Milwaukee Brewers COO Rick Schlesinger made sure to look away from the screen and toward the audience during the big reveal when the club debuted its Bud Selig Experience exhibit at Miller Park last May.
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The Bud Selig Experience exhibit opened at Miller Park in May 2015.
Photos by: SCOTT PAULUS / MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL
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At the end of a short film that celebrates Selig’s life, with an accent on his quest to return baseball to Milwaukee and then keep it there, one of three screens raises to reveal a replica of Selig’s office in the bowels of Milwaukee County Stadium, complete with a hologram of Selig that turns to thank the fans who visit.
“When the hologram came up, people turned and looked at Bud, expecting to see his seat empty,” said Schlesinger, who worked hard to secure artifacts that would make the room authentic. “I think they figured he snuck out and walked around into the office while they were watching the film. But there he was. It’s
amazing, really.”
Designed by Burbank, Calif.-based BRC Imagination Arts, a firm founded to create a series of General Motors exhibits at Disney’s Epcot Center, the office includes mostly items salvaged from Selig’s old office, supplemented by well-crafted replicas. There is an ashtray in which Selig kept loose change. A Brewers financial statement from 1970, when player payroll was barely $1 million. A stack of documents, piled on the floor next to the desk.
With the project almost completed two days before it was scheduled to open, Schlesinger noticed a minor inaccuracy. While the Tiparillo cigar in an ashtray on Selig’s desk appeared to be smoldering, it didn’t quite look real.
“Is there anyway we can get that thing to smoke?” Schlesinger asked.
They did.
— Bill King
