MILWAUKEE -- It didn’t take long for Miller Park to produce a lasting memory.

On April 6, 2001 -- 19 years ago today -- the Brewers formally opened their new, domed home with a regular-season contest against the same team that helped close County Stadium, the Cincinnati Reds. President George W. Bush and Brewers founder Bud Selig threw ceremonial first pitches before Jeff D’Amico did it for real against Reds leadoff man Barry Larkin. Ronnie Belliard was the first Brewers batter, José Hernández collected the first Brewers hit (a go-ahead, three-run double) and Jeromy Burnitz hit the first Brewers home run.

It was a 4-4 game in the bottom of the eighth inning when Richie Sexson delivered the night’s signature moment, a tie-breaking home run that sailed toward Bernie Brewer’s new perch atop the left field bleachers.

When David Weathers pitched a perfect ninth, the Brewers had a 5-4 win.

“Opening Day in any ballpark in any year, no matter how old you get, there are nerves, there is anticipation, but it amplifies when there’s a new stadium,” Sexson said. “It was beautiful. Having the President there, being in a new ballpark and having the city be super excited about it and behind it, it was exciting.

“You always want to win that first home game, too. If you’re building a new stadium, you don’t want to get your butt kicked that first night. So, we were all trying really, really hard.”

The opening of Miller Park marked a new beginning after a sad chapter of franchise history. The Brewers were originally scheduled to move into Miller Park for the 2000 season, but that was pushed back a year following a construction accident that claimed the lives of three ironworkers, Jeffrey Wischer, William DeGrave and Jerome Starr. The Brewers later erected a statue, Teamwork, outside Miller Park to honor those three men and the other men and women who built the stadium.

In 2001, the Brewers unofficially opened Miller Park with exhibition games against the White Sox and Red Sox before hitting the road to Los Angeles and Houston. When they returned for the home opener, they were 0-4.

“It was such an amazing day for us, for the Brewers, for sure, but for the whole community,” then-Brewers president Wendy Selig-Prieb said. “And the culmination of a 10-year mission that had more than its share of ups and downs and twists and turns. To some extent, it kind of felt like that first game in 1970 [after the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee]. It was all kind of surreal.”

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Said infielder Mark Loretta: “I remember being on the line for the National Anthem next to Jeromy Burnitz before the first game and going, ‘Wow.’ The scale of it was just enormous. It was kind of like, ‘Are we really in Milwaukee?’ Then we all started trying to figure out how it would play.”

It didn’t take long to find out. Sexson’s home run was his first of 45 homers that season, matching Gorman Thomas’ franchise record. The Brewers hit 209 home runs as a team, second-most in franchise history to the 1982 team and third-most in the National League that season behind the Giants and Rockies.

A good hitters’ park was open for business.