The blog Wisconsinology has a post from the equivalent of the Book of Genesis to explain the, um, genesis of the W. But, first...
In 1994, the Appleton Foxes played two blocks from my house at Goodland Field, a 1940's era baseball park that could have easily been mistaken for the aging high school sports facility that it was. The Foxes still wore their 70's era uniforms and the sight of them warming up and taking batting practice at the old field was easily visible from any of the bordering streets in the old, close to downtown neighborhood that surrounded the field. From my home office window I could hear them play.Ever wonder about where A-Rod lived in Appleton? Wonder no more!
...
The loudest cheers that summer were for an exciting new prospect who had just moved into a small duplex in town with his mother. "At bat, Alex Rodriguez....Rodriguez" The talk was that The Foxes parent team (The Seattle Mariners) had snagged the greatest all around phenom ever.
Now to the main part:
One day, Tim Robertson, a neighbor of mine who was in advertising came by my house. He and a designer named Donna Frankenburg had come up with a proposed name change for the Foxes. The team would be soon moving to a brand new ballpark in Grand Chute, just west of Appleton, near the mall and they needed a complete makeover. Donna, who also happened to be a complete baseball nut, had come up with a new name, a new uniform design, team colors, and so much more. They came to me because they needed a cap logo (cap insignia). One problem. I don't do logos or insignias. In fact, I don't do still pictures. I'm a filmmaker. I only do motion. What the hell. That afternoon I came up with a cap logo for the new team - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The following year, the new team and the logo were a big hit.The twist in the story.
I don't really like The Timber Rattlers or their stadium out near the mall or their ubiquitous hat design (it's all over this town, you can't escape it). I miss that summer. 1994. When the Appleton Foxes and Alex Rodriguez played two blocks from my house in a small, open stadium that was built a half century before.Well, come on out, Flasputnik. We miss you at the stadium.
There are pictures at the post.
Also, this post started a bit of a conversation in the office the other day. This led to digging out some old newspaper clippings. Those documents may be turned into a series of posts here on Rattler Radio, a series of articles on the main Timber Rattler website, or an article in PLAYBALL! next season.
It hasn't been decided yet.
6 comments:
"Now that's how you supposed to drive! From now on that's how you drive!"
That quote (anybody?...anybody?) really has nothing to do with blogging, but the first thought that came into my head when i read this most interesting of posts, Now that's why I come to Rattler Radio (for stuff like this that i'd have never found on my own).
Then the above movie quote popped in my head (I realize after the "Now!!!" part it's kinda a stretch).
But, nice pull Chris. Interesting.
Maybe it's just me. I graduated UW-L in spring of '95 and bounced around Madison and LaCrosse for less then two years before arriving in the Valley early '97.
So I don't know baseball at Goodland Field. But on occasion when avoiding College Ave traffic and i drive by it, i can't imagine playing or watching baseball there.
FCS@TWCF is a beautiful park (where did they tailgate at GF?).
Maybe it's a nestalgia thing, I don't know. I have fond memories of family outings, senior skip day (vs. the A's, for some unknown reason i loved Luis Polonia...despite the fact that he was sleeping with teenage girls (I think i found my answer..)...largest outfielders glove i've ever seen with my own two eyes) and road trips to tailgate in the snow of April....(Big Steven A Smith) However, i would not trade back in Miller Park.
So C'mon guys, don't be afraid of the corporate sized name (Fox Cities Stadium @ Time Warner Cable Field), c'mon out.
I understand, you may not appreciate the aura of Goodland Field if you never watched the Foxes there or grew up going to games there. I'm 27, and have grown up in Appleton.
I think the oldness of it was really it's appeal. I remember as a kid going to games for a couple of bucks with my dad, and being able to score nachos for like 1.50. I remember sitting on those itchy plastic benches and having the announcer announce "Rauuuuul Ibaneeeeezzzz" and a small crowd saying "WHOOOOO????" with the announcer replying "Ibanez" and the crowd answering back "Ohhhhhhh". This went on for every player announced in the lineup. I just remember little things like that that shaped my memories of learning the game of baseball at Goodland. I remember kids sneaking in through the holes in the fence along the street that was supposed to be covered in "ivy". I also remember kids not only sneaking into the game this way, but sneaking in and out to chase foul balls that landed out on the street or landed around the factory kiddy corner from the field. I just remember the small "stadium" feel that minor league baseball should be.
Finally, there was A-Rod. I think a lot of people that talk about how great Goodland was just because they remember A-Rod played there. To be fair, he was only there for a couple months (or even if that, if I remember correctly). I think I was about 12-ish at the time, but I remember my dad coming home one day and raving about how great this young kid was that he saw play. He took me to a game the next day and we made it a point to take in as many games as we could from then on until A-Rod got moved, because we didn't want to miss him and knew he wouldn't last long. Over those next few weeks, my dad had several conversations with him, and had him sign several items (he probably has 40-50 items signed by him, cards, magazines, bats, balls, etc.) These are things he would never sell, but are instead items that will get passed down to me, and to my future kids and so on, they have become heirlooms. My dad loves to tell the story of how relaxed "security" was at the stadium...he tried to catch A-Rod after a game one night but he had already gone to the training room to get attention for something minor. My dad just went over to the training room and knocked on the door to see if he would sign a couple things for his son who couldn't make it to the game that night (me). A-Rod told him he'd be happy to when he was finished getting treatment and invited him to wait in the locker room for him and he'd be out in ten minutes, and my dad did just that. A-Rod came out as promised and met him in the locker room where he signed and talked for about 15 minutes. A friend of mine in elementary school was one of the many batboys at Goodland Field, and on a couple of occassions actually got rides home from A-Rod after the game. How cool is that?
It is stories like these that remind us of how great Goodland Field was, and the down to earth atmosphere it had. I love the T-Rats and Fox Cities Stadium, I go to a lot of games during the year and enjoy how new the place still feels, maybe this makes me sound way too old and crotchety, but I still cringe sometimes when I look around the stadium and people don't seem to even know the score of the game, let alone which team is even the home team. I understand the Rattlers have to make a profit to stay afloat (or at least break even), but sometimes I miss the days when I was a kid and we went to the game just to watch the game (and get foul balls). The promo the T-Rats used to run "Come for the fun, stay for the game" drove me crazy. I understand why they ran it and why they do all the silly promotions, but it still rubs me the wrong way sometimes and I wish for "simpler" times, when minor league baseball was played in front of a crowd of 500 people on a hot summer night in a neighborhood "stadium", and it was just baseball, and that was all it needed to be, because "just baseball" was enough.
I love the new stadiums, I really do...and I love Miller Park, but it doesn't mean that I'll ever completely forget about places that I grew up learning the game of baseball, places like Goodland, and County Stadium and my local little league field. I'm at least glad that they kept a baseball field at the Goodland site, and didn't just totally redevelop the property into something like a strip mall.
I guess the love people still have for places like Goodland is simply summed up as "you had to be there to truly appreciate it". If you weren't, there's nothing wrong with it, my nephews (4, 6 and 9)now that I take to games at TWC have no idea who the Foxes were, and that's fine, but it's different. Hopefully some day they'll have great stories about how they saw Triunfel play, high fived Aumont, or got to shake the hand of Mike Moustakas while he was in town.
Sorry for the book, I'm not always as able to express my thoughts as clearly and concise as I'd like to, but I hope you get the picture.
That said, Wrigley is still, and always will be a dump to me. Go Brewers.
Josh, I hear ya and you're probably right in that i truly can't appreciate Goodland because I was never there.
Great memories and no apologies needed for rambling, that's what other peoples blogs are for (for ka-riced-sakes, i strung together a run-on-sentence about Luis Polonia!!!).
And i couldn't agree with you more on two points. I know the Rattlers don't like it, but I love those cold April (sometimes May) games when there are 500 people in the park because they love baseball.
One of my more recent fondest memories was an April day game (I take a half day for every week day, day game) in which it was cold, windy and cloudy. Listed attendance was 400 people and Tui hit one over the LF wall into the teeth of said wind. It was great.
The second point I couldn't agree more on is the uneducated fan there simply to be there. It is amazing to me watching the game and to have a couple or group of people just gabbing about everything but the game that's going on in front of them. I don't want anybody getting seriously hurt or anything, but those are the games in which i think a foul ball resulting in a nice black and blue raspberry is in order :)
Those are some good thoughts at the end to. I of course had absolutely nothing to do with it, but i felt a strange sense of pride when Tui got called up at the end of last year (just ask Mehring, i've got a bit of a man-crush on Tui...I'm working on my Cutter Dykstra crush, but Tui's still number one...) simply because i watching him over the course of a season here.
There is something about minor league baseball though. I haven't read yet but if Coach Santo Domingo is in Clinton this year, i'll be making a road trip to see him against the Rattlers that series in April.
We'd exchange greetings each game i was at and give the ole Sammy Sosa fist to chest and point thing and on that Thursday season finale he came back out of the dug out after the game and gave me a brand spanking new ball (peach fuzz, like a......peach) that he'd autographed. I'm 36 but i felt like i was 12 again. Unlike your dad's A-Rod autographs (which are nice by the way) this isn't worth anything, but it's priceless to me and it'll be in the cube i bought on a shelf in my office forever.
Now who's rambling....
Josh, good exchanging with you. Don't be a stranger. I think Mehring is sick of my comments and i'm tired of being the only one to comment anyway.
Mike
PS - I know this isn't going to be in your wheelhouse and is probably a little before your time, but... Mr. Mister or The B52's?
So where did A Rod stay when he was with the Foxes?
Kid,
It's funny about your mancrush on Polonia...I remember him, but only because I remember his stolen base speed was incredible when I used to play Tony LaRussa '92 baseball on my Sega Genesis back in the day...at least I think that was the game...maybe it was 94...I don't remember, I just remember Polonia used to kill me, but Pat Listach and Daryl Hamilton were equally impressive. I also vaguely remember having like 20 copies of Luis Polonia's 1991 Score baseball card...I think it was the red one with dots all over it and players names in cursive.
Interesting hearing your thoughts about Tui...I was out of town at college when he was making his way through and never really saw him, save for a couple games that I don't really remember.
But, when it comes to the B-52's and Mr. Mister, I'll have to lean towards Mr. Mister but only by default. I've actually never heard of Mr. Mister, but I just know that the B-52's have always sort of creeped me out. The lady with the red hair beehive just seems too odd for my taste, and the male lead singer just screams "child molester" to me everytime I see him on tv. I don't know...but there's just something creepy about the whole band that rubs me the wrong way.
Anyways, back to the T-Rats...glad to see Erickson is going to be on the staff, he was good friends with my older brother during junior high/high school (Rosey Tech!) and I had his dad as a baseball coach and gym teacher in high school. Random fact, I believe Matt's first basehit was during his brief callup a couple of years ago at Wrigley against the evil empire, and while I could be wrong, I believe his first hit (and only career major league hit)came off of none other than Greg Maddux...hmm, I'll have to go google that now. I know it's a homer choice, but I always thought he got a bit of a raw deal with his career in the Marlins' system, he never showed much power in the minors, but I always though he could have been a Craig Counsell type player if given more time in the big leagues. Oh well.
4 months to go!
hi there, i collect alex rodriguez items. just curious what your dad has and maybe we can trade. joelsabi at gmail dot com.
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