Mapping the path

EASTERN MIDWEST BASEBALL

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

Dad and I continue north to Appleton, Wisconsin, where we visit the History Museum at The Castle, admire the Fox River at Fratello’s Waterfront Restaurant, and take in the Trout Museum of Art before our game with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the High-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They battle the Beloit Sky Carp in a game with an exciting walk-off win.

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With just two days, two ballparks, and two games to go on our mad baseball odyssey, Dad and I pressed on further north towards Appleton, Wisconsin.

The Midwest has a well-earned reputation for having many driving routes that are endlessly flat and dull. Hills or even slight inclines are rare. Trees are scarce. Curves are a luxury for the inefficient. But driving through rich farmland with your dad on a sunny summer morning in Wisconsin, with more birds about than people, is a pretty great way to spend a morning. We listened to podcasts that made us laugh, and others that covered the team we would see later that night, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

Appleton is a city of about 75,000 in the heart of the Fox River Valley, about 30 miles southwest of Green Bay. The river that flows through town originates about 80 miles further southwest before it joins the much longer Wolf River near Oshkosh and empties into Lake Winnebago, just south of Appleton. From there, the Fox continues to Green Bay (the city) and empties into Green Bay (the Lake Michigan waterway).

We cruised through the center of town and parked near College Avenue, where a sizable Saturday market was in full swing.

It took us approximately 13 seconds to find a stand brimming with beautiful local cheese wedges.

A full floor of the museum is devoted to the life of Houdini, who amazed crowds at the turn of the 20th century with illusions, stunts, and daring escapes from perilous circumstances. He was a national sensation for decades and even appeared in several Hollywood films.

Like fellow illusionists The Amazing Randi and Penn & Teller, Houdini acknowledged — at least, later in his career — that tricks were being played on the audience during his act. He took it a step further, spending much of the 1920s exposing some of the most famous psychics and mediums of the time as frauds. Houdini’s experience in fooling others gave him the training to catch grifters in the act. He even joined a Scientific American committee that offered a cash prize to any medium who could demonstrate supernatural abilities. None could.

I wandered up into the temple hall and found a series of displays on the black experience in Appleton and the surrounding “Fox Cities.” The story was shameful: Black people effectively were not allowed to stay overnight in Appleton from 1930 until 1970, six years after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that legally ended segregation in America. This discrimination was not enforced by laws on the books but by police and residents who, let’s say, strongly encouraged black people to leave after sundown.

We walked down to the basement level to find the conventional history museum. It told the story of Chief Oshkosh of the Menominee tribe, who ceded the territory to the United States in 1836. Americans established settlements along the Fox River by 1847, and Appleton was incorporated 10 years later.

The paper industry dominated the city’s economy in the early decades, with the first mill starting operations in 1853. The industry’s growth was fueled by the invention of hydroelectric power and the world’s first Edison hydroelectric central station, the Vulcan Street Plant, built on the Fox River in Appleton in 1882. By the early 1900s, 10 paper mills operated in town. In 2005, the last holdout of the Digital Age, the Kerwin Paper Co. plant, closed its doors for good.

The museum does a nice job of chronicling local life over the years. It includes a baseball from a 1941 game featuring the Appleton Papermakers, a minor league team that played in the Wisconsin-Illinois League from 1909-1914 and in the Wisconsin State League from 1940-1942 and 1946-1953.

As we left the museum, I walked across the street to get a glimpse of the campus for which College Avenue is named: Lawrence University, a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music founded in 1847 that was the second-ever college in the U.S. to be founded as a coeducational institution.

I had the Short Rib Panino. Dad had the Salmon BLT. Add crispy fries and a cool beer, and it all hit the spot.

I dropped Dad off at the front gate and parked the car some distance away. Walking back, I passed more than a hundred tailgaters carrying on a rich Wisconsin tradition. It was striking that I’d never seen a single tailgater at any of the 77 minor league ballparks I had visited previously, and here virtually every fan seemed out for a pre-game picnic, sat in portable chairs next to coolers and tables full of hot dog fixings.

The Timber Rattlers franchise traces its roots back to the team that succeeded the Papermakers in Appleton, the Fox Cities Foxes, who played in the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League from 1958 until 1961. The Foxes jumped to the Midwest League in 1962, then changed their name to the Appleton Foxes in 1967 — a brand that remained through 1994. When Fox Cities Stadium was built to replace 55-year-old Goodland Field in 1995, the team rebranded as the Timber Rattlers.

Since 1958, the franchise has won 10 league titles, but just one as the Timber Rattlers, in 2012. They have been affiliated with the Washington Senators, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Mariners, and, since 2009, the Milwaukee Brewers. Well-known alumni include David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Raul Ibanez, Goose Gossage, Harold Baines, Tom Gordon, Felix Hernandez, Adam Jones, Corbin Burnes, and Earl Weaver (as manager).

The ballpark’s full name is the less-than-lyrical Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. It opened in 1995 for $5.5 million and seats about 6,000. For a 30-year-old ballpark, it looks pretty sharp after renovations in 2012 and 2023. The Timber Rattlers drew about 3,500 fans per game to Fox Cities Stadium in 2024, middle of the pack in the 12-team Midwest League.

I was particularly excited to enter the Snake Pit Team Store to explore some of the outstanding alternate identities the Timber Rattlers deploy. It was time to make an impossible choice on the one hat I allowed myself to buy.

The Timber Rattlers go big with their alternate identities, appearing as the Wisconsin Brats (with a stunning faux-Lederhosen jersey, the Lake Winnebago Shantymen, the Copa de la Diversión Los Cascabeles de Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Udder Tuggers, represented by a jersey mimicking overalls and suspenders, plus a hat depicting an angry cow running on two legs to reveal four tender teats.

The Udder Tuggers is a fantastic identity — a very funny idea, regionally appropriate, and with a name that is both silly and fun to say. When I ran a poll on Twitter before the trip, most fans urged me to get the Udder Tuggers cap. But I asked myself, “Where would you wear this hat?” Not at work, not on a Zoom call, not out to a restaurant or the grocery store. It’s a hat that announces its presence a little more loudly than I like. But I am delighted it exists.

You know a team is serious about their merchandise when they have a separate room inside the team store dubbed The Hat Room. The choices were phenomenal and multiudinous, a bounty of colorful and creative headwear. In the end, I selected perhaps the least flashy hat of the bunch, but one I could wear around children without getting dirty looks from parents: the Wisconsin W in red.

It was Hawaiian Night at the ballpark, and mascots Whiffer and Fang T. Rattler were dressed for the occasion.

I took a quick trip around the ballpark before game time, passing the Brews on Third Beer Garden, with games like foosball and cornhole set up for fans. In the left-field corner, a three-story snaking slide dominates the skyline, part of the 2023 renovation that included the addition of a 360-degree concourse.

In the right-field corner, smaller fans kept busy climbing into bouncy inflatables and across a wooden playground.

Back on the first-base side, I found the Leinie Lodge, a modern-looking tavern within the ballpark sponsored by Leinenkugel’s beer. It too was updated in 2023.

The Timber Rattlers had won the first half in the Midwest League’s West division, posting a 42-24 record. That put them in the playoffs, where they beat the Quad Cities River Bandits but lost in the Midwest League championship series to the Lake County Captains, two games to one.

They prepared to match up against the Beloit Sky Carp, who had finished third in the first half and would fare a little worse in the second.

There was a bit of a buzz in the crowd to start the game. Joe Ross took the mound on a rehab assignment from the Brewers after straining his lower back six weeks earlier. The first-round pick of the San Diego Padres in 2011, Ross had spent parts of seven seasons in the majors, including an emergency Game 5 start in the 2019 World Series for the Washington Nationals. Ross lost that game but got a ring.

I had seen Ross pitch in person one other time, and it was during that 2019 season, when he was also on a rehab assignment. The right-hander pitched five scoreless innings in a start for the then-Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies during his long campaign to return to the major leagues after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2017.

Ross had no trouble in his first inning of action since the back injury, setting down the Sky Carp in order.

The concessions stands held plenty to tempt the palate for our final ballpark dinner. We could have chosen a brat, a cheesesteak, a pulled pork sandwich, a spicy Venom Burger, street tacos, sliders, or helmet chili pie. But we both chose a rare burger (meaning infrequent, not uncooked): the Sweet-Salty-Savory Burger, a quarter-pounder with cheddar cheese, barbecued pulled pork, bacon, candied onions, and barbecue sauce. It was very juicy and very good.

Wisconsin led off the bottom of the first with a triple from 19-year-old Venezuelan center fielder Luis Lara, the #8 prospect in the Brewers system. A sacrifice fly brought him home, putting the Timber Rattlers up 1-0. Ross gave up an unearned run in the top of the second to tie it, but Wisconsin once again took the lead in the bottom half with a two-run shot by left fielder Eduarqui Fernandez

Ross left the game with two outs in the third inning after scattering three hits, with no walks and a strikeout. He would be sent up to the Triple-A Nashville Sound for his next start.

Fun on the field between innings included a Knockerball duel, a hippity-hop horse race, a dance-off, a race between several mini cars and trucks around the outfield, and, Wisconsin’s very own, Bratzooka — which operates much like a t-shirt cannon but instead fires delicious sausages into the crowd. (Watch the episode!)

Beloit brought home another run in the fourth to make it 3-2 Timber Rattlers. I took another lap around the outfield to watch fans enjoying the game from every vantage point on a perfect summer evening.

Both sides put runners aboard in the middle innings, but the bullpens held them at bay. It remained 3-2 going into the eighth.

The Sky Carp tied the score on two walks and a single in the top of the eighth. Wisconsin regained the lead on a homer to right field by Lara in the bottom half.

But there was much more drama to come. Timber Rattlers reliever Mark Manfredi walked two batters and threw a wild pitch to set up Sky Carp third baseman Tony Bullard, who smacked a double to center field to bring home two runs and give Beloit a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

The Rattlers rallied with a pair of singles. A steal and a wild pitch put both runners into scoring position with one out and brought Luis Lara back to the plate. The 5-foot-8 left-handed hitter bombed a 2-1 pitch over the right-field wall for the game-winner, his second home run of the night. Pandemonium ensued, players rushed the field, and the 19-year-old was showered with Gatorade.

As we caught our breath before the night’s fireworks show, we met up with Erik Mertens, a.k.a. Erik the Peanut Guy, and his wife Cariña. We had met Erik in his job as on-field host for the Tri-City Dust Devils in Pasco, Washington, during our Northwest Baseball Road Trip in 2022. Erik is a serious minor league hat collector. I had bumped into him earlier in The Hat Store looking almost feverish with excitement while deciding which of the many jewels on display he would make his own.

We sat back and enjoyed another excellent fireworks display, our eighth of the road trip. Then there was nothing left but for kids to run the bases, and for us to rest up for one final ballgame.

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