
With American Family Field looming in the background, the annual Ballpark Day of Faith includes Mass, tailgating and fellowship. (Photo by David Bernacchi)
As the incense from the Mass is waning, the smell of the brats is coming up.
There aren’t many experiences that combine the liturgical presence of the Holy Spirit immediately followed by the taste of Secret Stadium Sauce. Milwaukee Brewers fans can get the chance to receive both of those, back-to-back, before a baseball game in June with what has spiritually and physically fed thousands of Southeastern Wisconsin baseball-loving Catholics over the years, the Ballpark Day of Faith in the American Family Field parking lot.
“We’re where the sacred and the secular meet,” said Bob Simi, the founder and executive director of Ballpark Day of Faith, which has become a Father’s Day tradition.
“We’re going to where people are (with) a day of beauty and joy. We just bring the beauty of the Mass into the public square.”
Perhaps the baseball diamond is more accurate. It was a shared love of baseball between Simi and three fellow baseball-loving Catholics who turned a day hanging out at a Brewers game into this special ministry.
“So us four, literally, Danny (Quesnell, now the principal of Divine Savior Holy Angels High School) picking up a pack of beer and I had the brats and the Smokey Joe (grill). We had a great time just kind of talking about our faith and who was pitching that day, and how the Brewers were doing and their playoff chances, and it’s just a great vibe. And I said, ‘This is kind of cool,’” said Simi.
“So I said, ‘Hey, do you think we could do Mass in the parking lot of Miller Park before the game?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, but I’ll ask the archbishop.’ So he did. The archbishop said yes. So at that point, we had probably about 60 people signed up (for the first day in 2011), and then I sent out a note. I said, ‘Hey, we’re going to add Mass to the tailgate,’ and I thought maybe 20 out of the 60 would show up, and pretty much all 60 showed up. So that was the time when I think we kind of knew we were onto something.”
They were very much onto something, a new tradition big enough they began a nonprofit organization for it.
Over the last decade and a half, the event now draws crowds that have become an impromptu congregation of more than 1,000 clothed in Brewers gear and their shared Catholic faith.
“My heart goes to the simplicity and the beauty of it,” Simi said. “Our tagline is ‘Mass, tailgate, the game.’”
He also shared how a devout Mass turns into a space not only to share the Eucharist and a tailgate meal, but to share bonds of friendship that often turns the tailgate into a reconnection space.
“People just like that tailgating time to mix and mingle and see other people that they haven’t seen for a while,” he added. “A lot of people, they’re surprised (by who they see). ‘Hey, I didn’t know you came to this.’ So they’ll see friends that they hadn’t seen in a while.”
The event has become so large that organizers have added a tent that can cover Mass-goers in case of rain, and have provided chairs and even kneelers.
Oh, and all the brats, appetizers and favorite beverages that attending fans will need.
Such a large event has made fans who are simply going to the game take notice in past years — not only of the event itself, but of the fact that it connects not only to their Sunday routine, but their deeper faith life.
“There’s a huge level of beauty in that juxtaposition with having a very sacred Mass there,” said Simi. “It manifests a lot of times, because people will walk by and they either are completely unfamiliar with Catholicism and the Catholic Mass, or they’re like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know Mass is going on. I would have gone if I knew it.’ And at the same time, just a few tailgate spots down, people are playing cornhole and doing regular American Family Field tailgating.”
Ballpark Day of Faith is expanding beyond Milwaukee. They hope to add a presence in the pregame run-up to Packers and Badgers games, and they’re now holding events with teams outside Wisconsin, with spring training games in Florida.
For Simi, this event is a manifestation of the Holy Father’s call to the Church. On summer days in Milwaukee, that’s at the ballpark.
“It’s from Pope Francis: At this point in our society, it’s not just enough to throw open wide the church doors and invite people in. We’ve gotta go to where they are, and where are they? They’re at American Family Field.”
This year’s Ballpark Day of Faith game will be Sunday, June 15, when the Brewers take on the St. Louis. For more information, visit ballparkdayoffaith.org.

Ballpark Day of Faith typically draws thousands of Catholics to Mass in the parking lot of American Family Field every June. (Photo by David Bernacchi)