the beer you can drink? No brainer. We're in.
It was an absolutely spectacular night for a baseball game. Sunny. Breezy. Mild temps. The ballpark is on the north side of Madison. I'm not very familiar with that side of town, but we discovered that the ballpark is in a big, beautiful city park area: Warner Park. The ball park where the Mallards play is dubbed the "Duck Pond".
Here are a couple pictures as we walked up to will-call to get our tickets.
It was like a little miniature professional baseball park. Not what I expected. I was a little impressed. This was parked on display out front.
Yes, that would be an El Camino. And not just any El Camino....the Schlitz El Camino.
I have to write that again.....the Schlitz El Camino. In 2011, no one should ever say "Schlitz" or "El Camino", let alone say them together.
Here are the tickets we picked up at will-call.
Allow me to draw your attention to the price of the tickets.
The picture is kind of blurry, but the price is listed as "Beer". Hey Mastercard--that's even better than 'priceless'.
When we walked in the gate (which let me just mention it's much harder to get through those turn-style admittance gates since I have gained so much weight....) there was a big group of people handing out a bunch of free stuff; visors, bag clips, etc. etc.. The Mascot from Madison Area Technical College (where Scott goes to school) was there.
True-to-form for a ball diamond, beer was readily available quickly upon entry.
There were concessions, lots of things for kids to do, and a darn cute barn-like team store/gift shop.
It really was like being at a mini- professional baseball park. So unexpected and so cool. Right here in little Madison, Wisconsin. Population: 212,000 and 42,000 of those are college students.
We made our way around the ballpark to the Blind Duck area. It's located back in the left field area. We had to show our tickets and ID to get in. We got wrist bands and these:
A plastic cup that you can keep refilling over and over and over again with beer. A refillable cup. Now that's pretty smart. Cuts down on waste.......although being the germ-o-phobe that I am, I'm not sure how I feel about the rims of cups where people's mouths have been, touching the tap where the beer is poured. I just shuddered. I can't think about that more. I can only hope when they poured the beer that they didn't let the used cups touch the tap. (shudder)
After entering the Blind Duck area, we quickly made our way to fill our cups for the first time. There was a pretty big selection of beer and it was nice and cold. We also checked out the all-you-can-eat menu.
The Duck Blind area doesn't have typical ballpark seating. There are picnic tables and standing room on a couple different levels of decking and there were some benches along the fence. The area was packed with people, including what appeared to be several corporate parties.
As you can see, the beer areas were clearly marked. God, I love Wisconsin. Ain't nobody here ashamed about drinking beer.....or eating fried cheese.
See that fellow in the big yellow hat in the picture above? Big yellow hats must be kind of popular at these games. This fellow had one on too.
Perhaps these are the Mallards version of the Packer's Cheeseheads.
When I first learned about the "Duck Blind" area, I thought the blind part might have something to do with the fact that there is all you can drink beer. You know, like drinking yourself blind. I later came to assume it's called the Duck Blind area because you can't see the game. Scott and I landed seats on the benches along the fence on the left field line. We could definitely see left field clearly and we could see most of the rest of the field, but we couldn't see the batter. Watching the batter is kind of a big part of watching a baseball game.
Oh well. In spite of not being able to see the batter, we still had fun. As I mentioned, it was a spectacular evening for a game. Here is a shot looking out across the field from our seats.
It looks like you could jump right up and grab those clouds. I have mentioned before that the sky up here looks different to me than the sky looks in Ohio. It seems more expansive and the clouds seem closer to the earth. It's beautiful here.
Apparently extensive renovations were done to the Duck Pond ballpark last year. They had many updated features, but kept some of the old charm as well, like the old scoreboard where someone has to manually change the numbers each inning.
This is a shot looking out across the outfield. Like big-league parks, there was plenty of corporate advertising. Another thing I love about the Wisconsin outdoors, in addition to the sky, is all the big trees and greenery that surround almost everything; beaches, ball diamonds, you name it. Lots of big trees all around.
Just to prove we couldn't see the batters during the game, this was the view looking down the left field line towards home plate (at least I assumed home plate was down there) as the visiting team warmed up.
No home plate to be seen. We really couldn't see any of the infield very well. Except the pitchers mound. We could clearly see that because it was the biggest pitchers mound I have ever seen. Actually, I wouldn't call it a pitcher mound.....I'd call it a pitchers mountain.
That picture doesn't really do justice to how high the mound was.
According to what we read on-line, part of the purpose of the summer collegiate league is to give college baseball players a sense of what it would be like to play ball in the minor league. That's the rationale behind having the ballpark set up the way it is. There were other things that were structured like a pro (or semi-pro) game, like watering down the infield before the game started.
Watering the infield isn't anything particularly special, but what was entertaining was the fact that right before the crew finished watering, they dropped the hose and did Michael Jackson's dance routine to Thriller. We found it quite humorous. They also had various types of entertainment between innings, shooting t-shirts into the crowd, that kind of thing. A couple times, people in those blow-up costumes came out and danced. Scott and I laughed so hard. Watching those big blow-up costumes wiggle and jiggle while doing a dance routine is just one of those things you have to see to appreciate how funny it is.
Another piece of entertainment at the game is right before the opening pitch. Maynard G. Mallard, the team mascot, come blazing in on a zip line. We missed it while we were at the game and had to settle for the You Tube version. In case you'd like to take a gander: link
It turned from day light to dark while we were there. There was a big old full moon up in the sky. Lovely night.
That about sums it up. We had a great time at the Madison Mallards game. We love the atmosphere at baseball games. It was a great night to be outdoors. All-you-can-eat and all the beer you can drink. Makes me feel like singing.
Take me out to the ball game
Take me out with the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks
I don't care if we never get back
Oh let's root, root, root for the home team
If they don't win it's a shame
For it's one, two, three strikes you're out
At the old....ball....game!
1 comment:
Shameless Beer Drinking?? Now that's the Good Life!
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