Stanley: Our ballpark could use a last name that will last

About 25 years ago, when a new baseball stadium for Milwaukee was still a gleam in Bud Selig’s eye, I wrote a column suggesting this ballpark should be given a permanent name, like Fenway and Wrigley and Lambeau.

Back then, folks were saying a corporate sponsor could help finance the new stadium by buying its name for $10 million. Plans didn’t call for a roof on it yet, and the estimated price of the field and its name were nowhere near what they became. We didn't know then the stadium would cost nearly $300 million, plus interest, and the naming rights would net $40 million for 20 years. 

For context, the new $90 million Bucks arena, donated to the city by Jane Bradley Pettit, was just five years old.

Now, some of you reading this weren’t born at that time. Others of you didn't live in Wisconsin. Still others never saw the Monday Business section where this column appeared.

So, with the news that MillerCoors won’t renew its naming contract when it expires in 2020, and American Family Insurance will then pick up the stadium’s name, I’m bringing the idea back for a second try.  

It’s high time for us taxpayers to give this stadium we built a permanent name we can all hoist a brew to. It will have to be a surname, of sorts, since the first name has been rented out for revenue. 

And while we’re at it, let’s rename the roadway east of it, too.

One name rises above the rest — the same name first suggested in 1994. 

Let’s call the land the stadium is built upon Hank Aaron Park, and the road Hank Aaron Way. You can walk or ride to both from downtown along the Hank Aaron Trail. 

American Family Insurance, a great Wisconsin company that was here when Aaron played, could share the glow of this lasting tribute. So could Bud Selig, Mark Attanasio and our elected officials. It would be an uplifting moment to see them announce together, with Hank and his family, that when the stadium’s name changes, it will be called American Family Field at Aaron Park. Or AmFam Field at Hank Aaron Park. Or something even better along those lines.

Hank Aaron’s Braves brought Milwaukee its first and only World Series victory. It was before Milwaukee's team was called the Brewers, but when the city was still home to Schlitz, Pabst, Miller and Blatz.

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Hank had nothing to do with the Braves leaving town and he came back to finish his career where it started with the Brewers. He’s the best ballplayer who’s ever played here or likely ever will. 

Christian Yelich is spectacular, the undisputed 2018 MVP, I can’t say enough good things about him. He is 27 years old and needs to play just as well as he played last year for 18-plus more seasons just to match Aaron. That’s how good Henry was. 

Hank hit hundreds of his home runs, including Number 755, on the grounds where the "new" ballpark sits. Swinging from the plate where the nearby Little League field is located today, he hammered dents into the old County Stadium bleachers.

Let’s give the Hammer his due, while he is with us. 

Our public officials can start the ball rolling by renaming the public land and the public roadway next to it. No company paid taxpayers for those names. It's true, businesses along Miller Parkway will eventually have to change their stationery and business card addresses. But wouldn't it be better to do that only once more rather than every 20 years?

Adding a name might sound a little unwieldy, but it works for Oriole Park at Camden Yards. There's Capitol One Field at Maryland Stadium. And the Timber Rattlers manage to score runs on Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. 

The name would not be a testament to Henry Aaron alone.

It will serve as our statement to generations to come that we built this stadium to last; that it is not something to be torn down and built again, at taxpayer expense, whenever team owners find a more lucrative way to sell luxury suites or platinum thrones or whatever premium game-watching experience they conjure up next.  

This stadium will outlast the fads and whimsies, will outlast the 20-year naming contracts, will outlast even the team owners. 

Like Lambeau and Fenway and Wrigley.  

It's our park, Milwaukee. We built it, Wisconsin. Let's give it a last name that will last.  

George Stanley is the editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. He can be reached via george.stanley@jrn.com and followed on Twitter @geostanley. Subscribe to local journalism that informs democracy at jsonline.com/deal