Baseball Players Hate Playing in Milwaukee Due to Haunted Hotel

The Pfister in Milwaukee is alleged to be haunted.

Opened in 1893 as a luxury hotel, the Pfister is a Milwaukee landmark. Presidents, musicians, and movie stars have all enjoyed its accommodations. Many guests including a professional baseball player have experienced ghostly visitations. Reported activity includes strange knocking sounds in the walls and electrical problems such as the TV and air conditioning switching off unexpectedly. Guests have even reported seeing the ghost of Charles Pfister, the hotel's founder, walking the halls.

from: www.milwaukeeghosts.com...






I just caught a story today making the rounds about MLB players reporting paranormal experiences at this hotel.

For a recent ESPN the Magazine story, Stacey Pressman spoke with no fewer than seven A-list MLB stars, each of whom had his own scary story. Here's Michael Young's hilarious tale from the Pfister:

"Oh, f--- that place. Listen, I'm not someone who spreads ghost stories, so if I'm telling you this, it happened. A couple of years ago, I was lying in bed after a night game, and I was out. My room was locked, but I heard these footsteps inside my room, stomping around. I'd heard all these stories about this hotel, so I was wide awake at that point. And then I heard it again, these footsteps on the floor, so I yelled out, "Hey! Make yourself at home. Hang out, have a seat, but do not wake me up, okay?" After that, I didn't hear a thing for the rest of the night. I just let him know he was welcome, that we could be pals, that he could marinate in there for as long as he needed to, just as long as he didn't wake me up."

www.thepostgame.com...

Now it would be one thing if a lone player, or just a handful of players, had complained about ghosts in the hotel. But over the years, tons of players from different teams have mentioned that they noticed paranormal activity. Adrian Beltre famously slept with his bat to protect himself. Several members of the Marlins even bunked up during a trip because they didn't want to battle the ghosts alone.

www.thepostgame.com...


Thoughts? Anyone here ever stay this this hotel?

I've never been to Milwaukee, but if I get the opportunity I'm staying at that hotel!

I live close to that city. I'm gonna have to go there one day and check it out. I think it's a pretty large building located near downtown Milwaukee.

Love the thread, Go Brewers

Strange knocking sounds coming from a hotel wall...


Yeah, ghosts. Gotta be.

I have a friend from the area that comes down south to visit me every few years. Maybe this time I need to head up north to visit her. She's usually up for a challenge so I could probably talk her into a stay at the Hotel with me. It could be fun!

Why the hell don't they just use a different hotel? Unless the team has a contract with that one or something.

reply to post by Xaphan


Yeah that's what I was thinking too. Gotta be other hotels in the area. Maybe this one is the closest to the stadium? And so it gets used a lot? Maybe three decent hotels close to the stadium and it's just their luck they get stuck in the notoriously haunted one from time to time. The hotel doesn't seem too haunted though. Just wall knocks. Crummy wiring. And a few cases of foots steps in guest's rooms. Some people report an apparition. Not too haunted, seems like a fun place to stay at. Maybe the ball players are having a little bit of fun and ham up their stays when there.

I like this thread though. Cool case the OP is posting. If I ever visit milwaukee I'd be interested in staying there for fun. You never know.

reply to post by BASSPLYR

I think sports teams make contracts with certain hotels. That way there are always rooms available when they need them (the hotel probably keeps track of their touring schedule and keeps rooms available when they are going to be in the city.) I guess once you sign a contract you can't break it. You can always get out of one with bad behavior though. The coach should just give each room a 40 ounce bottle of bourbon and let human nature take its course. By the end of the night the hotel will be the ones breaking the contract lol.

reply to post by VegHead


I actually had my senior prom at that Hotel. It is kinda spooky and has a very strange vibe to it. And the food was very bad. Probably because all of the chefs were seeing ghosts.

Ok, first off...What a cool place to have a prom!

As to why teams stay at this hotel, I'd guess it is a contract through the MLB with this hotel. The original article I quote in my first post just said: "Because when big league clubs travel to Milwaukee, they tend to stay at one of the city's fanciest hotels, The Pfister."

One Twins player wishes his team would just change hotels...

First Carlos Gomez heard voices. Then he watched his iPod go haywire after he got out of the shower, sending him scrambling for the lobby without stopping to put on his pants and shoes.

After last year's experience, the Minnesota Twins outfielder didn't want to go back to Milwaukee's Pfister Hotel. But Gomez had to stay there when the Twins were in town to play the Milwaukee Brewers last month, so he brought some protection: Teammate-turned-roommate Francisco Liriano and a Bible.

"Everything's scary," Gomez said. "Everything in the hotel, the paintings and pictures, it's a lot of old, crazy stuff. No good, man. No good."

...

Gomez wishes the Twins would stay somewhere else.

"I'm scared to go there," he said. "They should change the hotel. Everybody here doesn't like the hotel. Why (do) they always put us in the same hotel when you can't sleep?"

source: nbcsports.msnbc.com...

I found this article that has a lot of player's stories from the hotel:
espn.go.com...

Bryce Harper, Nationals

One time last summer, before I went to sleep, I laid a pair of jeans and a shirt on that table at the foot of the bed, those things in hotels that you sit on to put on your shoes. I just laid 'em out, simple as that. When I woke up in the morning -- I swear on everything -- the clothes were on the floor and the table was on the opposite side of the room against the wall. I was so flustered. I honestly thought there might be someone in my room. I had no idea what the hell just happened, so I actually looked around, and then I checked to see if the door was still latched, and it was.

I thought someone -- maybe [Jayson] Werth -- came into my room during the night and moved everything around, and I knew Tyler Moore and Lombo [Steve Lombardozzi] were both near me too, but they said that no one had done anything like that. Now, they could be lying to me. That's possible, and no one else seemed to have a weird experience, but it really creeped me out. I went downstairs and changed my room immediately. Different room, different floor. I said, "I just need to get out of that room. I don't want to talk about it, I just need to get out." So they moved me to a higher floor.

C.J. Wilson, Angels

I've had lots of experiences there. I was on the computer one night, doing my typical shtick -- surfing the web, sending an email, editing a photo -- and then all of a sudden the lights started flickering. I'm thinking to myself, I'm going to be so pissed if my computer dies. Then the light just shuts off. And then the TV shuts off. And then the light turns back on, but the light at the front door turns off. I just yelled out, "Really?"

I have this thing with ghosts. Just engage them or confront them. Just say, "Hey, man, I'm here to chill out. I'm just here to send some emails, no big deal. Just leave me alone." So after that, I went back to whatever I was doing on the computer, but then 30 minutes later there's scratching in the walls. Now I'm thinking, Okay, it's the Midwest, there could be a possum or something in the wall, right? That's possible, isn't it? All I knew was that there were definitely noises coming from the wall. I just said out loud again, "Can you please just leave me alone? I'm really trying to work here."

At this point, I'm on edge. I'm literally looking to see if there are people in the hallway, if someone's trying to pull something. We'll do that sometimes -- take a guy's key card and hide in the closet or behind the shower and jump out. But then the lights really start going crazy, and I'm like, "Are you kidding me? I don't want anything from you! Leave me alone! Or write it down. Write down what you want. I can't communicate with you through the lights."

The next day, we all show up at the park, and everyone has this uneasy feeling, like we had bad Chinese food or something. I said to one of my teammates, "You wouldn't believe the s--- that was going on in my hotel room last night." And another guy said, "Oh my god. Are you talking about that s--- you heard?" Everybody had a story. One dude got locked in his bathroom and he had to get the hotel to get him out. Another guy had the lights turn off when he was in the shower. Another guy saw something.

Of course, not everyone believes the hotel is haunted....

Shane Victorino, Red Sox

C'mon, I don't believe in all that s---.

Just found this video:

reply to post by VegHead


Baseball players and athletes in general are notoriously superstitious so I am not surprised.

Thanks for the video, HedyLamarr!

You'd think having visiting teams stay at this hotel would really help the Brewers. Their opponents should be tired and stressed out.

I live a couple of hours away, but I do try to go to a Brewers game once or twice a year. It's a really nice stadium with low traffic, easy parking/access (unlike many other ballparks). Good beer too! (overpriced, of course... but a decent selection of overpriced beer. ) It's just a friendly place and always fun. I don't really follow sports to closely, but going to a Brewer's game on a summer afternoon is always a nice outing.

ETA... Crip, I totally agree. Baseball player tend to be VERY superstitious. That was my first thought as well when this story came out.

reply to post by VegHead


I don't beleive this at all. The players can stay wherever they want with the cash they have.

I've stayed there. I had no idea it had a haunting history until now.

Nothing remarkable about my stay whatsoever.

The more players stories that I read about this hotel, the more it seems like they are just getting spooked by the ambiance of the hotel. They are going there with the idea that it is haunted so the interpret things that in other hotels would be ignored or written off as normal (footsteps could be someone in an adjoining room or upstairs, flickering lights are just old wiring, etc.) 95% of the ball player accounts I've read seem to just be guys getting spooked in an old hotel, nothing terribly remarkable.

Some events go beyond this, though - such as seeing the (dead) hotel founder roaming the halls. But I haven't seen any picture or video evidence from this hotel so it's hard to comment too much on this. Like so many paranormal experiences, it is just individual accounts that you can either believe or not - but it is certainly very real to the one experiencing it!

I hope I can stay at this hotel someday - but I'd probably be up all night getting spooked by my neighbors footsteps, just like these ball players! Haha! What can I say... I know what I am, and that's chicken. And at 3 am in the dark, all rational thought goes out the window for me!

reply to post by VegHead


Hi I am a long time lurker and this is my first post, I work in Milwaukee not to far from that hotel. I have been there for a company party once and this is the first I have heard of this, but as for the question why not another hotel? It is a very plush hotel probably the best in the state, and it is located about 2 miles from the statium and in the downtown area right in the middle of the finest dining and club establishments, also it is really close to the lake front where in the summer we have summerfest it is a big 11 day music fest on the lake front with different ethnic festivals every weekend. Lots to do very close by. Ed

Originally posted by darepairman
reply to post by VegHead

 

Hi I am a long time lurker and this is my first post, I work in Milwaukee not to far from that hotel. I have been there for a company party once and this is the first I have heard of this, but as for the question why not another hotel? It is a very plush hotel probably the best in the state, and it is located about 2 miles from the statium and in the downtown area right in the middle of the finest dining and club establishments, also it is really close to the lake front where in the summer we have summerfest it is a big 11 day music fest on the lake front with different ethnic festivals every weekend. Lots to do very close by. Ed

edit on 6-6-2013 by darepairman because: punctuation

Hi, Ed, and welcome to ATS!

You work not far from the hotel... as in IN the hotel? I'm kidding you,but your post did sound but like an ad for the hotel. Summerfest in Milwaukee is really fun. The city has a lot to offer, but is often overshadowed by Chicago and even the twin cities. OK, now I sound like I work for the Milwaukee chamber of commerce.

Speaking of hotel employees, it sounds like the hotel is - for the most part - really downplaying all of this. Any publicity is good publicity, and certainly there is marketing to be had in paranormal claims. But most quotes I've seen from the hotel representatives have been fairly neutral on the issue at most, and in some cases even refuting the paranormal claims.

The original article I posted had a tweet from the hotel in response to these claims that said:

The only thing 'haunting' us here is the spirit of hospitality, and it's been here for 120 years. @ShaneVictorino got it right.

Yes - CHEEEEESY. But that is the hotel's official stance on the issue.

reply to post by VegHead


No Veg, I dont work at the hotel but I am a machine repairman at the brewery that supplies that expensive beer sold at the statium. Ed

Originally posted by darepairman
reply to post by VegHead

 

No Veg, I dont work at the hotel but I am a machine repairman at the brewery that supplies that expensive beer sold at the statium. Ed

Then you, sir, are part of what makes Milwaukee beautiful! Keep it flowin'!