Wednesday started off slow, and I was working on the blog post for Tuesday until about noon. I decided to hit up Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue, due to a recommendation from Trenni Kusneriek (and others). It’s on Brooklyn Ave and 18th Street southeast of downtown. There are two other locations but this location was the original (ok, not really the original, seeing as Arthur Bryant’s has been around since 1908, but it’s near where the original was). I got there around 2:15, and was not disappointed. The four-parter below, going clockwise from top left:

1) The exterior of the restaurant from across Brooklyn Avenue.

2) The interior of the restaurant. The wall had pictures of famous visitors, and articles that Arthur Bryant’s appeared in. Some notables visitors were President Jimmy Carter, Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover, John Lithgow, and John McCain and Sarah Palin (while campaigning for the 2008 election).

3) The menu, I ordered the chicken sandwich. The menu says “chicken-half”, and I thought that meant I’d get half a chicken’s worth of meat.

4) I was wrong, it’s literally half a chicken, bones and all. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to just eat the chicken off the bone, and then have two pieces of bread, or shred the chicken myself. I also got a side of potato salad.

I did some deconstruction and then some assembly, and this was the result:

My first bite had a bone in it; bad job on my part. On each subsequent bite I was more careful. That first bite was the only one that had a bone, so I wound up doing a decent job. It was a great sandwich, and the potato salad was spectaculous.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was nearby, and I visited that as well. I spent about an hour and 45 minutes walking through the exhibits and reading about the history. It was cool and sad at the same time, and makes you wonder how many MLB records would be different if players of color would’ve been allowed to play in the majors sooner. You can’t take photographs when you’re inside the museum, so I’ll give you a photo of the exterior of the museum(s). The building also houses the American Jazz Museum. The sign reads “The Museum at 18th & Vine”. It was $8 to see one of the museums, and $10 for both. I do like Jazz, but I knew I wouldn’t have time to do both so I just went with the Negro Leagues Museum.

I was done at the museum just after 4:45, and left for Kauffman Stadium from there. I was meeting my friend Matt (it feels weird using first names), and he got to the parking lot shortly after I did. We went to middle school and high school together, and we both went to UW-Madison as well. We didn’t see each other much during college, but we’re still friends, and he’s in the fantasy baseball league that I’m the commissioner of. I was planning on getting the game number photo from behind home plate in the upper deck on Wednesday, and then from my seat on Thursday. Since we had plenty of time, I figured we should at least see if there was a good spot to capture the back of the scoreboard. It took some walking, but we found a good spot. I know I usually don’t get two pictures from outside the stadium, but I made an exception. Game photo number 62:

After getting the above picture we entered the left field gate and visited the Royals Hall of Fame. It’s located in the left field corner of the stadium and was added during the remodeling of Kauffman Stadium. They did a great job with it and I took a bunch of pictures. This first four-parter, going clockwise from top left:

1) The ceiling of the museum when you first enter. It might be a little confusing because the wall is at the bottom, which makes it kind of look like the floor.

2) Garth Brooks’ guitar and a note: “To all my friends in low places in KC. Love you Guys!! God bless you and yours.” They play Friends in Low Places (a Garth Brooks song) during the game and most people sing along.

3) The bobble heads that they have in the all-fan-giveaway display. I attended two Brewers-Royals games at Kauffman Stadium back in 2006, and they had a bobble head giveaway one of the days. I have the Frank White bobble head, with him holding his 8 gold gloves in his left hand and you can see it in the middle of the bottom row.

4) A letter from President Nixon to George Brett after the famous pine tar incident (George Brett was ruled out after a home run at Yankee Stadium when he was found to have too much pine tar on the bat he used). The letter reads: “Dear George, As one who roots for the home team I am a Yankees fan. As a long time George Brett fan I thought you got a lousy deal. I’ll wager they change the rule in the future. In the meantime keep slugging! With warm regards, Richard Nixon” In a word: cool.

The thing that I thought was coolest was the letter from a fan of the new franchise. The owners had asked people to suggest names for the new team, and this was the winner. I never would’ve guessed the reason for the Royals name. I probably would’ve thought it was just implying that they were royalty. You can click on it if you need a larger image (as is the case with all of the pictures).

A few more notable items from the Royals Hall of Fame. Again, going clockwise from top left:

1) The Royals’ Statue of Liberty, a gift from the Yankees when they hosted the 2008 All-Star Game.

2) One baseball for each base hit that George Brett had in his career: 3,142. It’s a really cool piece of artwork. Inside the glass display is the bat he used to get his 3,000 hit, and the ball that he hit.

3) The eight gold gloves won by Frank White (’77-’82, and ’86-’87). I think the player gets the original and then the team gets a replica.

4) The Royals World Series trophy from the 1985 Fall Classic when they beat the Cardinals. There was a terrible call in the 9th inning of game six, and it led to a Royals victory. They then won game seven and the rest is history. I was reading more about that game six just now and learned there was also a blown call that cost the Royals a runner at second base earlier in the game. So maybe it all evened out. The Cardinals now have 11 other World Series titles to soak up their tears so I can’t be too upset about the blown call.

In left-centerfield there is a statue of Ewing Kauffman and his wife Muriel. They were the founding owners, and brought baseball back to Kansas City. The Kansas City A’s (previously the Philadelphia A’s, and currently the Oakland A’s) were in KC from 1955 to 1967. The Royals’ first season in Kansas city was 1969 and they’ve been in Kauffman Stadium since 1973. It was known as Royals Stadium from 1973-1993. The park was renamed Kauffman Stadium just a month before he passed away in August of 1993.

Matt and I met up with a friend of Victoria’s, and he bought us a beer. His name is John, and he was a hotdogger in Victoria’s “class”. Oscar Mayer hires 12 recent college grads every year to drive the six wienermobiles around the country. John was never Victoria’s partner (they have a partner for the first six months and then a different one for the other six months). We talked about my mission and how it’s been going so far. He had the Midwest region for six months, and he said he misses Madison, as do I. Before we took off I had John take a picture of Matt and me. Thinking about it now, I should’ve had a stranger take a picture of the three of us.

We thanked John for the beer but then had to hustle over to the visitor’s dugout. I was going to be doing an on-air interview with Craig Coshun during the game. Since there isn’t a gate that allows access to the camera well from the stands I had to meet Craig before the game and pick this up:

We were sitting on the third base side somewhat near the camera well (on purpose), and this was the view from our seats in section 117, row P.

The game got underway and again the Royals jumped out to a 1-0 lead after a leadoff double and two groundouts. The Brewers got on the board in the third, and it was an inning that I will likely never see again. After Kottaras popped out to leadoff the inning, the next three Brewers all reached on infield singles. Maysonet reached on a swinging bunt, and then Aoki and Gomez both bunted for base hits. A Ryan Braun strikeout followed the hits, but then Aramis Ramirez hit a ground ball to short that was ruled a base hit as well. The shortstop tried forcing out Gomez at second, but his wheels allowed him to get there before the throw. Maysonet scored and the Brewers tied it at one. Four infield hits in one inning: very rare.

I had met Craig Coshun by the BATS Club entrance and we went under the seating bowl to reach the camera well. While walking down one of the tunnels Zack Greinke was coming up to get something out of the visitor’s clubhouse. I missed the Kottaras pop out because it takes so long to get to the well, but saw the infield hits and the run that scored in the top of the third. This was my view from Craig’s chair in the camera well. He graciously allowed me to sit in his folding chair while he stood next to/leaned on an electrical box.

We did the interview when FS-Wisconsin came back from commercial break at the start of the bottom of the fourth. Here is Craig pointing to the camera out in centerfield, and me waving to the camera guy who was waving at us. Thanks Matt for taking the pictures.

I was on for just a minute or two, but I got my message out. I haven’t gotten a chance to see the interview, but people said it went well. There were some hecklers that were giving me grief during the interview. I’m not used to such situations, and it actually got to me a bit. Not because what they were saying was hurtful, but just that I was trying to answer questions and my mind wanted to hear what they were saying as well. I can probably watch the interview and tell you when it happened, because I kind of lost my train of thought and stumbled briefly. I heard one of them say/yell: “answer the questions with your beard.” If you’re not aware; my initial goal was to not shave for the entire season. I’m having second thoughts. Here we are during the interview.

I missed eight pitches during the interview, three getting to the camera well, and three getting back, for a total of 14! By far the most of the season. The previous high was four and happened during my interview with Telly Hughes on May 1st in San Diego. I didn’t miss anything special, so I’m not too upset. The fact that someone tweeted me afterwards telling me that they had met me in the Miller Park parking lot and that the interview reminded them to order the do-it-yourself registration kit made it all worth it.

At one point during the game I looked up and saw something that Matt and I thought was pretty funny:

Ok, back to the game; in the seventh inning Ryan Braun drove in Edwin Maysonet on a single to center, and the Brewers took a 2-1 lead. They added to it in the ninth after a leadoff double by Aoki, a sacrifice bunt by Gomez, and an error on the play by the catcher led to Aoki scoring. The stage was set for Axford to pick up his 11th save. Axford retired two of the first four batters in the inning, but the other two reached on walks and Axford only threw one strike to the two of them combined. With two outs and two on Alcides Escobar lined a 2-1 pitch to left center, and wound up at third with a 2-run triple. Tie game. The Brewers had runners on the corners with two outs in the 10th, but failed to score. Kameron Loe came out to pitch the bottom of the 11th and the Royals wasted no time improving their on base percentage. They went single, walk, single, and Loe was taken out in favor of Jose Veras. Veras walked Moustakas on five pitches and the Royals had a walk-’em-in walk-off. Final Score: Royals 4 – Brewers 3.

It was one of the toughest losses of the season, and probably one of the most exciting for Royals fans. “One man’s pain is another man’s pleasure.”

I’ll be at Kauffman Stadium in two short hours, and I’ll be meeting with Kris Miner, a local whose Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma transformed into Stage 4B Large Cell Lymphoma. She needs a bone marrow transplant and there currently isn’t a match in the registry. Her husband and brother-in-law contacted me and asked if I’d be willing to help promote the registry and try to get people to join. I obviously agreed to do anything they need. She just recently got news that the chemo isn’t working to keep the disease at bay, and now the timetable is 7-9 weeks for her to find a match. If you haven’t joined the registry I encourage you to do so. She is of German and Dutch decent and those with similar backgrounds have a better chance of being a match. If you’re not of German or Dutch decent I would still encourage you to join because there are many other individuals in the same situation as Kris. You can join in person at a free drive by typing in your zip code to find an upcoming drive near you. You can also order a self registration kit online. If you have already joined or donated to the cause I can’t thank you enough.

Personal Stats:

Daily:

Season:

If you want to learn more about Be The Match and how you can help, CLICK HERE

Before I forget; I taped the re-airing of the Brewers game from Sunday, and recorded with my iPhone the point in the game that I caught the foul ball. Victoria’s hand was a little sore after that jacked-up high five I gave her. The other guy I gave a high five to was the one who had said “you just took your glove out!” after I made the catch.

I had a few appointments in Madison on Monday, and I left for Kansas City when I was done at 2 pm. I arrived at Tom at Danielle’s place at 10:20 pm, and went to bed shortly thereafter. Tom & Danielle are engaged, and they met while in the dorms freshman year at UW-Madison. They too were Gilman House residents, along with myself, Victoria, Alex, Jess, Katie, and Allison. I stayed with Alex and Jess in Chicago, saw Katie at the game on April 9th at Wrigley, and Victoria and I stayed with Allison in San Francisco in May.

Tom and Danielle live in the Market Station Apartments in downtown Kansas City, and it’s a nice complex. The four parter gives a taste of what it’s like. Going clockwise from top left:

1) One of the hallways in the complex. I was surprised to see cement floors. It probably makes it easier to clean and it’s cheaper, since you don’t have to worry about replacing the carpeting.

2) The interior of their apartment, taken from the kitchen area. It’s a two bed / two bath so I got my own side of the apartment! I’m sleeping on an air mattress (not at this exact moment) and have had no complaints. Thanks guys!!!

3) The view out of their kitchen window(s), not too shabby.

4) The view of downtown Kansas City from the attached parking garage for the Market Station Apartments.

On Tuesday I ate breakfast, watched some Sportscenter, and then laid by the pool for a bit. At 2:30 I went to get lunch at Oklahoma Joe’s. I had asked Tom and Danielle on Monday night where I should go, and they said if I only go to one place it should be Okie Joe’s. The three part picture below, again going clockwise from top left:

1) The exterior of the building that Oklahoma Joe’s is in. Is that a gas station? It sure is.

2) The interior of the restaurant, behind me and to the left was the gas station side of the store. When I was buying a bottle of the BBQ sauce the lady behind the gas station counter was taking orders for Oklahoma Joe’s, so it seems there is a good relationship between the two establishments.

3) My lunch; the Jumbo Pulled Pork sandwich and a side of Spicy Slaw. The pulled pork had just the right amount of smoke, and it was amazalicious. For $2.39 I’d have to give the slaw a solid B. For that price I was expecting to be blown away.

After lunch I went back to Tom and Danielle’s place and started getting ready for the game. Danielle got home from work around 5:15, and Tom 5:55. Two of their friends (Ben & Kristen) picked us up at 6:00, and we were parked by 6:20. Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead Stadium (where the Kansas City Chiefs play) are located right next to each other, and share parking lots. We parked in one that was right in front of Arrowhead.

Ben and Kristen had picked up some fried chicken along with some other items for the tailgate. I ate two pieces of chicken, had a beer, but then had to take off, to make sure I could get my ticket and exterior game number picture prior to the game. Before I left them I had a nearby Brewers fan take a picture of the five of us. Left to right it’s Tom, Danielle, myself, Kristin, and Ben.

I was a little disappointed to find out that the Royals don’t have exterior Kauffman Stadium signage. I think that should be a law. I explained to a stadium employee what I wanted and she told me I should go to the upper deck and get a picture with the field in the background. I explained that I was planning on doing that for one of the other games, but needed an exterior picture for the first game. I settled with the following for game photo number 61. I know it says “Royals” on the side of the stadium, but most places have the stadium name somewhere on the outside.

I got inside at 7:03 for a 7:10 start time, which is the closest call I’ve had this season. Outside and inside I took a few pics, but will do a better job of documenting the park at today’s game. Going clockwise from top left:

1) The addition to Kauffman Stadium when they did some remodeling from 2007-2009. I was here in 2006, so I hadn’t seen any of the upgrades.

2) Just after getting my ticket scanned I took a picture of the home plate entrance. I must admit that it’s not too inviting or exciting.

3) The addition on the left, with the original stadium architecture on the right. The addition holds offices, the team store, and other aspects of an MLB team.

4) A giant piggy bank that is sporting Royals colors.

The national anthem had been playing when I was getting my bags checked at the gate, and had to wait there before heading inside. I got to my seat at about 7:09, and the game started one minute later. This was the view from my seat in the last row of section 225.

The Brewers went down in order in the first, and the leadoff hitter for the Royals took Greinke deep to give them a 1-0 lead. The Royals starter (Luis Mendoza) carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, before Ryan Braun singled on a ground ball to the third basemen. I have a four parter to show what happened, clockwise from top left:

1) Braun lining up Mendoza to lead off the seventh.

2) Braun sliding into second base after the third baseman’s throw got past the first basemen. This picture doesn’t show that the ball had gotten past Escobar who was covering second.

3) Braun arriving at third after the second error of the inning.

4) After an Aramis Ramirez walk Taylor Green lifted a short fly ball to left that was caught by the left fielder. Braun tried tagging up but was thrown out by quite a bit. It wasn’t even that good of a throw, but Gordon was so shallow once he caught the ball that there was a large margin for error.

After the double play the Brewers were left with the slow-footed Ramirez at second and Rickie Weeks at the plate. Rickie came through with a bloop single and Ramirez barely beat the throw home to tie the game at one. It remained tied until the bottom of the eighth, when the Royals got a leadoff double from Gordon. He was sacrificed to third by Getz and then Billy Butler drove him in with a single to center. The Brewers had runners on first and third with only one out in the top of the ninth but failed to get a run home. Kottaras struck out swinging and pinch hitter Brooks Conrad grounded into a game ending fielder’s choice. Final Score: Royals 2 – Brewers 1.

A few other things from the game. If you didn’t know, Kauffman is famous for the fountains that they have beyond the outfield walls. I took a picture of them during an inning when they’re off:

I also took a picture between innings, later in the game they turn on lights that make the fountains colorful, but I won’t include one of those pictures today. They also turn the fountains on when a Royal hits a home run. So on Tuesday it didn’t take long for that fact to be confirmed.

I’ll note that while trying to take the first picture (of the fountains while they were off) I missed the 2-1 pitch to Humberto Quintero in the bottom of the fifth inning. I was looking through my camera’s viewfinder and had it pointed at the fountains, and my internal clock wasn’t working properly. I can usually sense when to look back at the action. I failed to do so on Tuesday but luckily it didn’t end a really long streak or anything. If I showed you a picture of two beach balls almost hitting each other in the stands would you forgive me? No? Well here it is anyways. I hate beach balls at baseball games, and the distraction almost caused me to miss another pitch. Documenting such behavior might encourage more usage, so maybe I shouldn’t post it…

A friend from Fort Atkinson is joining me at today’s (Wednesday’s) game. He is currently living and working in Omaha, and is making the trip down to see the Brewers take on the Royals in game two of the series.

In other news: I will be on FS-Wisconsin’s telecast tonight during the fourth inning. Craig Coshun just contacted me and informed me of the on-air appearance. Tune in, check it out, laugh at my pathetic “beard”. If you haven’t joined the bone marrow donor registry yet (and are 18-60), you should seriously consider it. There will be a drive in Madison on Thursday, June 21st at the Central Wisconsin Center on Knutson street from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. There will also be a drive in Milwaukee on Wednesday, June 27th at Kaplan college on West Pleasant street from 9:00 am to 1:30 pm.

Personal Stats:

Daily:

Season:

If you want to learn more about Be The Match and how you can help, CLICK HERE

I had an oncologist appointment on Wednesday morning, and I had kind of forgotten about it. It was a 12:15 appointment and I was in bed until 11:00 am. I didn’t go to bed until 2:30 am and didn’t fall asleep until after 3:30, so before I get dubbed lazy, consider the circumstances. The appointment was just to see how I was doing, but there really wasn’t a point for it. I’ll be getting a blood test in July that tells us if it’s still in remission (in the blood stream at least). Then in October I’ll have my yearly bone marrow biopsy (which will tell the more thorough story regarding my remission status).

After the appointment I went back to my parent’s and tried to get stuff organized for the week ahead. I’ll have more time after the day game tomorrow, errr, today (it’s 12:05 as I type this). Day games after night games are always tiresome, but the break between the day game and the next night game makes it worth it. I can sleep when I’m dead is what I keep telling myself. I left for the game around 3:30, and pulled into the Brewers 1 Lot just after 4:30. I got there extra early yesterday because I wanted to make the trek to the general parking lot and hit up people back there. I think (and this is just speculation), that there are more young people in the general lot, because I hadn’t been back there yet to promote what I’m doing. It’s the younger people that I’m encouraging to join the registry since they’ll have more years of being a potential donor. I also talk to older people and encourage monetary donations. It doesn’t make much sense for people in their late 50s to join the registry if they’re only going to be in there for a few years. Be The Match needs both monetary donations, and also people willing to be a donor if they’re called upon so it’s kind of a balancing act on their part.

I went back to my car just before six to grab my stuff, and was inside by 6:05. I had been tweeting that my second ticket was available again, and at the last second @JasonLatus said that he’d join me at the game. After talking to him at the game he said that he had seen my tweets from earlier in the day, but once crunch time came he stepped up to the plate and delivered with a $40 donation to Be The Match. I was already inside with the ticket when I saw his tweet, but I was able to leave it at the ticket window inside Miller Park, and they took it to the will call window.

Once inside I went to section 228 and got game photo number 56 taken by a nearby fan. He took three pictures and they were all pretty good. The third one was the best, but when I went to scale the image size down just now I noticed that the jumbotron had two girls in the stands on there when the picture was taken. You may not have noticed it, but it’s going to bug me. I still like it better than the other two, so I’ll have to live with it. I tried to blur them out even more than they already were, but it’s still somewhat of a distraction.

I met with Nathan in the team store by Friday’s, and he handed off the new gear that the Brewers are providing. Kathy and Tyler: I know you read the posts so I can’t say thank you enough for the merchandise and everything else you guys have done for me. Jill (the merchandising director) gets a nod as well because she worked with Kathy and Tyler to figure out how it would all work. Below are the three shirts Nathan picked out for me, and the hat that the Brewers will wear on July 4th (The fill inside the M is camouflage). I think they wore it on Memorial Day also, but I’m not certain. I was in the Upper Deck at Dodger Stadium that day, so I didn’t get any close looks at the players.

I talked with Bill (the usher) again and then while walking to my seats Jason caught up with me. We got situated for the game and with Greinke on the mound I was feeling pretty good about the Brewers chances.

The game was scoreless early but in the fourth inning the Brewers got on the board in a big way, with four runs on five hits. Three of them scored with two outs so that was nice to see. Braun’s double scored Aoki, Ransom’s double scored Braun, and Conrad’s single scored Hart and Ransom. I got a picture as Ransom slid home safely, and again I wish I had a faster lens. The shutter speed for the below photo was 1/125 of a second, and I probably needed a 1/400 picture to achieve decent clarity. I’m starting to seriously consider purchasing a nicer lens. The $1,000 price tag is (obviously) the only thing holding me back. So I can either man up and lay down the cash, or start asking players to do things more slowly so I can capture their actions better. I would prefer the latter but I’ll probably wind up doing the former.

In the top of the fifth Greinke had a chance to strike out four in an inning because a wild pitch on strike three allowed Ian Stewart to reach. The next at bat ended with a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play and it’s apparent that Maldonado has an amazing arm behind the plate. Lucroy is a great defensive catcher, and has a decent arm. If he had the arm Maldonado has he’d be right up there with Yadier Molina of the Cardinals (he’s close as it is, in my opinion). Greinke settled for three strikeouts in the inning, and had 12 in the game, while giving up just two hits and two walks. The Brewers tacked on a run in the fifth, and then blew it open in the eighth. Taylor Green hit his first Major League home run, a three run shot to right, and I knew it was coming. Ok, maybe not “knew”, but was hopeful. Every time he had come to the plate this year I would say “He’s still looking for his first major league home run.” My hard work finally paid off and the Brewers celebrated with fireworks after Green rounded third.

This linescore is more of what I was looking for when the Cubs came to town. Final Score: Brewers 8 – Cubs 0.

Some advice: never second guess yourself while picking a sausage race winner, it backfires. I went with the Bratwurst originally, and then right before they took off I changed it to the Italian. I hate Italian sausages, what was I thinking? Of course Bratwurst had a come-from-behind victory, cementing my original estimation that the tallest contestant would win (always look at the legs). My uncle hates the sausage race, and I never understood why. Look at the all the heads in the Brewers dugout, where are they looking? You guessed it, at the sausages! I know it’s ridiculous and all, but it’s a heckuva lot better than the tool race, or whatever it is that they do in Atlanta (and other parks), it’s a joke. In Atlanta they have a paint brush, hammer, hand saw, and power drill, and they wear these little boots. Maybe I’m a little biased, but the sausage race was the first of it’s kind, and it can’t be topped.

After the bottom of the eighth inning I had a fan take a picture of Jason and I. He told me that he wasn’t very photogenic, so I hope he’s not mad about me posting the pic. He might look like he wasn’t happy, but he can confirm that we had a good time at the game. We talked about baseball, my journey, and also how cool he thinks it is. The 25-31 record has been the hardest part of the season so far, but hearing people like Jason tell me that what I’m doing is awesome and to not regret it reassures me that I made the right decision.

That’s all for now. I’m going to the game today (Thursday), with a former co-worker. Her name is Pam and we’re meeting in Johnson Creek at 11:00 am. A good time should be had by all.

Personal Stats:

Daily:

Season:

If you want to learn more about Be The Match and how you can help, CLICK HERE

Monday was the sixth off day of the year, and I took it easy most of the day. I had physical therapy and occupational therapy appointments in the morning for my knee and elbow, respectively. The physical therapist didn’t think it was an MCL tear because he bent my leg certain ways and there wasn’t pain. Whatever it is, I don’t like it, and personally I think rest is the only thing that will make it go away. So hopefully in November it will feel better, but the way it’s going right now I’m thinking October (if you catch my drift). He gave me some exercises to increase the flexibility of my quads and hamstrings, because he thinks the tightness in those muscles could be adding stress to the knee and hip. We’ll see how it goes.

Ok, back to M162 (shorthand for Brewers Mission 162, if you must know). I met Victoria for lunch at Noodles in Madison at 12:30, then went back to the apartment to get stuff packed up for the week ahead. I left Madison around 3:30, and pulled into the Brewers 1 Lot at 5:15. Again I walked around and told people about my mission and Be The Match. When I asked a group if they had heard about the guy going to all 162, a girl said; “yeah, I made the jersey for him!” I said thank you, introduced myself, and went on with my spiel. She said she was confused when asked to put three numbers on a jersey, and never really got an explanation as to why.

I had offered my extra ticket on twitter in exchange for a $25 donation to Be The Match, and @Phoebe0221 was the winner. She wound up donating $30, and I’m very grateful for the contribution (and so is Be The Match). I met Phoebe outside of the home plate entrance around 6:00 pm, and we proceeded inside. We went to section 230, and got game number photo 55 taken care of shortly thereafter. It only took two tries, and Phoebe did a great job. She did everything that I asked and it would’ve only taken one take but I was holding the number in such a way that it was almost unreadable due to the reflection. The perfect conditions and absence of the sun in the background definitely helped our cause.

After getting the game number photo we had about 50 minutes before the game was set to start. We walked around the press box in the loge level so we could go down the staircase that Bill (the friendly usher) mans. As we were descending the steps I noticed a familiar face on the platform that holds the loge level camera. This is the (FREE) Game Day magazine that the Brewers have available throughout the ballpark. The stories are different for each home stand, and the covers change for each series. My story will have been visible for nine games when the home stand is over, so that’s pretty cool.

The game got underway and with how many strikeouts Yovani Gallardo was racking up, you’d think it was a good game for the Brewers. That was not the case. Four of the first five batters for the Cubs reached base, and they jumped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to a three run home run off the bat of Alfonso Soriano. The Cubs Ryan Depster was dealing, and he retired the first 15 batters he faced. For that he deserves a photo in the blog. If you’ve seen Dempster pitch, you may notice that he does a weird glove shaking routine as he’s preparing to pull the ball from his glove and deliver a pitch. He throws a split fingered fastball, which requires you to really dig into the glove (while getting your index and middle finger wedged around the ball). He does the glove wiggle on every pitch so the batters can’t tell if he’s wedging his fingers around the ball to throw the splitter, or throwing a pitch with a normal grip.

The 16th plate appearance for the Crew resulted in a base hit, and the Crew didn’t have to worry about a perfect game or no hitter any longer. I had tweeted “Cough-perfect-game-jinx-jinx-jinx!-Cough” so I’ll take the credit for the non no-no. Phoebe is kind of a Cubs fan (don’t ask) but was wearing a Brewers shirt and (kind of) cheering for the home team. She did admit that it would’ve been cool to see a perfecto or a no hitter. I’ve already witnessed a no-no, when Justin Verlander no-hit the Brewers at Comerica Park in Detroit back in 2007. Since I had already seen the Brewers get no-hit once, I was in no mood to see another. It was weird glancing up and seeing this after Ransom’s at bat. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have a guy on base.

By the sixth (when Ransom reached) the Cubs had already tacked on two more runs, one of which came via another Cubs home run. The Cubs added three more runs in the eighth inning, and two in ninth. The Brewers best chance came in the eighth inning, when they had runners on second and third and nobody out. The next three batters were all set down, and the Brewers failed to score in the ninth as well. Final Score: Cubs 10 – Brewers 0. It marks the fifth time that the Brewers have been shut out this season. After the final out I had a (Cubs) fan take a picture of Phoebe and me. The lady’s hat was blocking the flash from opening, so this was the best picture we could get. I could’ve asked her to take another one (for the second time) but I wanted to get home and rest.

After every game I go to ESPN.com to see the total number of pitches thrown in the game. Their box scores sum up the total number of pitches seen by each batter, and then sums them up for the teams. It always seems like the Brewers throw more pitches than the opposition, and I went to MLB.com and checked out the sortable team stats. Spoiler alert: I was right on the money. The Brewers have thrown 8,557 pitches, while the Brewers hitters have seen 8,140 pitches. It actually isn’t as big of a disparity as I would have expected. However, the Brewers pitching staff has thrown the most pitches in the MLB. They’ve thrown almost 1,000 more pitches than the most efficient team, the Minnesota Twins. The Twins have an even worse record than the Brewers, so I can’t really say that throwing fewer pitches means anything, but I find it alarming. The more pitches a team throws the quicker they’ll wear down, or at least that’s my opinion. Having Greinke and Gallardo on a staff (strikeout pitchers) is one reason for the excess pitches, but it’s not the only reason.

Enough rambling, it’s time for bed.

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Before I start, I have to include a picture I left out of Saturday’s post. Towards the end of Saturday’s game, the moon emerged from behind the scoreboard. I don’t know if I would’ve noticed, but Victoria mentioned it and the people in front of me were also taking pictures with their cell phones and cameras. It took some time to figure out the correct settings for the shot, but I think I got the best picture I could.

Ok, back to Sunday. We got up at Victoria’s Aunt’s house at 8:25, and I worked on Saturday’s post until 10:00. We left her Aunt and Uncle’s place in Sussex at 10:45, stopped at Jimmy John’s on Bluemound, and got to the Cooper Lot by 11:25. I walked around and talked to more people about the mission and Be The Match, and made my way inside just after 12:15. I got the game number picture taken in section 232, and it took forever to get my camera’s settings just right. I set it to manual, thinking I could change all the settings the way I wanted to, but that wasn’t the case. I wanted a fast shutter speed (since it was really sunny behind me), but I also wanted to have the flash on (because I wanted to be able to see my face). I didn’t get what I wanted, because my camera doesn’t allow for the flash to be on with a shutter speed of 1/1000. I settled for the following, and as you can see the sky is completely white as a result. The sky was actually blue, and I wanted to capture that, I guess you can’t have it all.

After spending 10-15 minutes trying to get the picture I wanted, we went down to the team store to meet up with Nathan. He works with Jill Aronoff, the director of merchandising. We talked about the iPhone case I had gotten back in May, and I pointed out a few t-shirts that I thought would like. I’ll probably get them at some point during the home stand. We got to our seats just before the anthem, and settled in for the game. On Sundays the Brewers have the PNC Major League Moment promotion. Kids 6-13 (well, their parents) can enter at participating PNC Banks to make an on-field appearance with a Brewers player during the national anthem. I got a picture of Taylor Green standing by third base with his new friend.

If you would’ve watched the game on opening day, fell asleep for 52 games, and then saw the starting lineup from Sunday, you wouldn’t have known what was going on. It featured three familiar names and six that most people (even baseball fans) haven’t heard of. Weeks, Chart and Morgan were the familiar faces, and the other six were either Brewers reserve players, from the minor league system, or started the season on another team’s roster.

The Brewers wasted no time getting a lead, and scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs Green doubled to score Morgan, and then Weeks singled to score Green. The Pirates scored a run in the second, then three in the fifth and one in the sixth. Three home runs accounted for those last four runs, and the Pirates had a 5-2 lead going to the bottom of the sixth. Nyjer Morgan homered in the sixth for his second home run in three days, and Martin Maldonado hit his first career home run in the seventh. As he neared third base coach Ed Sedar I took a picture to celebrate.

The Pirates clung to the one run lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. With two on and two out the Brewers called on a familiar face for some heroics. Braun didn’t start because he was nursing a strained Achilles, but he was available to pinch hit.

On the first pitch he saw, Braun drove one to right that fell about five feet short of the right field wall. It would’ve given the Brewers a two run lead going into the top of the ninth, with a real good chance of winning the series. It wasn’t meant to be, though, and Axford came in to try and keep it a one run game. Clint Barmes lead off the ninth with a solo home run, and the lead grew to two runs. It wasn’t looking good going into the bottom of the ninth, with the Pirates having a good closer in Joel Hanrahan. Brooks Conrad, however, deposited the second pitch of the half inning into the Pirates bullpen in right, pulling the Brewers to within one. It was the seventh home run of the game and all of them were under 400 feet, with only one eclipsing 390 feet.

George Kottaras pinch hit in the pitcher’s spot after a Maldonado fly out. When the count went to 3-0 I told Victoria that if Georgie gets on Roenicke will likely pinch run with a starting pitcher. I knew that Kottaras still wasn’t 100%, or he probably would’ve caught a game besides the Wolf start. Sure enough, after he walked on five pitches, none other than Randy Wolf came in to pinch run. The Brewers had already used up their bench in other pinch hit spots, so they really didn’t have any other options.

Norichika Aoki came to the plate representing the winning run, but on the fourth pitch of the at bat he grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. The Pirates took the game and the series. Final Score: Pirates 6 – Brewers 5. One last thing: every Sunday the sausage race deviates from the norm, and it involves some little sausages. It’s a relay race, and I got a picture of the little guys (and gals) as they wait their corresponding costume wearing encased meat. The full size sausages pace it so the race can be decided by the little sausages. Little Chorizo must not have gotten the rule book, because he took off before big Chorizo got there, and he wound up with the victory. I had chosen the Bratwurst because he was the tallest, but a full second head start is hard to overcome (Bratwurst came in a close second).

It’s almost midnight, so I’m going to bed. I have a physical therapy appointment and an occupational therapy appointment in the morning. I’m hoping the physical therapist can do something about my knee, because it’s starting to get worse and I’m not sure what I should do. I don’t know if I’ll be posting about off day number six, but I’ll be back at it following Tuesday night’s game vs. the Cubs.

Personal Stats:

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