First Ejection in MLB's War on Foreign Substances

Ten-year veteran pitcher Hector Santiago of the Seattle Mariners became the first victim of MLB's renewed enforcement crackdown on pitching foreign substances.  The umpiring crew checked Santiago's glove, hat, and belt in the 5th inning of their game against the White Sox (as is customary - starters are being checked minimum twice a game under the "new" rule) and discovered what they deemed to be an excessively sticky substance on the inside of his glove, and he was promptly ejected.  Santiago and the team contends that the substance is just a mixture of rosen (which is still allowed) and sweat, which does make a sticky paste when enough sweat is mixed in, but the umpire's main contention was the quantity and that it is on the glove hand which is not allowed.  The glove was subsequently handled like evidence in a crime scene, being gently touched and placed in a white garbage bag, where it will be sent to the MLB's "CSI" office or whatever investigates this sort of thing, to test what the substance truly is.  If it is determined to be anything more than rosen and sweat, Santiago will receive a 10-game suspension to be served immediately (with pay) and the Mariners will be down one man on the roster during that time.

I've been hesitant to write about this topic until we have seen how this plays out a little bit as I have a lot of differing opinions on it.  I can certainly understand both sides of the issue.  From the pitchers' perspective, the balls are constantly being manipulated and changed - which has been well documented the last few seasons - and for the most part, most of them are just trying to get a grip on the baseball.  In fact, because a baseball is naturally slippery out of the box, for years baseballs have been getting "pre-rubbed" with a special mud from the Carolinas.  Any baseball that is not rubbed or manually manipulated in some way to a pitcher's liking just becomes a speeding projectile death wish in today's game of high velocity, where under 95 mph is now considered "slow."  A mix of sunblock and rosen has been the go-to substance of choice for pitchers for many decades, and umpires and the league have always turned a blind eye to it until now.  Even many hitters have gone on record saying that pitchers should be allowed to use any substance they want that allows them to grip better and not have a baseball slip out of their hand towards their head - within reason.  And it's this "within reason" caveat that brings in the league's perspective.  Their stance is that the outliers that are not only looking to get a grip, but to increase spin rate - the stat du jour of pitching savants today - and thus the break on a pitch, or velocity of a 4-seam fastball, is getting out of control.  There have been grumblings that super glue-type substances have infiltrated the game and are now giving a bad name to those just looking to grip the ball better, so the league has no choice but to crack down on everything until this is studied further.  I heard a great comparison a few weeks ago, which likened sunblock and rosen to marijuana (not great for you, and technically illegal, but not harming anyone and pretty low level) and likening Spider-Tack/super glue to heroin.

I understand that the league's hands are tied, and that the playing field needs to be leveled, but my issue with this is primarily that this has happened so quickly and half-assed in the middle of a season, and the optics on it are that it is in response to the drastically below-average offensive numbers around the league.  Tyler Glasnow gave the best honest interview on this subject after he hurt his elbow following his 2nd start going "cold turkey" with no substances.  Whether or not that caused the injury is debatable, but his point about pitchers being creatures of habit and doing things a certain way their entire careers and told to stop on a dime is unrealistic.  MLB should have done their due diligence on this to come up with an acceptable substance to all parties, and started enforcement in the off-season to give everybody a spring training to adjust, instead of putting this rule in place haphazardly.  I hope that will still be the case in the next CBA this off-season.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/28/21:

Brewers 45-33 +3.0; 3 v. Cubs, 4 @ Pirates

Twins 33-43, -11.5; 4 @ White Sox, 3 @ Royals

2021 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 5

Return to Kenosha

All photos of Simmons Field available on Flickr.

Another first for the year for me as I made it to my first Northwoods League game of the season, and in nearly two full calendar years.  My wife and son were in Minnesota for the weekend visiting family, so I had an early Father's Day weekend of sorts, going on all sorts of adventures with my daughter Molly.  One stop was her first Kingfish experience this past Saturday.  We did take Molly along to a game in Eau Claire about 3 years ago, but this was definitely her first Northwoods League game that she could actually do things at and enjoy.  We took the long way down to Kenosha on Hwy 32 along the lake and through Racine, and got inside just in time for first pitch.

Molly did remarkably well at what was really her first ballgame that she was fully interactive and wasn't just strapped to me in a Baby Bjorn.  We were in our seats probably for a total of 5 innings or so, and that's more than a lot of people much older could probably say.  Granted, she spent about 4 of those 5 innings eating and saying hi to every person that walked by, but it's a start.  The remainder of our time there we spent exploring outside of the seating bowl, and there was a fair amount new since my last trip in 2018.  The kids area in right field was a bit revamped - or it may always have been that way but I never noticed without ever taking a kid here before.  We enjoyed the Kingfish bounce house, the sand box, and the speed pitch for a bit before walking down to the 3rd base side to see the brand new and much-anticipated bowling lane that was recently installed.  In true Northwoods League and Kingfish fashion, it was unapologetically rinky-dink and made of repurposed materials, in this case plywood.  It's a 100% charitable endeavor with no money going to the team, and it was fun to share my two major sports passions with Molly in one night - bowling and baseball.  The lane was part of a completely redone communal gathering area including bars, picnic tables, and bags sets.  This used to be the area where the pre-game season seat holder buffet was spread out over used football field turf, but this is a much better use of prime space - although gladly the field turf remains.  The other noticeable addition to the park was a "Grab-n'Go" area.  It was a great use of what looked to be a storage area under the bleachers as a place to grab pre-packaged snacks and drinks and pay for them yourselves rather than waiting in line, sort of like a self-checkout at a grocery store.  It was part of the Kingfish's 100% cashless policy in response to Covid, which I found interesting since they still use paper tickets for some reason.

The game itself pitted the Kingfish against the visiting Battle Creek Bombers (despite the scoreboard thinking it was Rockford).  And oh yeah, that was another new thing - the jumbotron.  Only Big Top Baseball would spend the money on a jumbotron at a summer collegiate ballpark.  Anyways, Brock Weirather pitched for K-Hole the entire duration of time we were there (7 innings) and gave up only 2 runs.  He was not missing a lot of bats, but induced a lot of ground balls.  Looking at the stats it looked like the bullpen threw up all over themselves after we left, but still managed to hang on for the 9-5 win.  Justin Janas had the big hit in the game with a 2-run double to put the game out of reach in the 6th.  There was not much worth mentioning for the Bombers despite them crawling back in the game.  The staff dished out a total of 15 free bases in the form of walks and hit batsmen and just overall looked horrible.  The offensive silver lining for BC was #3 hitter Miguel Larreal who had 2 hits on the night and was hitting over .400 as of Saturday's game.

I'm really excited that the pandemic is slowly ending at a time when Molly is getting old enough to have fun at a ballgame.  I look forward to sharing my love of the game with her as she grows older, and am already looking forward to a trip to Green Bay with her next month to see the Booyah.

updated park rankings and statistics (see original post from 7/9/14):
aesthetics - 5
views from park – 1
view to field - 7
surrounding area – 2
food variety - 9
nachos - 4
beer - 9
vendor price - 7
ticket price - 6
atmosphere - 9
walk to park – 1
parking price/proximity - decreases to 4 (free, but very convoluted...the team uses adjacent unmarked lots from other businesses)
concourses - improves to 5
team shop - 9

best food – Foot-long King Dog
most unique stadium feature – only ballpark in North America with a bowling lane
best jumbotron feature – best feature is they have one now!
best between-inning feature – kids toilet race

field dimensions – 314/410/330
starters – David Williams (BC) v. Brock Weirather (KEN)
opponent – Battle Creek Bombers
time of game – 3:28
attendance – 2112
score – 9-5 W
Brewers score that day – 7-4 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/18/21:

Brewers 38-31, -1.0; 4 @ Rockies, 3 @ Diamondbacks, 3 v. Rockies

Twins 27-41, -15.5; 3 @ Rangers, 2 v. Reds, 4 v. Indians

2021 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 3

American Family Field

All photos of American Family Field available on Flickr.

After 1 year, 9 months, and 4 days (but who's counting) since attending my last baseball game in person, I finally made it to American Family Field this past Sunday!  I was offered a free 10th row seat from a friend with very short notice, and after my wife happily and jealously gave me the thumbs up, I jumped at the opportunity.  This was amazingly my first Brewer game since we moved within walking distance of the ballpark in September 2019, so it was the first time I got to test a new "secret route" to the ballpark.  There is a large cemetery that separates our house from the ballpark which would require going about a half-mile out of the way to walk around it, but I found on Google Maps what looked like only a moderately nefarious route under some power lines and through the cemetery that was more of a beeline walk.  After "negotiating" a few fences and gates, it was only a 20 minute walk to the front door, thankfully a lot of which was under shade on the 90+ degree day.  The walk made me think of all the times that Erik and I pioneered our "secret route" many years ago, from 56th & Walker to the ballpark through the VA hospital grounds, which is now part of the Hank Aaron Trail, and it made me especially miss my fellow baseball-loving friend.

Another first for me on this day was my first Brewer game since the stadium name changed from Miller Park.  Much has been made from disgruntled fans bashing the change (particularly the city of West Milwaukee that refuses to change its "Miller Park Way" street name), but it's hard not to admit objectively that the new logo and colors are so much better than the old Miller Park signage.  I am the type of person that gets incredible anxiety from change, but once the change is over, I move past it quickly and have never been one for nostalgia.  And that's how everybody should approach this name change.  At the end of the day it is just a corporate sponsorship, and it will probably change again, as do all of the other sponsorships throughout the ballpark.  The memories are what are most important.  I think everybody should save their strong feelings for when the Brewers inevitably require a new ballpark sometime in my lifespan.

As for other changes throughout the ballpark, we got there right at first pitch, and it was very hot, so I did not move much from our seat and see a lot of the stadium.  From what I did see, most of the major change has occurred in left field.  The Brewers added yet another private group area in the outfield, much to my dismay.  They took out two of the few public bleacher sections to add the Miller Lite Deck above the Brewers bullpen.  I've said this on this blog many times before, but lack of bleachers close to the field and lack of public social space have always been and will forever be my (and Erik's) main beefs with AmFam Field, and the addition of this party deck made both of those even worse.  But, I do understand that as a team with their limited financial resources, that they have to squeeze as much money out of attendance as they can, and those party decks are cash cows.  Bernie's Chalet got an update and a fresh coat of paint on the slide, and going to the playoffs each of the last 3 years finally necessitated moving the pennants to somewhere with more space (they are now below the press boxes).  Lastly, TGIFriday's has finally moved out of the left field restaurant after being the original tenant since the park opened in 2001.  It is now called "Restaurant to be Named Later."  Don't let the stupid name or the complete lack of aesthetic updating on the inside fool you - I went there for lunch with Megan a few weeks ago and it is 10x better than Friday's ever was.

The old saying in baseball is "as the weather heats up, so do the bats," and that could not be more true for the Brewers right now.  Backed by two homeruns and Corbin Burnes' most impressive start of the season - 13 Ks, no runs, and no walks over 7 innings - the Brewers completed the 4-game sweep of the lowly Diamondbacks.  It completed a 5-1 homestand and puts them at 13-3 in their last 16 games since trading for Willy Adames on May 21st, propelling them to 1st place in the NL Central as of this post.  Pitching continues to carry this team as you could make a strong case that 3/5ths of our rotation deserves both all-star bids and Cy Young votes right now (Burnes, Woodruff, Peralta), not to mention the perennially dominant Josh Hader.  We're also well past the point of "small sample size" and will likely have to live with the fact that we are not going to hit much better than the .211 team average we currently have, barring any major trades or Keston Hiura becoming Ted Williams incarnate.  I can't remember a Brewers team since I've been an active fan where we have been such a pitching-heavy and hitting-weak team like we've had the past couple of years, and I think that partially speaks to some shady things happening (or supposedly happening) with doctored baseballs - but that's a story for another time.

It felt so good to finally a notch a game under my belt and it really invigorated me for the rest of the season.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/8/21:

Brewers 33-26, +0.5; 3 @ Reds, 3 v. Pirates, 3 v. Reds

Twins 24-35, -12.0; 3 v. Yankees, 3 v. Astros, 3 @ Mariners

2021 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0

Peter - 1