Medical Alumni Association Holds Winter Event at Miller Park

Spring training was still three weeks away when members of the Wisconsin Medical Alumni Association (WMAA) visited Miller Park for their annual Winter Event on February 4, 2011. The weather was cold, but the group had no trouble warming up to a special tour of the storied stadium.

"We wanted to try a different venue for our meeting in hopes of getting new alumni of all ages to attend," says Karen Peterson, WMAA executive director. "The setting was fabulous, the plan was successful-several new people joined us."

A total of around 50 alums and family members were on hand for the event, which featured a look at the Brewers' locker room, views from the playing field and a visit to the broadcasting booth where longtime announcer Bob Uecker has called each game for years.

View photos from the event below.

The Layde brothers - Joseph (MD '79), Peter (MD '76) and Michael (MD '72), all of whom have worked in the Milwaukee area most of their careers-were among the newcomers. (Their sister, Margaret, also a physician, could not make it.)

"We enjoyed the opportunity to visit with some former classmates and residency colleagues," says Michael, who practiced as an emergency physician for 33 years at the Columbia St. Mary's-Milwaukee campus.

Layde has been a Milwaukee baseball fan since age seven, when in 1953 the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Braves. He says he was heartbroken when the Braves moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season, but then was overjoyed when the Seattle Pilots franchise moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and became the Milwaukee Brewers.

"I've attended five or six Brewers games per year over the last 35 years or so, first at Milwaukee County Stadium and for the last 10 years at Miller Park," he says.

Layde and the other attendees were fascinated by the presentation given by the guest speaker, Timothy O'Driscoll. For 25 seasons, O'Driscoll has been the official scorer for the club. In that capacity, he's been able to meet and interact with many of the major league baseball players and managers who have passed through Milwaukee with their teams.

"It was interesting for me to hear some of his honest and candid observations on the personalities (both positive and negative) of many of these players and managers," Layde says.

Several SMPH student leaders also attended the meeting. Eight members of the Medical Student Association-Carly Kuehn, Luke Lopas, Anita Mantha, Dominic Schomberg, Shashank Ravi, Gauthami Soma, Trista Stankowski-Drengler and Barry Wagner-made the drive to Milwaukee.

Med 1 Wagner liked being able to talk casually with alumni.

"I liked hearing about the paths previous SMPH graduates have taken in their medical careers," he says.

Wagner grew up around the Milwaukee area and has been a Brewers fan for as long as he can remember. But he had never been on a stadium tour before the Winter Event.

"I really liked being able to see some of the normally ‘off-limits' areas of the park, such as the media box and the clubhouse," says Wagner, who usually makes it to 10 to 15 games a season.

Wagner was pleasantly surprised at how interesting O'Driscoll's talk was.

"His many stories involving players over the years and jokes kept everyone interested and the mood light," he says.

Before the fun began, the WMAA board of directors discussed, among other things, the Great People Scholarship Fund that supports need-based scholarships for medical students.

"This is a top priority for the WMAA," says Peterson. "We recently created our own fund, thanks in large part to a gift left to us by Nathan Hilrich, MD '51, who recently passed away."

With the addition of matching funds from the UW Foundation, the WMAA fund now has a market value of approximately $100,000, Peterson says. The alumni association hopes to begin awarding one $5,000 scholarship a year soon.

Wagner, for one, was happy to hear about it.

"As a student with a very high level of student loans, I was glad to learn of the push that the WMAA is making to increase scholarship donations," he says. "The very generous donations alumni give to the scholarship funds make life for us current students easier, and are greatly appreciated."