Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Milwaukee’s Miller Park is a fine home away from home for Chicago’s baseball fans. Like Milwaukee itself, it’s friendly and inviting, big but not too big, and with a pleasantly diminished volume level compared with our ballparks — and our city. The stadium has its idiosyncracies: three Harley-Davidson motorcycles (a local source of civic pride) lined up just below where Bernie Brewer goes down the slide on Milwaukee homers, pom-pom girls (there are no cheerleaders in baseball!), and, of course, the wienie race of hot-dog mascots midway through the game. (The place takes as much pride in its eats as Sox Park, which is saying something, and a lot more than Wrigley.) The V-shaped opening in the retractable roof makes for a high contrast of light and shadow on sunny days, and, with the unusual configuration according to the compass, the shade from the grandstand crosses from the first-base line to left field, making left an even more wicked sun field than at Sox Park. Still, it’s a lovely ballpark, impressive on my first visit.
