ELKHORN, Wis. — Ever since he was a kid, Rick Adams has been in love with baseball. With a glove in hand, Rick’s youth was spent playing ball with family and friends. He also played baseball in high school until his dad told him he had to quit as a sophomore because there was hay to do.
“I was a left-handed pitcher,” Rick said. “The neighbor kid and I played every day that we could in the summer. We played until we couldn’t see the ball at night. We rode our bikes to Lake Geneva and played on the baseball fields until our parents came and picked us up.”
As an adult, Rick finds there is no better time spent off the farm than at a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game.
“We don’t have a lake house or a boat,” Rick said. “Instead, we go to Brewers games.”
Rick and his wife, Marleen, own and operate Sugar Creek Dairy near Elkhorn where they milk 560 cows and farm 250 acres. Their registered Holstein herd is housed in free stalls and milked in a double-12 herringbone parlor. The couple is focused on quality genetics and sells show calves.
The Adamses farmed with Rick’s family until moving to their current location in 1997. Rick and Marleen have two grown children who work off the farm.
“We built this farm from the ground up,” Marleen said. “We started with a partner and later bought him out. We also have a heifer farm nine miles away. We have two locations to fit everything in, but we’re still hands-on.”
Rick has been a Milwaukee Brewers season ticket holder since 2004. He has a partial season package that includes 21 games plus playoff games, which equates to about three games per month at American Family Field, formerly known as Miller Park.
“It’s a nice park,” Rick said. “The Brewers are friendly, staff is friendly and people are always nice.”
Rick never misses Opening Day.
“We do a lot of tailgating before the games, but this year was the first time we didn’t tailgate on Opening Day because it was too windy,” Rick said.
His seats are on the first level behind home plate in section 118, row 15. He sits among the players’ families as well as baseball scouts equipped with stopwatches and radar guns.
“I’ve been there long enough that I know the people around me,” Rick said. “I have a good friend who sits a few seats behind me.”
Twenty years of exciting ball games and unique experiences are etched into Rick’s memories.
“Watching Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder play together in 2015 and 2016 was a lot of fun,” Rick said. “I’ve caught a couple of foul balls too. I caught one on the fly once, and everyone thought I was hurt. I had ball stitches in my hand.”
Rick said he especially enjoys post-season games.
“The playoffs are exciting,” he said. “The crowd is into every pitch. It’s electric. Seeing Prince Fielder hit a home run in a playoff game is something I’ll never forget.”
Marleen joins for a few games each year, but oftentimes, Rick brings along a friend or people he does business with.
“It’s a boys’ night out for Rick,” Marleen said. “Everyone needs a boys’ night out.”
When Rick is at a game, he knows the farm is in Marleen’s capable hands. When husband and wife attend a game together or leave the state for spring training games in Arizona, their employees keep everything running smoothly.
“We have people here who we trust to handle daily cow care,” Rick said. “Some of our staff have been with us for 20 years. The park is only an hour from the farm, and I always drive back after the game. When we attend spring training in March, we’re not in the fields yet, which makes it easier to get away.”
Rick and Marleen have gone to spring training nearly a half dozen times, making their most recent trip this past spring.
“It was wonderful,” Rick said.
The avid fan speaks baseball and can rattle off player names and stats as easily as he can talk pedigrees of his prized cow families. When he’s not watching a game live, Rick tries to watch the game on TV.
“The Brewers are fun to watch,” he said. “They don’t give up. Our defense is so good right now, which saves on pitching. Great defense and pitching win playoff games. We don’t have all the strikeouts we used to have. We put the ball in play.”
Rick has collected a variety of Brewers memorabilia, including signed prints of Brandon Woodruff and Josh Hader, as well as autographs of Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo and Robin Yount. He also has the signature of Joe Attanasio, the dad of the Brewers’ owner, Mark Attanasio.
Being part of a special moment in baseball history in 2010 is a cherished memory Rick said. When All-Star closer Trevor Hoffman was trying to get the record number of saves, Rick made sure he was there to see it.
“It was the end of the season on a Monday night, and he was on schedule to get his 600th save,” Rick said. “I told Marleen, ‘You’re going to see history.’ ... They played Hoffman’s warm-up song,
‘Hells Bells’ when he came out, and he did get the save that night.
After the game, he got an award. It was pretty special, and I saw it all.”
Rick has family ties to the big leagues as his niece is married to former major leaguer, Khris Davis. Davis played with the Milwaukee Brewers from 2013 to 2015 and led Major League Baseball with 48 home runs in the 2018 season with the Oakland Athletics.
Although he never went to many games growing up, Rick is a lifetime Brewers fan. His favorite all-time player is Josh Hader, who played for the Brewers from 2017 to 2022 before being traded to the San Diego Padres.
“I was really upset about that trade,” Rick said.
Currently, Rick’s favorite player is Christian Yelich.
“He has the best swing in baseball,” Rick said. “He has an amazing work ethic, and he can run. When he’s at bat, don’t leave your seat. That’s how good he is.”
When looking at the remainder of the Brewers season, Rick is optimistic.
“This team is young and hungry,” he said. “They’re in first place, but they probably need another bat if Yelich doesn’t stay healthy. When he’s healthy, he can be deadly. But without him, it’s hard to hold up over time against other teams. You might win one game, but you’re not going to win three. Still, I like their chances.”
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