Rhythm & Booms Weekend in Madison

All photos of Warner Park available on Flickr.

After a rough 3-day work week following our trip to Washington, I took off from work a tad early on Friday to pick up Erik, and we made our way west to Madison for our first Mallards game of the season. It was also the annual Rhythm & Booms Festival at Warner Park - and corresponding pre-fireworks party at our friend Shane's house - so Erik and I were in for a long weekend of ball, flipcup, and watching shit get blown up.

Ever since I became aware of the awesomeness that is the Northwoods League in 2006 when I lived in Madison, it has been Erik and my favorite baseball league. It is a college summer wooden bat league for players that have not yet signed a professional contract and still have at least one year yet of college eligibility. This league and others like it are intended to be a way for kids to get exposure to wood bats, and basically just an excuse for them to play ball all summer to further sharpen their skills. I know I've already said how much I love the Mallards on this blog, but I will go ahead and put money on the table right now - anyone who attends a Madison Mallards game, I guarantee you it will be the most fun you ever have at a baseball game. Not just in terms of game action, but atmosphere, food, prices, between-inning entertainment, the hilarious PA guy, and of course the game and inning-by-inning promotions, all rolled together make this my favorite place to watch a ballgame in the whole world. And it will only get better when Warner Park gets renovated in 2010.

Erik and I arrived at the park around 5:30, and some broad near the gate promptly offered up Duck Blind seats for 2/3 face value, and we jumped at the opportunity. Many parks have all you can eat areas these days, but few include all-you-can-drink as the Mallards do. So Erik and I both got a ticket and as much beer and fried Wisconsin food as we could handle for $20 a piece. We also both got our picture with a mascot - Erik with Millie, and me with Quenchy the Quench Gum mascot, a sponsor of the Mallards. Additionally, we both acquired C.J. Thieleke pint glasses for Pint Glass Night, bought really sweet jerseys for $45 each, and both got autographs from Potsie of the show "Happy Days," as it was Happy Days Night at the ballpark, which also included a Fonzie "aaaaaayyy" contest. The amount of fun and alcohol we had for that price should not have been legal, particularly for how close we sat. We watched members of the opposing Brainerd Blue Thunder warm up, play pepper, and run sprints for about an hour before the game, and we were so close we could here everything the players were saying. The game ended up being a victory for the Mallards, but part of what makes a Mallards game so special is that the end result is secondary. I can't wait to go back in a couple weeks for the Northwoods League All-Star Game, which is held in Madison this year.

The next day was Rhythm & Booms, and for anyone who hasn't seen this in person, you must. It always is preceded by a twilight-start Mallards game, but Erik and I were too wrecked from Shane's party to attend that game. We instead stumbled the three blocks to Warner Park from the party and got a good spot on the lawn for the best fireworks show I've ever seen - we were so close, and they shot off so many fireworks, that pieces of shell were falling on us towards the end, which Erik and I both of course kept as souvenirs from the outstanding weekend. This weekend is definitely going on Erik and my calendar every year we're able, and a special thanks to Shane and Miranda for letting us stay at their house and play Wii all weekend.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 06.30:
Brewers 44-37, -4.5 (4 @ Diamondbacks, 3 v. Pirates)
Reds 38-45, -11.5 (3 v. Pirates, 4 v. Nationals)
Twins 45-37, -1.5 (3 v. Tigers, 3 v. Indians)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 18

Peter - 27

Tour 2008: Ripken Stadium

Photos of Washington Day 3 and Ripken Stadium available on Flickr.

After arriving late last night, we got a bit of much needed rest this morning then headed in to downtown DC. We met up with my friend Kelly and had lunch while I tried to decide what to do with the next four months of my life, since watching ball all summer isn't going to cut it this year. After lunch we walked down the mall towards the Washington Monument. We passed by the Newseum where outside they had displayed newspaper front pages from several different countries and all 50 states. Intrigued, we wanted to look around inside for a bit. We thought the Newseum would be free like most of the other museums in DC but when we found out it cost $20 to get in, we promptly left. We finished our walk down the mall but when we arrived at the monument we found that it was sold out for the day.

We got back on the metro and headed back to Alexandria. After transfer subway lines three times we arrived at the end of the yellow line and hopped on the bus that took us from the apartment to the metro in the morning. Unfortunately for us, the bus we take runs on a loop. Now, there are both clockwise and counterclockwise loops. So, our ride back to the apartment could have been 20 minutes. But, we got on the wrong loop and took a drive through scenic northern Virginia and past Mt. Vernon before arriving at the apartment an hour and 10 minutes after we left the metro station. If you're scoring at home, that's an E-Us.

Then we jumped in the car and headed towards Aberdeen. We hit a few traffic jams along the way but nothing too major and we made it to the game about a half hour before the game started. The Aberdeen Ironbirds are the short season A ball affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles and the team is owned by Cal Ripken Jr. Ripken Stadium is beautiful and is also used as the home of the Cal Ripken League World Series. The Ironbirds have sold out every game in their history and there is now a waiting list for season tickets. We were pretty excited for tonight's game because we had All-You-Can-Eat seats right behind home plate. And they did not disappoint.

We took our seats and immediately headed to the buffet line. It was a nice little spread featuring beef fajitas and quesadillas. The only draw back was that it cost extra if you wanted a beer. The game began and the starting pitcher for the Ironbirds was very Rick Vaughn-esque. In two innings of work he struck out six batters and walked three while giving up a run on a single and an error. At the end of two, with the score tied one-one, the rain hit. Once again, we were just barely under the overhang of the roof and we were able to stick it out for a little while. Then the wind shifted and the rain started blowing right in our faces, so we took shelter with a few beers on the main concourse. The rain lasted for about a half hour and then the grounds crew took another half hour to get the field ready for play again. Once the game got underway, both bullpens took over and put up zeros until the bottom of the 7th. The Ironbirds put together a three-run rally and went on to win the game 4-1.

We got back in the car and hit the road for DC, singing along with the Beach Boys all the way home. Tomorrow, sadly, it's back home to Milwaukee. A special and heartfelt thanks for Phil and Frank for letting us stay at their apartments, and particularly to Phil for driving us around Sunday and Monday.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 7 (just about the best youll find for a short-season A stadium)
views from park - 3
view to field - 10 (all-you-can-eat seats are right behind home plate)
surrounding area - 2 (players' Courtyard Marriott in parking lot)
food variety - n/a (didnt really investigate this, we had the buffet)
nachos - n/a (see previous answer)
beer - 7 (low variety, mostly Bud products, but good price)
vendor price - n/a
ticket price - 10 (buffet + excellent seat for $31)
atmosphere - 5 (good for A-ball, but it cleared out after the rain delay)
walk to park - 2
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 5
team shop - 10 (excellent variety and prices)

best food - buffet
most unique stadium feature - LCF dimension displayed in Ripken family number (3-7-8)
best jumbotron feature - Chick-fil-A cow cheerleaders
best between-inning feature - kids wear oversized wind breakers and catch baseballs in them

field dimensions - 330/404/330
starters - Luke Greinke (SI) v. Chris Salberg (ABD)
opponent - Staten Island Yankees
time of game - 2:25 (1:11 delay)
attendance - 6,470
score - 4-1 W

Brewers score that day - 4-1 W

Tour 2008: Final Season of Yankee Stadium

Photos of New York and Yankee Stadium available on Flickr.

Today Erik and I attended the 43rd-to-last regular season game in the 85-year history of Yankee Stadium - but first, let's get you up to speed on our Saturday adventures.

After blogging, Erik Phil and I finally left Alexandria mid-afternoon and headed for downtown Washington. Phil had done a little research before our arrival and discovered that there was an annual DC BBQ Contest & Festival occurring near Federal Triangle, so we met up with Frank there to find out what that was all about. All in all, I'd say we were all fairly disappointed. I mean, it is pretty big (streets are blocked off), but about half of the festival is for competition entries only, and those entering food in the BBQ cookoff are not allowed to hand out samples. When we did finally find stands that sold BBQ, it was nothing in particular to write home about. There was also a ridiculous beverage system that involved standing in one line for beverage tickets, and then going in an adjacent line - in the same tent, mind you - to actually receive the drink. And on top of everything, there was for some reason an entry fee. So...if any of you are in Washington and have a chance to go to the BBQ Festival...don't. After a waste of $10 and an hour, we headed for the nearby ESPNZone to finally meet up with Lauren (who was not feeling too crisp from the night before and didn't meet us out until 5:30) and throw back a few before heading to the ballpark.

Saturday's seats were again excellent - 2nd deck, 2nd row, under the scoreboard in right field. We were all up in Elijah Dukes' business and had a great view to the game - and not to mention a pretty outstanding little bar right at the top of our section. When purchasing these tickets a couple months ago I figured this would be a great vantage point from which to check out the cherry blossom trees proposed for the left field concourse, which are synonymous with DC, but sadly those must have gotten V-E'd out. We also finally (A) met Lauren's boyfriend who came much-hyped because we were told he could get us free Five Guys at the ballpark (the Washington equivalent to In 'n' Out Burger), and (B) had time to visit the team store today. Both were awesome - the Five Guys was delicious, and the team store, even though it could have had more variety, had lots of cool stuff. Erik bought a Lastings Milledge t-shirt jersey, and I bought a plush Thomas Jefferson Racing President doll (see photos) and a Nationals Park inaugural season baseball. The game did not end up being as good as the food and team store, as they lost in a rout, 13-3. Josh Hamilton finally got his first hits of the series for the Rangers, and Texas pretty much put the game out of reach with a 7-run 7th, highlighted by David Murphy's bases-loaded double. Teddy Roosevelt again had the lead in the Presidents' race, but was distracted by an inflatable kangaroo around the final turn and lost to Honest Abe, thus extending his career winless streak.

Moving on to Sunday, we ended up post-gaming at a much-anticipated pirate-themed bar in Silver Spring, and then after closing the joint down took the Metro all the way from Maryland, through the entire length of the District, over to Virginia. What that meant was that Erik and I got about an hour of sleep before having to wake up at 6 to catch a 7:30 bus to Manhattan. It was a rough beginning to the day, but after sleeping the entire 4-hour drive to New York, we were refreshed and ready to watch ball in the historic final year of Yankee Stadium. The bus dropped us off near Madison Square Garden and we took the D Train to the Bronx for the game. We had the luck of the tour on our side once again - 40% chance of thunderstorms predicted, and even though there was a pretty fierce hour-rain delay, the game was played in its entirety. Luckily, we had seats that were just under the roof canopy on the top deck. It was nice to not have to work on a Sunday to be able to watch a little afternoon ballgame at this historic field. Our view was again pretty excellent - almost at the top, but right behind home plate with a pretty good view of the game. The Yankees ended up defeating the Reds 4-1 to avoid the sweep (of course the one game I go to, my Reds lost). Andy Pettitte went 6 strong innings, and Johnny Cueto for the Reds probably could have bested his 5 had the game not contained the rain delay, as he had only given up one run and struck out 8. The newly-moustached Jason Giambi was the star of the game, going 3-3 with 2 RBI, and the lone run for the Reds came on Ken Griffey Jr's 601st career jack, on a 102-mph fastball from Kyle Farnsworth that just cleared the right field wall. It was well worth the lack of sleep and 8+ total hours on a bus to get to see a game at Yankee Stadium one last time. After the game, we of course raided the team store for "Last Year" merchandise, and we had a quick drink at Mickey Mantle's at Columbus Circle before heading back to Washington for the night. Tomorrow it's a little bit more sightseeing and our final game of the trip, a minor league game in Aberdeen MD.

Tour 2008: Nationals Park

Photos of Nationals Park and days 1 & 2 in Washington available on Flickr.

The "Tour-plus" continued yesterday when Erik and I visited brand-new Nationals Park, coincidentally on the 1-year anniversary of the main tour last year (June 20, 2007 in Madison). Despite booking our flights about 6 weeks apart, it worked out that we were booked on the same incoming and outgoing flights, and arrived at Reagan National Airport at around 10:30 pm Thursday evening. It was a really luxurious flight on Midwest Airlines, and featured fresh-baked cookies, picking out our Christmas presents in the SkyMall catalog, and a few rousing games of Go Fish. I for one was really tired and hungry after working the whole day at the firm and missing lunch, but when my friend Phil picked us up, we were promptly informed that he had left the bar to come get us and that we were going right back (he may have still had his tab open). So we drove to Alexandria, a Virginia suburb of Washington where Phil lives, and proceded to tie one on at a 7-day-a-week karaoke bar in Old Town called the Rock-It Grill, and then subsequently dominate some Triple w/ Cheese sammiches at a late-night Wendys - a great start to the trip.

Friday we had no specific plans and were in no rush to roll out of bed, and we finally arrived in the DC area around 1:30 to start our day. I'm a huge fan of the Metro rail system in the area and is one of the things I miss about living in DC, but being so far out of the city in Alexandria, it took over an hour to get into the city, as we had to catch a connector bus to the rail station first. We started the day with lunch at one of my favorite brewpubs, Capitol City Brewery, near Union Station. We then met up with Phil after his rough 3-hour workday and walked around the mall, snapped some awesome photos, and then went to some sort of rugby/soccer bar downtown to kill time before the game and meet up with my friend Lauren. The new stadium is located in SW, and for those familiar with the DC area, you know theres historically not a lot going on in this area of the city. So when we arose out of the subway tunnel at the Navy Yard stop, I was refreshed to see the street lined with proposed and upcoming developments posters. I still don't know if baseball stadiums necessarily make the best development catalysts, but thats another story. For now, we met our friend Frank at the gate and the group was now complete.

Nationals Park, much like the Reds' park or Turner Field, is very elegant in its simplicity. Its construction story is also an interesting one, as the team had far less time than the typical 32 months required to build a ballpark, and had the architects on site during the construction process, designing one wedge of the park as the wedge next to them was being built. This is evident when you go inside the park with some of the end sections that only contain one seat in the front row. The stadium is also the first LEED-accredited, or "green," ballpark in North America, and also has the largest LED jumbotron in the world. The stadium features all its seats very close to the field, very wide concourses with a decent food and beer variety, and about a 38000 capacity if I had to estimate. We had seats in the 300 level on the first base side , and with the Capitol and new development in the background, had one of the best views in the stadium for one of the worst teams.

The 14-inning affair against the Rangers ended so late that the post-game fireworks show was cancelled, but at least the Nationals pulled it out. Elijah Dukes went 5-6 in the game and hit the game-winning RBI, and starter Tim Redding went a strong 6 innings. Triple Crown candidate Josh Hamilton for the Rangers went 0-6 with 2 Ks, and staff ace Kevin Millwood gave up 3 runs over 8. Manager Manny Acta and the Nationals have clearly cashed it in for the year with Nick Johnson, Ryan Zimmerman, Chad Cordero, and Austin Kearns all on the DL. We capped the night off with a few drinks in Adams Morgan, an area near where I used to live, and tomorrow its BBQ Festival, more ball, and the Pirate Bar.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 7
views from park - 6 (would be nice if you could see Capitol, but blocked by high rises)
view to field - 10
surrounding area - 3 (for now...lots of development coming)
food variety - 10 (they have brisket!)
nachos - 5 (really good chips, poor chip-to-cheese ratio)
beer - 6 (variety, souvenir cups, all beer the same price, but expensive)
vendor price - 5
ticket price - 5 (pretty steep for such a horrible team)
atmosphere - 4 (low attendance for the Nats, cancelled fireworks)
walk to park - 6 (development renderings, Exxon-Mobil protest bear)
parking proximity - 7 (across the street but expensive, most people take the metro)
concourses - 9 (wide lanes!)
team shop - 6

best food - hot dog
most unique stadium feature - massive scoreboard, press box on roof
best jumbotron feature - Teddy Roosevelt training for Presidents Race
best between-inning feature - Presidents Race

field dimensions - 336/402/330
starters - Kevin Millwood (TEX) v. Tim Redding (WAS)
opponent - Texas Rangers
time of game - 4:10
attendance - 30,359
score - 4-3 W

Brewers score that day - 8-5 L

The End of a Tradition

[Erik and I at Doubleday Field last July on the ball tour]

Today marks the 69th and final Hall of Fame Game, played annually at historic Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY since 1940, the year after the Hall of Fame opened. Major League Baseball has been slowly removing all of its exhibition games (one of the few blunders by Bud Selig) from the schedule since 2002, and this is the last remaining in-season exhibition played in the Majors, which this year is between the Cubs and Padres. There are still currently pre-season exhibition games played overseas and in Memphis, and even the Civil Rights Game is probably going to end up becoming a regular season game soon, just as part of the Japan series was this year. With today's marketing/revenue demands, distance between teams, and taxing schedules, there is just no time for a small little exhibition game like the Hall of Fame Game, now matter how important it is to a small city like Cooperstown.

This game was originally held on Induction Day until the late 70s and on the day afer Induction Day up until 2002, when it was moved to mid-June. The game has sold out all of its 9500+ seats since its first move in 1978 and has been a great annual tradition in this one-stoplight town. Everyone puts on their biggest smiles and favorite team's jersey to meet all the players at the annual parade down Main Street before the game. Schools in the area even save their last snow day so that all students can have off to attend the day's festivities (why children are even in school in mid-June is beyond me). I'm sure today's big contract players are relieved to not have to play this game anymore, and perhaps it's not worth saving just for the sake of the residents of Cooperstown, but since its inception this game/festivities has been a large funding source for the nearby Hall of Fame, and many veterans/HOF members are left to wonder what will now fill the void of this former revenue source. The Hall of Fame runs mostly on private donations, and hopefully it will continue to sustain itself and constantly improve, along with the game, for years to come. Having been to Cooperstown myself during another big baseball event, the All-Star Game, I know firsthand what baseball and the history of the game means to this town, and I'm sure today will be bittersweet for many folks. This will also sadly be one less baseball event for Erik and I to attend - Hall of Fame Game, you will be missed.

UPDATE: The game was cancelled! After the parade and the ceremonial first pitches it started to pour. What a lackluster end to this great tradition.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 06.16:

Brewers 36-33, -8.5 (3 v. Blue Jays, 3 v. Orioles)

Reds 33-38, -12.5 (3 v. Dodgers, 3 @ Yankees)

Twins 34-36, -4.5 (3 v. Nationals, 3 v. Diamondbacks)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 12

Peter - 21

A Dominant Homestand

The Brewers finished the most recent homestand 8-1 to improve to 4 games over .500, and after winning only one against the Rockies in Denver are now at 33-30, which is sadly only good for 3rd in the division since the Cubs are also red-hot right now. I'll let Erik chime in on his views on the Rockies series since he was there. With a huge series against the 4th place Astros looming, the biggest story as of late has been the third base platoon and subsequent trade demands of Billy Hall. He was no doubt going to earn himself a trade next year with a decent season because of the impending promotions of Mat Gamel, Matt LaPorta, and possibly even Tony Gwynn Jr. Now with his .225 batting average and whining about playing time, his stock has lowered significantly and I don't see him being shipped anytime soon, although a Greg Maddux-Bill Hall trade is becoming more and more appealing.

The other big stories are our all-of-a-sudden dominant pitching (with a couple exceptions) in the last 3+ weeks, and the re-emergence of Gabe Kapler, who is out to prove that his hot April hitting was not a fluke. Gabe has a legitimate chance to at the very least earn a platoon with Mike Cameron, if not the starting job. He has raised his average about 40 points in the past two weeks and has made many spectacular plays in the outfield, and "the Hebrew Hammer" is slowly emerging as the new fan "cult favorite," following in the footsteps of such recent players as Brooks Kieschnick, Jeff Bennett, Derrick Turnbow, and Jeff Cirillo in his latest stint with the team.

Lastly, news on the injury front. Neither Eric Gagne nor David Riske are close to returning to action, even though both are throwing off of flat ground at about 80% and their 15 days both expired a while ago. Rickie Weeks tweaked his knee covering the bag on a hard slide in Friday night's game and was replaced by Joe Dillon in the lineup for Saturday and Sunday's games. Weeks is flying back to Milwaukee this morning to have his knee scoped and hopefully he'll be alright in a few days.

Notes:
- There were two notable brawls last week, both involving the Rays. One occurred when newly-emerging douchebag Coco Crisp of the Red Sox charged the mound after being hit with a pitch as retaliation for his dangerous slide the night before. Lucky for Shields (and for Crisp), he didn't land his attempted roundhouse punch with his pitching hand. The other "brawl" happened yesterday when Rays C Dioner Navarro had a few words with Matt Garza after he gave up a an RBI single in the 4th inning and the two proceeded to get into a shoving match in the dugout. Many suspensions handed out from the brawl with the BoSox; no word if Joe Madden has suspended any of his own players for the latter incident.

- The Los Angeles Angels have been awarded the 2010 All-Star Game for some reason, when newer ballparks Great American Ballpark, PETCO Park, and Chase Field have not yet hosted one, and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City has NEVER had one.

- 10 DAYS UNTIL OUR TRIP TO NEW NATIONALS PARK!!!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 06.09:
Brewers 33-30, -6.5 (3 @ Astros, 3 v. Twins)
Reds 30-34, -10.0 (3 v. Cardinals, 3 v. Red Sox)
Twins 31-32, -5.5 (3 @ Indians, 3 @ Brewers)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:
Erik - 10
Peter - 19

A May to Remember

One-third of the 2008 season has now passed, and as of June 1st...

- The Rays are in first place in the AL East at the latest point in the season in franchise history, and the Cubs have the best record in baseball at the latest point in the season since 1908, the last year they won the World Series. (On a side note, I'm pretty sure the Rays are going to be on national television for the first time EVER on Wednesday against the Red Sox).

- There are several legitimate Triple Crown threats, including Chipper Jones (leads league in average), Lance Berkman (leads league in RBI), and Chase Utley (leads league in HR) in the National League, and Josh Hamilton (leads league in all three categories) in the American League. From this list, Jones and Berkman (as of Friday were hitting .421 and .385 respectively) are also making a run at being the first player(s) to hit .400 since Ted Williams did it over 60 years ago.

- The National League Central has 4 teams over .500 this late in the season for the first time in five years, and this is the first time the Yankees or Red Sox have NOT lead the AL East at this point since the early '90s.

- The Diamondbacks have two legitiamate Cy Young candidates in the same rotation in Brandon Webb and Danny Haren. Other contendors at this point would probably be Adam Wainwright, Daisuke Matsusaka, Edinson Volquez, Tim Lincecum, Ervin Santana, and James Shields, none of which have won the award yet.

- In the past week, Manny Ramirez has hit his 500th homerun, Ken Griffey Jr his 599th, Johan Santana picked up his 100th win, and Randy Johnson tied Roger Clemens for 2nd on the all-time strikeout list with 4,672. I really feel sorry for the guy who's going to have to carve all of Manny's hair out of bronze on his Hall of Fame plaque.

- Baseball Prospectus' "Nation's Top Prospect" Jay Bruce has had a debut week for the ages. He is 13-22, including 2 HR and a 4-hit game, and the Reds are 5-1 since his recall from AAA-Louisville.

- Franklin Gutierrez turned the 13th unassisted triple-play in Major League history; the Giants also turned a 5-4-3 triple play last week.

- Lastly, in late May it was the latest in the baseball season that the Red Wings, Pistons, and Tigers all played a home game on the same day.

And let's go Crew!!! 5-1 so far on the current homestand with a 3-game set against the back end of the D-Backs rotation yet to come. For the past two weeks the Brewers have been pitching AND hitting AND defending superbly, and with Riske/Gagne coming back from the DL soon, it looks like we could really turn the corner here before the All-Star Break. And speaking of "gaining ground before the Break," look for Erik to put a dent in my substantial "most games attended" lead, as he will be unemployed as of Friday.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 06.02:

Brewers 29-28, -7.0 (3 v. Diamondbacks, 3 @ Rockies)

Reds 28-29, -8.0 (4 @ Phillies, 4 @ Marlins)

Twins 29-27, -1.0 (3 v. Orioles, 4 @ White Sox)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 7

Peter - 17

Pohlman Field

All photos of Pohlman Field available on Flickr.

With the Brewers on the road (again), and becoming flabbergasted with ESPN for not having their usual Memorial Day MLB Tripleheader (or ANY ballgames on for that matter, not even softball), I had to find somewhere to watch ball on my day off yesterday. Luckily, the Beloit Snappers were home - the low-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins and a team I frequently visited when I lived in Madison two years ago. My parents and my friend Josh were all excited to take in some minor league matinee action.

Mondays at Pohlman Field are Dollar Beer Day and Must-Win Monday, so not only did I take down four Miller Lites for $4, but we all got a free seat to the next Wednesday home game since the Snappers lost in a barnburner, 12-8. Starter Brian Kirwan for the Snappers did not fair too well, giving up 7 runs over 4 innings while walking 3 and striking out none. Michael Moustakas and leadoff man Ortiz were the stars for the Burlington Bees, as Moustakas cranked a grand slam and Ortiz went 4-5 with a HR. The highlights for the Snappers unfortunately had nothing to do with their team - their third baseman Chris Cates is probably the shortest man I've ever seen on a field at 5'3", and one of their relievers Matt Williams is an Australian-born man with an awesome Super Mario moustache.

Pohlman Field is very simple - mostly bleachers, bulbed (broken) scoreboard, outfield wall laden with advertising - but it does have a lot of amenities and a great food selection. There are entertainment areas for the kids, two food & beer decks, an all-you-can-eat section, and at least a dozen kind of beers on tap, all reasonably priced. Dogs, sodas, and pizza went on a firesale at the end of the game to get rid of them and became even cheaper than they already were. The mascot (whom I always called "Snappy" and recently found out that was actually his name) was considerably less entertaining than I remembered, which was disappointing because of the "large" crowd he had to perform in front of - the average attendance of 200 was more than quadrupled due to the National holiday and the warm weather. He was only around for about two total innings and I did not once see the amazing "Snappy Shuffle" set to organ music. Overall though, it was a fun inexpensive day and I look forward to using my free tickets next week.

A few things to rant about at the Major League level this week. The Rays are still the best story in baseball, as they have the best record at 31-20. They have great young group of guys, a solid pitching staff, and outstanding coaching. The Brewers have been seemingly acquiring and/or calling up a player every other day, as Mark DiFelice, Zach Jackson, and Tim Dillard have all made their season debuts, Russell Branyan was called up in favor of Tony Gwynn Jr to platoon with Bill Hall at third base, and newly-acquired former Red Sox pitcher Julian Tavarez will be activated to the roster this afternoon, pending a physical. The offense has been starting to click since the last roadtrip began, and Yost is starting to make lineup moves and pitching moves regularly, in the hopes that we can remain around .500 before the trade deadline when Melvin will undoubtedly try to make a blockbuster deal for another staring pitcher to save our season and hopefully propel the Crew into the playoffs. June and July has a much more favorable home schedule for the Brewers, and David Riske and Eric Gagne return in the next week, so hopefully the team can continue to progress.

park stats and rankings:

aesthetics - 2

views from park - 3 (nothing really to look at, it's Beloit)

view to field - 5 (close seats, but obstructed by nets)

surrounding area - 2 (residential)

food variety - 8

nachos - 5

beer - 10 (biggest minor league variety you'll find, and dirt cheap)

vendor price - 9

ticket price - 9 ($6 GA)

atmosphere - 4 (Snappers average attendance is in the low hundreds)

walk to park - 3

parking proximity - 10 (on adjacent street for free)

concourses - 4

team shop - 7 (large shirt & cap variety, but a small store)

best food - cheese curds

most unique stadium feature - two spacious Leinenkugel decks (one is actually a bar open year-round)

best jumbotron feature - scoreboard gone haywire due to lightning the night before (this was entertaining the entire game)

best between-inning feature - Hog Call competition, wiffle ball homerun derby with members of opposing team's dugout shagging fly balls

field dimensions - 325/380/325

starters - Matthew Mitchell (BUR) v. Brian Kirwan (BEL)

opponent - Burlington Bees

time of game - 2:51

attendance - 895

score - 12-8 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 05.27:
Brewers 24-27, -6.0 (3 v. Braves, 3 v. Astros)
Reds 23-28, -7.0 (3 v. Pirates, 3 v. Braves)
Twins 25-25, -2.0 (3 @ Royals, 3 v. Yankees)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:
Erik - 7
Peter - 15

Interleague Play Begins

I have always been an advocate of Interleague Play and was excited for this weekend's first round of such games for the 2008 season. Of course the rivalry games are something for fans to look forward to every year - the Subway Series, the Freeway Series, the 'El' Series, the Battle of Ohio, the Battle of the Bay, etc. But the best series every year are the ones that don't happen more than once every 4 or 5 years - Brewers/Red Sox, Rays/Cardinals, Twins/Rockies - they give fans and players a chance to see new ballparks and unfamiliar teams up close. Interleague Play is more for the fans than anything and are a great way to promote baseball and to sell tickets to people who may not ordinarily attend a lot of ballgames. These series are also a challenge for the players, as they have to adjust to a different style of play and face pitchers/hitters they haven't seen in person. It also is a chance for "bragging rights" for either league, and so far this year the NL has come on strong, as opposed to their embarrassing showings in the All-Star Game/IL Play in the past decade. Even though the Brewers got swept this weekend by Boston to fall into last in the NL Central (and SERIOUS managerial and rotation issues have emerged from the start of the roadtrip), it was pretty awesome to watch them duke it out at historic Fenway Park, and I can't wait to catch the Twins and Blue Jays when they're in Milwaukee.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 05.19:

Brewers 20-24, -7.0 (3 @ Pirates, 4 @ Nationals)

Reds 21-23, -6.0 (3 @ Dodgers, 4 @ Padres)

Twins 21-22, -2.0 (4 v. Rangers, 3 @ Tigers)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 7

Peter - 14

Thoughts on the NL Central

In what was supposed to be a 2-horse race between the Cubs and Brewers in an all-around poor division, the NL Central is turning out to be one of the most competitive divisions in baseball. This is certainly getting overshadowed by stories like the hot start of the D-Backs, who field the youngest nine in baseball and have 8-0 Brandon Webb, Florida's two teams leading their respective divisions with a combined $60 million payroll, and the Twins coming out of nowhere with a rotation featuring only one starter and one outfielder from their awesome 2006 team to blow past the White Sox and Indians (aside: There is no reason that Ron Gardenhire and Tony LaRussa should not win the Manager of the Year EVERY year). But back to the NL Central...who would have thought that the Cards would be in 1st place, the Brewers and Reds would be in 4th and 6th, and the Pirates would be near .500 after taking two from the Braves this past weekend? And the Astros have been on fire! There is no division in baseball where the game's parody is more present.

If the Cardinals can keep getting quality starts from their hodgepodge rotation of former relief pitchers, and if Albert Pujols continues his .500 OBP, they will continue to contend. And remember - they will only get better when Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder, and Juan Encarnacion return, and when Jason Isringhausen irons himself out. The Cubs and Brewers are pretty much the same team on paper, so I imagine these two teams will also contend if the back ends of their bullpens don't wear out. Both teams have horrible leadoff men that somehow still score runs, both have stable bullpens, both are built for power all the way down the lineup, both teams have two solid starters, both play pretty excellent defense, and both have closer issues. The Brewers had a pretty rough week, getting swept in two consecutive series, but on the bright side they have been swinging the bats much better lately, and when you combine that with the fact that up to this point they have played (A) the most road games in the majors and (B) had the toughest schedule in the Majors, things can only get better. I'm a little surprised by the Astros - they usually don't choose to contend until around mid-August, so it's hard to gauge if their latest surge into 3rd place has been all momentum or a sign of the team's true potential. What is clear is that their major offseason acquisitions of Jose Valverde and Miguel Tejada were great front-office moves. The Reds are showing that the signing of a dominant closer doesn't help if he doesn't get the opportunity to close games. Their young pitchers have been unable to string together consecutive good starts all season, and the offense is greatly underachieving, surely due to the stress of knowing they have to put up 7-8 runs a game to have a chance to win. As for the Pirates, I told all my friends (who cared to listen) that they (and the Royals) would contend for their divisions in 2009, and the Pirates are certainly showing signs that they are going to prove me right. With a new GM in place and the retention of their "star" players, this team has shown flashes of brilliance, particularly in their dramatic series against the Braves this past weekend.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the division shakes out and how many teams are still in contention at the All-Star Break.

Note: Interleague Play starts this weekend!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 05.12:
Brewers 18-19, -4.0 (3 v. Dodgers, 3 @ Red Sox)
Reds 15-23, -7.5 (4 v. Marlins, 3 v. Indians)
Twins 19-17, +1.0 (3 v. Blue Jays, 3 @ Rockies)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:
Erik - 7
Peter - 12

Henry Aaron Field

All photos of Henry Aaron Field available on Flickr.

I found myself in a predicament this weekend - the Brewers, Snappers, and Timber Rattlers were all on the road! In my continuing effort to find at least one game a week to attend, I discovered that UW-Milwaukee was playing a doubleheader at Henry Aaron Field against Horizon League rival Valparaiso. Although I am normally not a huge fan of college baseball because of the metal bats, I decided that I was out of options and drove out to Lincoln Park on the far north end of Milwaukee, and let's face it I'll watch any game at any time.

This field was clearly just a slightly upgraded Milwaukee County Parks diamond. It had three sets of standalone rusty bleachers, ground-level as opposed to submerged dugouts, two portable toilets, no concessions, and a little treehouse-like shack where the announcer sat, played batter songs, and presumably kept score since there was no scoreboard (one is supposed to be erected for the 2009 season). If there was actually a gate I had to walk into to pay for a ticket I might have been upset that the first game was postponed from noon to 3pm, but since it was free, I left and came back. Much like last weekend in Appleton, it was a cold windy day and I struggled to sit through the first 7-inning game of the doubleheader before leaving. After a slow start it was a pretty good offensive showing for the Panthers. Shortstop Jesse Hart went yard twice to deep left field, as the team hit three total HRs in the win over the Crusaders. According to the group of Valpraiso families keeping score in front of me, it was a 9-5 win for UWM. The Valpo shortstop (don't remember his name - no scoreboard) had the defensive play of the game, as he caught a bad hop barehanded and tossed a strike to home plate to nail a guy trying to score. Overall it might be something I would enjoy going to if it was warmer - and Erik and a grill were present - but on this particular Saturday afternoon it was merely a way to notch another ballgame under my belt, and to finally see my undergraduate alma mater's team play a game.

Now onto my weekly Brewers rant. I'm trying not to get to worried since its only May, so all I'll say is that taking 2 of 3 from the Cubs doesn't really mean much if we're going to get swept by the Astros. The bats are looking a little better, and although we left the bases loaded about 4 times this weekend, our clutch hitting is looking a little better as well, particularly in the Chicago series. Mike Cameron has really ignited the offense, and pretty much every player is seeing the ball well, except maybe Hardy and Weeks - but Hardy has a sore shoulder and Weeks still walks a ton and scores a ridiculous amount of runs for a man with a .200 batting average. We're starting to crank out 4-6 runs a game, which we will need to do consistently now with the season-ending knee injury of Yovani Gallardo. Dave Bush has rejoined the club after one start for Nashville (6IP 1 ER), and it's looking more and more like the Jeff Weaver signing was a good pickup. Carlos and Manny really need to step it up in the rotation now - they both have a tendency to be fairly dominant the first couple times through the order and then become unglued in the 5th or 6th. We're definitely going to need more than 5 1/3 innings out of these guys from now on, particularly with the pen back down to a normal sized 7-member staff following the long-overdue demotion and possible release of Derrick Turnbow. Hopefully he'll accept his AAA assignment and sort stuff out, because we'll definitely need him for the playoff push in September.

park stats and rankings:
aesthetics - 1 (clearly bar league softball is also played here)
views from park - 2 (Green Bay Ave, park)
view to field - 7 (really close, but chain link fence)
surrounding area - 3 (Lincoln Park, pool)
food variety - n/a
nachos - n/a
beer - n/a
vendor price - n/a
ticket price - 10 (there are no tickets)
atmosphere - 7 (Valparaiso relatives section was pretty loud)
walk to park - 2 (through park)
parking price/proximity - 9 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 1 (by concourse, do you mean "area behind bleachers?")
team shop - n/a

best food - n/a
most unique stadium feature - announcer shack; scoreboard coming next season!
best jumbotron feature - n/a
best between-inning feature - watching the Valpo parents keep score

field dimensions - 315/400/315
opponent - Valparaiso Crusaders
time of game - 3:10
attendance - 40
score - 9-5 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 05.05:
Brewers 16-15, -3.5 (3 @ Marlins, 4 v. Cardinals)
Reds 12-20, -8.0 (3 v. Cubs, 3 @ Mets)
Twins 16-14, +1.5 (3 @ White Sox, 3 v. Red Sox)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:
Erik - 7
Peter - 10

Bats and Temps Go Cold in Wisconsin

All photos from Appleton & Fox Cities Stadium available on Flickr.

This past weekend was my first "multiple ballgames in multiple cities" weekend of the year and offically pulled me ahead of Erik in the "Most Ballgames Attended" race for 2008. Friday night was game #2 of our Brewers 10-pack against the Marlins. The seats my dad got were excellent and worth every penny, and smuggling in free beer from the tailgate (which isn't always a sure bet to get past security these days) was an added bonus. As for the game action, YoGo gave the team yet another outstanding starting pitching performance, tossing 7 innings of shutout ball against the Marlins ace Scott Olsen. The bad news was that the Brewers' offense was once again embarrassingly bad and provided no run support for Gallardo, as Olsen matched him pitch-for-pitch, going 8 scoreless innings. It was nodded at zero going into the 10th (you can pretty much assume the Crew will go extra innings now) when the most recent bullpen goat, Guillermo Mota, surrended 3 runs and the game ended at that score. It's unclear to me how much of the bullpen's inconsistency is due to overuse/poor bullpen management or just the pitchers themselves. On paper, all of our relievers except Turnbow look good - and even he has had his bright spots. But in reality, one day a guy will toss 2 outstanding innings and the next game will blow a lead. Gagne has 7 saves and a win, but also has an ERA around 7. Mota, Riske, and Torres all have ERAs under 4, but all have surrendered the lead in at least one game in the past week. It seems to be all a game of chess at this point with Yost, trying to figure out who he can rely on and when, and at this point it's pretty clear he really only trusts Eric Gagne and Brian Shouse, as he seems to rotate all other relievers strictly based on availability and not situations. The Brewers could only muster 6 runs in 3 games against the Marlins and are now 9th in the NL in runs scored and are batting an anemic .244 as a team. Some of this I feel has to do with Ned, who I am beginning to question more and more, particularly when we have guys on 1st with less than two outs before the 9th inning and there is rarely a sign to bunt, hit & run, or steal. If it were not for our starting pitching, this team would be well below .500.

Saturday I finally used my free Timber Rattlers tickets and drove 100 miles up north to watch a little Midwest League A-ball with my brother and our friend Brian who lives in neighboring Neenah. Erik and I had visited the T-Rats on the 2nd to last day on the tour on the way home to Milwaukee and it was a great time. I wish I could say the same for Saturday, but it was so cold that I had to focus all of my energy on staying warm. Being so close to the field at a minor league game, and with the temps being so cold which produce a lot of broken-bat foulballs, I also had to concentrate on not getting hit in the face, which proved exceedingly difficult while also eating cheese fries out of a helmet and drinking a 152-oz beer. I make it sound like it was a horrible time, and I'll admit it was ridiculously uncomfortable being in 40-degree weather with strong winds (we actually left in the 7th), but its minor league baseball, and you can never go wrong with that. It's always fun to identify amongst yourselves which prospects look really promising and which will be working at a car wash in a month. The starting pitcher for the T-Rats, Josh Adcock, stood out most in my mind, as he seemed to command the plate well. There were so many seeing-eye singles in the game that I couldn't really say if any position players really jumped out at me. Overall it's a great park and Nick and I look forward to returning when it warms up a bit.

After the game the three of us went to an NFL draft party at the local BW3s, and between that and the ballgame, we acquired an entire bag of free stuff, so the day turned out to be pretty positive - if you ignore the fact that the Packers had a horrible draft, but that's not a story for this blog. After listening to another heartbreaking loss on the radio Sunday, I look forward to the return of Ben Sheets and Mike Cameron against the Cubbies on Tuesday.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 04.28:

Brewers 14-11 (3 @ Cubs, 3 @ Astros)

Reds 11-15 (3 @ Cardinals, 3 @ Braves)

Twins 11-14 (2 v. White Sox, 3 v. Tigers)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 7

Peter - 9

Sheets Out, Yo-Go In

This past weekend, I watched my current and former city's teams duke it out at the GAB in Cincinnati. The Brewers ended up taking 2 of 3 from the Reds and going 5-4 on a roadtrip that seemed to last a year. On Friday, Ben Sheets had another dominant start and made Reds hitters look foolish for 5 innings, and then Neddy finally decided to shut him down with tightness in his right tricep. Saturday was an extra-inning affair in which Jeff Suppan looked pretty outstanding in the Crew's eventual 10th inning win on a fine all-around game by Bill Hall. Sunday the Brewers should have locked up the sweep, with Reds ace Aaron Harang battling the first start of the season by Yovani Gallardo since coming off the DL following offseason knee surgery. But, Eric Gagne gave up a couple of gopher balls in an attempt at his 7th save, and Salomon Torres eventually gave up the GW single to Ken Griffey Jr in the bottom of the 10th, allowing the Reds to salvage some dignity in the series. Gagne seems to be pretty lights-out this year aside from his first start in Chicago, so if I had to make an excuse for his poor performance, it would be that it was his 5th consecutive day pitching. The jury is still out on this guy, who coming into the season had the highest career save percentage in major league history (min. 175 attempts) at just over 96%, but is 1-1 this year with an ERA over 7, saving 6 of 9. I feel that he will right the ship, based solely on what I've seen the last 3 Brewer closers of Turnbow, Kolb, and Cordero struggle through before eventually succeeding. (I'm also a little biased because I've been told by at least 5 people now that I look like him...what is THAT all a-boot?)

The Brewers are in an interesting situation now, as they temporarily have to carry a league-high 14 pitchers (staffs normally have 11-12) due to the ambiguity of Sheets' latest injury. Utilityman Joe Dillon was optioned to AAA to make room for Yo-Go, and it appears right now that a day after being removed from the rotation, Dave Bush will start for Sheets on Wednesday, but it is unclear right now whether Big Ben is just moving a day or two back in the rotation or a full turn. Sheets is 3-0 with a sub-1 ERA and 24 Ks this year, and losing him for any length of time will dramatically hurt this ballclub, whose bullpen is struggling to find an identity, whose bench is reduced to three players, and who is anxiously awaiting the returns of Tony Gwynn Jr and Mike Cameron to the lineup next week.

As for the Reds, I feel from the three games I've seen them play this season that they could put together a .500 club this year if they stay healthy and continue to get quality starts from their youngsters Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, and eventually Homer Bailey. Back that up with Aaron Harang dominating the league and Arroyo and Josh Fogg at least keeping their team in the game, there's no question this offense can put up 5-6 runs a game when running on all cylinders. Griffey looks as agile and focused this year as I've seen in awhile, and Edwin Encarnacion may be taking a page out of Pat Burrell's book by attempting to look less embarasssing at the major league level this year. Most importantly to any Reds fan of the past decade, the bullpen actually seems respectable and not just a hodgepodge of has-beens, with CoCo of course being the major offseason acquisition - even though it does look like David Weathers will be out for a bit with elbow problems, I think they have enough talent at Louisville to hold it together. Offensively, the Reds really only lost J-Ham in the offseason, but Joey Votto and Jeff Keppinger have definitely emerged to at least be adequate substitute bats in the lineup.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 04.21:

Brewers 11-7 (2 v. Cardinals, 2 v. Phillies, 3 v. Marlins)

Reds 8-11 (2 v. Dodgers, 2 v. Astros, 3 @ Giants)

Twins 9-10 (3 @ Athletics, 3 @ Rangers)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 7

Peter - 6

Jason Kendall for MVP

It was the first Red Sox/Yankees series of the year featuring the two statistically worst hitters in baseball, Jason Giambi and David Ortiz. Pedro goes to the DL, Randy comes back, and Doug Davis makes a courages 6-inning start two days before having his thyroid gland removed. The Cardinals are still raking, the young D-Backs are going yard at a record pace, and so far it looks like AL East MIGHT be more than a 2-horse race this year for a change. Much like Stephen Drew coming onto the scene last year and rivaling his much-hyped-never-quite-delivered bro J.D., "J-Up" looks poised to be even better than his older brother, B.J. Upton. Dice-K came back down to earth with a typical all-over-the-place start on Sunday Night.

I attended one game last week, a battle between the Reds and Brewers at Miller Park, the only game of the series the Crew won and their only lost series to date so far. Jeff Suppan gave a solid performance, and despite blowing another save, Gagne looked pretty stellar (he's never shaking off Jason Kendall again). Bill Hall continued his dominance of Reds pitching, and Ryan Braun still refuses to take a walk. The story of that night though was the amazing pitching of rookie Johnny Cueto. This kid has kind of come in under the radar (except to the die-hard Reds fan), particularly with the expectations surrounding Homer Bailey. Although he struggled a bit in his start yesterday, in his previous two he had pitched 13 innings, gave up no walks and struck out 18. It's gonna be fun to watch this kid and Yovani Gallardo develop this year.

At this point I should probably write something about Kendall since he's in the subject of this post. Jason Kendall has probably single-handedly gotten us at least 3 wins and has vastly improved the morale, defense, and hitting approach of the entire team. He has thrown out every runner attempting to steal 2nd this year, he is a superb caller of the game, and did I mention he is DESTROYING all opposing pitchers!?!? The man is still leading the majors with a .406 average, which was brought down slightly this weekend, as he only could muster a measely 3 hits against the Mets. This is what I love most about the game - guys like Gabe Kapler and Mark Reynolds have just as much chance to go yard on any given day as Big Papi, guys like Jason Kendall can out hit guys like Ichiro - as Jason says, "see the ball hit the ball" - and in the ultimate parody, teams like the Royals and White Sox can come storming out of the gates. Any team can win on any given day with any payroll, and any team is perfectly capable of winning 80 games in any given season. Not even the most devout and informed fan could have predicted that the Brewers would get embarrassed by a guy who hadn't started a game in 3 years (Nelson Figeroua), but that we would beat arguably the best pitcher in baseball Johan Santana and that we would dominate Oliver Perez the next day, who hadn't given up a run all year up to that point.

A couple things in closing:

(1) Evan Longoria got called up this week by the Rays - keep an eye on this kid.

(2) Watch as the Cards and Brewers make history this week, as they may very well be the first two teams ever to meet that both batted their pitcher in the #8 spot.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 04.14:

Brewers 8-4 (3 @ Cardinals, 3 @ Reds)

Reds 6-7 (3 @ Cubs, 3 v. Brewers)

Twins 6-6 (2 @ Tigers, 2 v. Rays, 3 v. Indians)

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:

Erik - 7

Peter - 4

Opening Week 2008

All photos from Miller Park Home Opener available on Flickr.

Major League Baseball rang in the new season in a very unique fashion this year - a set of games in Japan between the Red Sox and Athletics, and the unveiling of a beautiful new ballpark in Washington on the first Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the season on March 30th. Teams picked to finish near last like the Cardinals, Royals, and Orioles are all at the top of their divisions, while teams with high expectations like the Rockies, Mariners, and Tigers are all at the bottom (apparently $138 million can't buy even one victory for Detroit). Even the Mets and Cubs, who I'm sure most of America picked one of these teams to represent the NL in the World Series, are .500. Even though the season is young, as a famous manager once said, "You can't play your way into the postseason in the first week, but you can certainly play your way out of it." Perhaps the only team in the high-octane first week of the 2008 regular season that has actually achieved what they were expected to - whether good or bad - was the home team, our Milwaukee Brewers.

After coming out of a dramatic series against the Cubs in Chicago with two wins, the Brewers started their home schedule on Friday, April 4th at 1:05 PM. I was one of the 45000+ fans in the standing-room-only crowd that day, and I was again in attendance on Saturday. The weekend drew the highest 3-game weekend total in club history - over 119,000 people. It was my first Opening Day game I could remember, not counting times I tailgated in the parking lot with AM620 on the radio, and it was a blast. Of course drunken debauchery was to be expected - multiple beers spilled on row in front of us, and a fight in the parking lot, to name a couple incidents - but it was awesome to see the support for the team in such numbers. The Brewers ended up sweeping the Giants on three dandy pitching performances by Carlos Villanueva, Manny Parra, and Ben Sheets (CG, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K on Sunday against SF "ace" Barry Zito). The bullpen was a tad shaky at times, but for the most part the revamped relief core delivered as advertised. The Brewers acquired Guillermo Mota, David Riske, Salomon Torres, and Eric Gagne this off-season, and I got to see all four pitch this weekend. All have incredibly different styles, but what they do have in common is that they all pound the strike zone and walk few, and they all can pitch multiple innings except for maybe Gagne. Lastly, the bats were also in full force in Friday's and Sunday's games, and when everyone on the team is destroying the ball EXCEPT arguably their most dangerous hitter Prince Fielder, you know that spells trouble for the rest of the league. As in the bullpen, the two big contributors thus far in the lineup have also been off-season acquisitions - Jason Kendall, who coming into Sunday had the Majors' 3rd highest average, and Gabe Kapler, who is tied for the team lead with 2 HR and is playing a great center field in place of a suspended Mike Cameron and an injured Tony Gwynn Jr. The Brewers are currently 1st in the Majors in RBI, stolen bases, runs, and doubles, and are 2nd in hits.

I will be attending the game against the Reds tomorrow for the Crew's first night game of the '08 campaign. Let's hope we keep running on all cylinders towards the NL Central banner!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 04.07:
Brewers 5-1 (3 v. Reds, 3 @ Mets)
Reds 4-2 (1 v. Phillies, 3 @ Brewers, 3 @ Pirates)
Twins 3-4

RACE FOR 2008 "MOST GAMES ATTENDED" TITLE:
Erik - 7
Peter - 3

Tour 2008: Civil Rights Game

All photos of Memphis and the Civil Rights Game available on Flickr.

This past weekend, Erik and I met in Memphis to attend the much-anticipated Civil Rights Game. We spent three days and three nights drinking on Beale Street, touring museums, eating great food, and of course watching ball, and we had a great time. There were a surprisingly large number of people in town for the event, including fans from New York and Chicago, local reporters, and MLB.com camera crews and news anchors.

There was so much to do that we decided to start the weekend a little early. I arrived via automobile from the North, about a 9.5 hr drive through scenic Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. By scenic, I mean not at all scenic. The interesting thing about the drive was that by the time I got to around Carbondale IL, all the farms on either side of the road were all covered in water. The same amount of snow we got in Wisconsin, the Mid-South got in rain, plus all the melted snow from the north came down the river to equal major flooding. The Mississippi River was unbelievably high and dangerously close to the power lines connecting Arkansas and Tennessee.

I arrived at what I expected to be a shady hotel around 5:30 - Econo Lodge, 10 miles east of down town, Waffle House across the street, misspelled words on the display board, broken sign. However, once inside, it actually proved to be pretty nice - it featured amenities such as a fridge, microwave, and front AND rear entry. I unpacked a little and went to pick up Erik at the airport. His flight got in around 7 and I killed time taking back some $8 beers at the not-so-Irish Pub inside the airport. After a happy greeting and making fun of E's new Pete Vuckovich moustache, we were off to Beale Street. Beale St is in the heart of downtown and is generally known as the "Home of the Blues," and we pretty much didnt leave the same 9-block area the entire weekend, nor did we want to, since most of the city looks pretty run-down. Most of the original Beale St was actually razed during the "Urban Renewal" program instituted in 1960s America in an effort to rid city centers of slums. Sadly, a lot of rich cultural neighborhoods and great buildings were lost during this time, but Beale St has since then rebuilt itself as the #1 tourist destination in all of Tennessee. Our first night on Beale we grabbed a quick bite and watched a band we had seen 8 months prior on the ball tour, Delta Highway, at the Juke Joint.

We got a relatively early start to our Friday in an effort to see the Civil Rights Game symposium at the National Civil Rights Museum at 10 AM, but when we arrived we found out it had been moved to 4. So, after taking some illegal photographs inside, we headed towards the Gibson guitar factory, but the tours there were full. Third time's a charm - we finally made it into a museum, the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum. It was a pretty outstanding little museum that reminded me a lot of the EMP in Seattle - a long history of music and blues in the Mississippi Delta, featuring the history of radio in Memphis and all the great artists that recorded at the Memphis studios of Sun, Hi, and Stax Records, some of the places where Rock & Roll was first recorded in the 1950s. After the tour we grabbed a bite at B.B. King's where we acquired souvenir glasses, and then we headed back to the CR Museum. We started out walking around the museum slowly, reading every word of the intense history of the Civil Rights Movement. But by the time we got to the "Brown v. the Board of Education" section, we had to speed up a bit in order to make the symposium at 4, so we kind of jetted through the rest and got to walk through the room where MLK was staying the morning he was assassinated.

The symposium was amazing. The actual auditorium was full, but we snuck into a room upstairs where they were showing the live feed onto a projection screen. The discussion was obviously on the status of civil rights in America, more specifically in baseball, and was moderated by Harvard Professor Dr. Charles Ogletree. The panel was comprised of Hank Aaron, the general managers of the Mets and White Sox (who are Dominican and African-American respectively), and children of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Jackie Robinson. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ruby Dee, and one of the daughters from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were also in attendance. I particularly thought that Ambassador Shabazz (daughter of Malcolm X) and Kenny Williams (White Sox GM) were particularly sharp, and every panelist had very interesting things to say on the topic. It lasted about 90 minutes, and afterwards Williams, Omar Minaya (Mets GM) and Martin Luther King III came upstairs and we got to meet them. Mr. Minaya in person seemed like a very vibrant character - when Erik asked if he could get a picture with him, he responded with an enthusiastic "Yeah! Let's do that!" After the symposium, we capped off the evening with BBQ ribs and about 8 hours of drinking, finally stumbling into bed near 4 AM, as bars do not close until 4 on Beale Street on weekends. We saw our second awesome blues band of the weekend at the Juke Joint, the Dr. Feelgood Potts Band, and a pretty good funk/pop cover band at Albert's. Erik took quite a liking to Dr. Feelgood, with his flashy attire, multiple assorted harmonicas, and a crowd-pleasing song called "Tip the Band," which went a little something like this:

If you haven't tipped the band

Why don't you...tip the band

Thank you for the tip

Thanks for not givin' us no lip

Bands do not get paid to play on Beale Street, but rather volunteer to play for the exposure, so the only way they make any money is by passing a tip bucket and selling CDs, one of which we bought (I have now bought a CD at a bar all three times I have gone to Memphis).

We understandably got a late start on Saturday, and finally left the hotel around 1:30 for the 4PM game. After a stop at Hooters for lunch, we entered the park around 3:30, where we shockingly found people scalping tickets to the Civil Rights Game. Upon entering, everyone was given a free souvenir program and a plastic ticket case/holder that you could wear around your neck, kind of like how a backstage pass looks. We then visited the team shop, which had tons of cool Memphis Redbirds (AAA team that also plays at AutoZone Park) stuff but sadly a limited amount of Civil Rights gear, some of which was held over from last year. It had been raining hard all day, but we knew from our ball tour last year that we'd have luck on our side, and sure enough about 5 minutes into the 1st inning, the weather held up, although it was about 15 degrees colder than it was forecasted to be. Our seats were near the right field foulpole and were pretty good. The pregame festivities included three Beacon Awards given to prominent Civil Rights activists, MLK III throwing out the first pitch, and the U of Memphis marching band performing with the Memphis RedHot cheerleading squad. Every half-inning, a MLB profile of a celebrated minority player would be shown, including greats like Satchel Page, Larry Dobie, and Frank Robinson. Despite the stadium being half-empty because of the weather (7717 in attendance), it was a great experience and was neat to be around for such an amazing event celebrating 60+ years of progress in the integration and success of the minority athlete in Major League Baseball. And besides that, I am told I was on TV at least three times. The game itself was a pitchers duel with the Mets eeking it out 3-2. Jose Contreras and John Maine got the starts for their respective teams, and both faired pretty well, going 5.2 and 4 innings each. Contreras' only 2 runs allowed came on a Carlos Beltran homerun in the 4th. The Mets' Scott Schoenweis almost blew the game with a horrible 7th inning, but the Mets ended up re-taking the lead for good in the home half of the inning on an RBI groundout by backup catcher Raul Casanova.

After the game we went out for a couple drinks and saw the Dr. Feelgood Potts Band play the same exact set from the night before, and got to bed around 1:30. The following morning we stopped for a quick breakfast at the Waffle House across the street and parted our separate ways around 10:30 AM. Overall we had a great time and felt honored and lucky to be a part of the weekend's festivities, particularly since today I've been reading that the game might be moved to a regular season game in either KC, Atlanta, or Arlington next year, so we were definitely glad to be in Memphis while the event was still held in that city. Our next planned trip is to the new Nationals Stadium in June, with stops in the Bronx for the last year at Yankee Stadium, and a minor league game in Aberdeen MD. I caught a glimpse of the new park on Sunday Night Baseball last night when I returned home and can't wait to see it in person. Happy Opening Day to everyone!

24 Days 'til Opening Day

But since we can't wait that long, we are officially attending the 2nd annual Civil Rights Game in Memphis TN, at 4 PM on Saturday, March 29th. We're both really excited for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that we haven't attended a ballgame in 5 1/2 months. Since my last post, Erik has taken a job in Farmington NM, which effectively puts him about 3 hours from any baseball team (Albuquerque Isotopes) and about 90 minutes from anything resembling civilization (Santa Fe). So he undoubtedly will be ecstatic about seeing one of his few baseball games until mid-June when his job ends, and about seeing buildings over 3 stories tall not made of adobe. Nothing much has changed with me, still working a lot; I am particularly excited for the trip because average temps in Memphis for that time of year are near 70, which will be a 40+ degree difference to what the weather is like in Milwaukee in early March. Also, bars close at like 4 or 5 in the morning every weekend on Beale, so we are very pro-that.

Of course the game will be amazing. Even though I already have 21 games slated to attend this year at minimum, the first is always special. But the atmosphere of this place for this weekend, one of the birthplaces of civil rights in America, should be really unique and unparalleled. I have previously been to Memphis in the dead of winter and in the ungodly heat of summer, and even at both extremes the pride of the city is apparent. The game is followed by a dinner at the National Civil Rights Museum, and there will be guest speakers and events all weekend that I'm sure we'll attend. Besides the token Graceland trip (we'll actually go inside this time since Erik was never there), we're looking forward to celebrating how far this country has come the past 40 years since Dr. King's tragic death in Memphis (the Civil Rights Museum actually flanks the hotel where he was shot). The weekend is also, sadly, about recognition about how far we still have to go. Thankfully, there are many awesome blues cafes and bars within walking distance of the museum and the stadium, so as not to put too somber a tone on the festivities. It should be a wild weekend, hopefully crowded with tourists and fans that we can meet and talk to about our life's ambition to see baseball in just about every form all over the world.

Erik will obviously be flying in, and I have chosen to navigate Old Yeller down yet another stretch of American highway for 9 hours, since our hotel is like 12 miles from the park...although I'm sure it will be left downtown most of the time anyways since we'll clearly need to cab it back to the room. We leave on Thursday the 27th and return the 30th, hopefully in time to catch the first Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the spring. Next post after we return!