The cold streak came to an end on the annual Gamez family Brewers trip, and there was a significant twist … involving an NFL head coach.
When Art Gamez and his two sons, Mateo, 26, and Torie, 39, voyaged to Cincinnati this week to cheer on their Milwaukee Brewers, they were continuing a family tradition of attending at least one Brewers away game each season. And every season, they saw a loss.
Pittsburgh, loss. Minneapolis, loss. Cleveland, Colorado, Chicago, all losses. Zero-for-6. At least when they went to St. Louis, they enjoyed a moment of levity when their entire section of Cardinals fans cheered after Mateo left and returned wearing a newly purchased Albert Pujols jersey.
The trio of Milwaukeeans usually arrives in town a day early and catches a game among the locals at a nearby bar, then gets tickets for the second game of a series. But they found cheap tickets for the June 22 game at Great American Ballpark and decided to attend twice. The Brewers started the series by churning out a 2-1 win in extras.
“We figured if the Brewers find out (about our bad luck), they’re going to tell us to stop coming,” Art said June 26. “Monday, we go to the game, and we’re stressing out, all the way through. It’s zero-zero in extra innings. But the Brewers pulled it out, and the monkey was off the back.”
Then came Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor.
As they waited for Game 2 to arrive, the three went for a walk along the Ohio River not far from Great American Ballpark, passing the Bengals’ home of Paycor Stadium, when a man pulled up and asked where they were from.
It was Torie who first recognized that the man behind the wheel was Taylor.
“I just have a general knowledge of kind of the coaches in the NFL, and I think if it was a different time and place, I would have never put the two together,” he said. “He had a Bengals polo on and he was just asking us questions, ‘What are you guys doing? Are you from the area?”
Mateo, whose jersey-purchasing is part of the annual rite, was donning a new Reds jersey. He figures Taylor saw a Reds fan escorting around two Brewers-loving members of his family.
“He asked, ‘Do you guys want a tour of the stadium?'” Mateo recalled. “‘Um, yeah, sure, where do we go for that?’ And he told us to meet him up at the gate about 50 yards up.”
And so that’s exactly what happened. Taylor, whose wife, Sarah, is the daughter of former Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman and a Marquette University graduate, took the trio on a spin through the Bengals locker room, ushered them onto the field and even introduced them to Bengals owner Mike Brown.
“It was a quick 15-minute tour of the facilities,” Mateo said. “He walked us out and now we’re thinking we have to get some Bengals gear. Luckily, their pro shop was open.”
Both boys got a hat. Dad got a pin, as per tradition for their annual baseball trips.
“Obviously, he’s a very down-to-earth-guy, very personable to talk to,” Mateo said. “We can’t thank him enough for taking the time of out his busy schedule to kind of just show us the space. We all said it afterwards. After the Green Bay Packers, of course, we’ll be rooting for the Bengals.”
“Really surreal,” Torie said. “He did not have to do that type of thing. He was very, very kind.”
Art said they’d paid for an NFL stadium tour once before, during their trip to Minneapolis.
“[The Vikings have a] beautiful stadium, and they walked us through the locker room and I kinda booed at the picture of Brett Favre in a Vikings uniform,” Art said. “My favorite part was at the end. The tour guide asked if anyone had any questions. Torie asked where the trophy room was at. The tour guide said, ‘You guys must be from Wisconsin.'”
The Brewers won that Tuesday night game, as well, with the Gamez family (now with a 2-6 record) sitting along the third-base line.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers fans get surprise tour of NFL stadium from Bengals head coach
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
