Results tagged ‘ Wrigley Field ’
Q: What’s Worse Than Getting Beat By 14?
A: Getting beat by one, at home, in the ninth, when your closer blows a 3-1 lead, against arguably your biggest current division rival, causing you to lose the series, after Bob Uecker sings “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and says Brewers instead of Cubbies, before heading to St. Louis for a tough series against the division leaders, kicking off a tough month against the best in the West and the rest of the NL Central, in front of a bunch of worthless fans who decided throwing garbage and beer at Ryan Braun was a good idea, on a beautiful spring afternoon, the day one of your biggest stars returns to the lineup, your best pitcher throws a gem, the opposing starter appears to tear every tendon in his leg but returns to the hill, your catcher withstands a collision at home plate with Prince Fielder, and your manager nearly erupts into a classic tirade with the media after the game.
Also, of note…. sayonara Derrick Turnbow. Thanks for the saves back when you were good. Too bad we did not get the roll of nickels you were worth before last season. Now, we may have to pay someone to take you off our hands. Best of luck. Regards. Etc, etc.
Ouch!
After the bats went off on Tuesday, they were pretty quiet on Wednesday… at least for the Brewers. What a beat down! I was at a seminar until 8:00 and was hoping to get home and settle in for a competitive battle like the night before, but my wife told me on the phone the score was already 6-1, and I knew it was going to be a bad night. I got home just in time to see the lead climb to 12-2. I took that as a sign that last night was a great night to go to bed early. I just checked the final a few minutes ago and saw 19-5… I think I made the right decision.
At least the Brewers still have a 3-2 lead in games played at Wrigley this season… maybe 4-2 after today’s matinée… or maybe 3-3 if they play like they did last night (either the Cubs or the Brewers). It will be a great matchup between Carlos Zambrano and Yovanni Gallardo. Both pitchers have looked great this season, but with both offenses dominating the headlines over the first two games, can a pitcher dominate the headlines today? I guess we’ll find out by 5:00 tonight.
As a side note, I won this past week’s Biggest Loser at work by dropping 4.8 pounds over the week. I am now down to 198.8 after starting at 213.6. I am well on my way to “Svelte Steve”!
Back From a Weekend Away
I spent the weekend with the Brewers and was away from a computer (for the most part) until today. I figured that, rather than posting something about each game, I would just make some bullet pointed observations from the weekend that was. I will be back in the saddle for daily posts all week and over the weekend.
- What a great problem the Brewers have with Gabe Kapler and Tony Gwynn each getting off to such great starts. When Gwynn is healthy, the problem will be between those two, but then Mike Cameron will return and it will be a problem between three… and don’t foget about Gabe Gross.
- How about the other problem of having one too many starters when Yovani Gallardo returns in a week or so? After one start apiece, it appears as though Dave Bush may be the odd man out. Hopefully Bushy recovers from his rough outing and makes Ned’s
decision more difficult on Wednesday night. - What did i say about Jason Kendall and his eye surgery? Looks like he’s seeing the ball much better this season than any of the last couple. his mid .400 average will not continue, but it is a good sign that he will be better offensively than expected.
- Is it just me, or are the Brewers running a lot more than last year? I love having a running
game, and with their combined speed and pop, it will be a huge factor in winning the division. - Not to jinx anything, but Ben “Soft” Sheets has been anything but soft. His stuff has been
just plain nasty. According to ESPN.com’s “Best Games”, he owns two of the top five, and according to their “Cy Predictor” he is ranked third. -
Miller Park trails only Wrigley Field and Nationals Park in attendance percentage
(attendance divided by capacity) and is sixth in average attendance. What a great start in those
categories, too! -
As far as Opening Day, it was my last attended in person. I can drink with the best of ‘em, but at least I am not as obnoxious as the vast majority of the people in
attendance Friday. I am there for the baseball, they are there for the drinking… it is just not a good mix for me. Sunday’s game was so much more relaxing and fun without the added stress of feeling like I was going to either get puked non, or get hit in the head with a thrown bottle. - One cool thing from Friday’s opener was getting my picture taken with Mark Attanaaio and Gorman Thomas (see below). Milwaukee is very lucky to have Mark owning the team. He was a classy guy in person and has run the team with that class and passion in mind. Gorman was equally as nice. It is great to have a legend like that still hanging around with the club at the ballpark. Guys like that make it easy to cheer for the Brewers.
Two and Oh Yeah!
What a sweet win against “Sweet Lou” yesterday! From Rickie’s homer to kick off the festivities, to Kendall’s 3-4, 2 RBI performance against his old mates, to Suppan’s dominance over 6+ innings, it all sounded good from the comfort of my desk at work. I think my favorite part of the radio broadcast when Bob Uecker noticed how the Cubs fans at Wrigley were not chanting anything when Fukudome came to the plate, other than his first AB. What have you done for me lately, Kosuke? Since I did not have the game on TV, can anyone let me know if Ted Lilly had another glove spiking breakdown like last season during the NLDS? That was awesome!
http://a1503.v108692.c10869.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/10869/v0001/mlb.download.akamai.com/10869/2007/open/tp/archive10/100407_chnari_young_hr_tp_350.wmv
The way David Riske has pitched that last two games, I think the calls for him to be the new closer will get louder and louder. I am not one of those people just yet. I think Gagne should be given more of a chance to prove himself. I do not think that the leash should be too long, but it should be long enough to allow for him to blow a save here and there as long as it does not happen every time he gets the ball. He got off to a bad start, but let’s see what happens before rushing to judgment. After all, we are paying him $10 million. Until he completely loses it, which I hope does not happen, Riske will provide a great setup option for Ned… along with a calming presence in case Gagne gets in a major jam.
With it being election season, here’s a song for Hillary “3 AM” Clinton…. “It’s 3 AM, I must be lonely….”:
Winning Ugly
After one game, there is very little that a fan can gather from the Brewers performance today. You could conclude that Ben Sheets is going to have a great season. You could conclude that Eric Gagne will be terrible. You could even say that Tony Gwynn may be the better option in center field even after Mike Cameron returns. However, you can not come to any of those conclusions because it is way too early. The one thing that I think we can take out of the game is that the Brewers will be gritty all season long and fight their way back each and every game. It was an ugly win, but at least it was a win…. and you know that every win against the Cubs is worth more than a win against any other opponent… especially at Wrigley Field.
I would personally like to thank Mother Nature for raining at all the right times for me today. Starting the game late allowed me to take a late lunch and see the first few innings. The second delay came right as lunch was ending and lasted until about 45 minutes before I was able to leave. I got home in time to see the rest of the game, from the seventh inning on. If Mother Nature had kept the rain away I would have probably only seen about 40 minutes of the game…. so thanks to her for that.
Tonight I will try to catch a glimpse of some of the other action going on around MLB with the MLB Extra Innings free preview. I am debating whether or not to purchase it for all of the games outside the Milwaukee market in order to keep tabs on everyone else, especially the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds. I think the only holdup is the fact that I may switch from Time Warner Cable to U-Verse sometime this summer, once it is available in Oshkosh.
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