I got up around ten on Tuesday, and checked my phone as usual. I had gotten a text from my friend Josh, and he was a little disappointed in the number of sausages I was consuming. He joked that I should have a couple before going to the game. Unbeknownst to him, I already had breakfast in mind, and it wound up looking like this:

You’re looking at my interpretation of a scrambler, which is inspired by Mickies Dairy Bar in Madison. Mine isn’t exactly the same, as I cook everything in a pan on the stove, and the ingredients are slightly different. This one included a potato that I sliced “shoe-string style” if you will, yellow onion, one whole egg, two egg whites, sharp cheddar cheese, a polish sausage, and some Frank’s Red Hot. Not a bad way to start your day, your heart might disagree with that statement though. I ate the whole thing, despite it being cold by the time I took the last bite.

I spent most of my time before the game trying to get my internet browser to function properly. I was on the phone with Apple tech support for an hour and fifteen minutes, and he tried a number of things, to no avail. He recommended I call my internet service provider, which I did. I talked to the guy at Charter for 30 minutes, and he had no idea. I’m hoping the problem will just solve itself, because I’m going to be using this internet for the next five months when the Brewers are home.

I went to the game with Josh, it feels weird calling him that because we typically go by last names, so from now on I’ll call him Crandall. He graduated one year after me, and we’ve been friends since high school.

Crandall and I were planning on meeting another Fort Atkinson grad in the general parking lots at five. We got to the preferred lot right on time at 4:45, leaving us fifteen minutes to get the general lot. The tailgate hosts, however, were running late, so we just drank some High Lifes to pass the time. Miller Beer and Miller Park, hard to beat this dynamic duo.

Across from us there was something that needed documentation. I’ll be honest, it does look somewhat comfortable, and none of them had chairs, so I guess it makes sense.

The tailgate hosts finally arrived and Crandall and I stopped by for a brat, a scotcharoo, and a picture. Below, from left to right, is myself, Katie, Crandall, and Jacob. We all graduated from Fort, Katie and Crandall a year behind me, and Jacob three behind them (I think). Despite their tardiness, the Brat they grilled was delicious, and I thank them for letting us stop by. Katie will be in St. Louis for a few games of the upcoming series, so we may cross paths again.

Crandall and I spent about 25 minutes with them, and then headed into Miller Park. We made it inside at 6:35, which is cutting it a little close, since we had to go back to the upper deck for game photo number 18. I hope you guys believe me that I’m going to the games, and not just changing my clothes and moving over a few sections. I promise all the pictures are from separate games (up to this point at least).

The game was a blast, it could have been the four home runs hit by the Brewers, or the guy behind us. At first he was annoying most everyone with his random outbursts, but they were so ridiculous that Crandall and I couldn’t get enough. I’ll give you a few examples.

1) He would randomly yell “YEEEE-HAAWWW!!!”, for no apparent reason.

2) When Norichika Aoki came up, who is Japanese, the guy was hitting chopsticks together like drumsticks. I will admit that I thought that may have been in poor taste. But then he yelled “I LOVE YOU!” and then “OKKKKIIII!!”

3) Just when I thought he had exhausted all avenues of insanity, Braun came to the plate in the 8th and the guy said loudly “Room service, baby, room service!”

It was entertaining and annoying at the same time, if that makes sense. I also don’t think he had been drinking, but I wasn’t paying too close attention because I was busy not missing pitches.

Another interesting anecdote. In the 6th inning Travis Ishikawa fouled a ball off that struck the LED ribbon board that goes around Miller Park. It covers the facade of the club level, or the 3rd seating level for those of you not familiar with Miller Park. This was the result, and I could’ve sworn I saw something fly off after the ball hit.

The dark blue strip was never the same for the remainder of the game. Right after it happened, that strip blinked and flashed and then just stayed a different color from what was being shown at the time. I was jokingly upset at Ishikawa and yelled “TRAVIS!!! YOU BETTER PAY FOR THAT, THOSE THINGS ARE EXPENSIVE!!!” I got a chuckle from the rest of the section, so that was fun. I hope I didn’t scare Ishikawa, because that at bat ended in a strikeout, as well as his next at bat in the 7th.

In the 8th inning Manny Parra was summoned from the bullpen, to try and get Kameron Loe out of a jam. Right when he got to the mound he called the home plate ump over and this is what ensued, from top left, and going clockwise you have:

1) Parra discussing what is wrong with the mound.

2) A grounds crew member inspecting the dirt around the rubber, while Parra points out what he wants fixed.

3) The grounds crew member returning with tools.

4) Two grounds crew members adding “dirt” and tamping it down.

The whole thing took at least five minutes. It took a good minute or so just to get the grounds crew guy out on the field. I have no idea where they usually are during the game, so I won’t judge. It was a little frustrating because the combination of this and other factors caused the game to last much longer than I would’ve liked. Because the next game was only 14 hours away at the time, I had been hoping for a quick two and a half hour game, but it never seems to work out that way.

I’ll take the win though, and the Brewers offense appears to be waking from its slumber. Ishikawa, Weeks, Hart, and Gomez all homered, and the crew had 13 hits overall. Hopefully this trend can continue. Final Score: Brewers 9 Astros 6.

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I know I’m living the dream, and I’m losing track of which day is which, but when I woke up yesterday morning I could sense it was Monday. Part of me just wanted to stay in bed all day, but there was baseball to be seen! I wound up getting up around ten, and got some stuff taken care of for upcoming trips. I hadn’t purchased the tickets for the Cardinals series yet, so I checked that off the list. I wound up spending $593.50 on a total of six tickets, two for each of the three games. Since Victoria will be joining me on the trip, I won’t be using the Brewers’ provided tickets and am in charge of getting my own. I got pretty good seats for two of the games, but one of the games I’ll be in the upper deck, where I paid $56.25 a ticket after all of the processing fees! And that’s right from the Cardinals website, the demand based pricing did play a role in that.

I left the house around 3:15, and went to Ken and Betty’s Philly Steaks & Hoagies for lunch/dinner. My eating schedule is all out of whack, case in point I made a chicken salad sandwich at 12:20 am, before I went to bed. Ken and Betty are from Philadelphia, and moved to Wisconsin in 1987. It was shortly after opening up a restaurant that they realized there wasn’t authentic cheesesteaks anywhere to be found. They eventually opened up the aforementioned restaurant in 1996, and haven’t looked back. Their son pretty much runs the place now, and I stop by every few months or so, because it is delicious. I haven’t had a cheesesteak in Philadelphia, but I will be hitting up a few places when I’m there in July. It will be hard to beat what they serve in my hometown though, however far it may be from Philadelphia.

The four part picture below, from the top left going clockwise, is as follows:

1) The exterior of the building, which is on Sherman Avenue, just off Main Street in Fort Atkinson. As you can see, they support their Philadelphia sports teams.

2) The dining area, with World Rally and Touchdown fever arcade games to boot!

3) One of the interior walls, containing various Philadelphia items.

4) A map of Pennsylvania, with pins representing where visitors call home. Nothing is stopping me from putting a pin in there, but I think most people, like myself, are honest.

I ordered the usual, which for me is the Philly Works. It’s is an original cheesesteak, blended with diced green peppers, onions and mushrooms. I add banana peppers for a little spice (I like things that are spicy). I’m displaying a full size picture of my lunch, because I think it is deserving. Long story short, if you’re ever near Fort Atkinson, and are craving authentic cheesesteaks, hoagies, or grinders, Ken and Betty’s is the way to go.

I left Fort at 4:15 and made it to Miller Park by 5:25. I met Larry Granillo, who contributes to Baseball Prospectus, outside of Miller Park, and went inside right after the gates opened. Larry is going to be writing something for the website, and I agreed to go to a game with him and let him pick my brain about my mission. We went to the upper deck, to get what should be the middle picture of all the upper deck game number photos.

I’ll probably wind up revisiting the spot right behind home plate, because I don’t like how this one turned out. The sun coming through the windows didn’t do us any favors, and it made it difficult to get a good picture. Hopefully later in the year with the roof open I can get a better one.

We had plenty of time to spare, and we wandered Miller Park for the next 30 minutes. I met up with someone I grew up with (we rode the same bus for seven years or so). She goes to UW-Whitewater and was at Miller Park for a career fair that the Brewers host. She paid $30 for it, and it included a game ticket (in the loge outfield), and $10 worth of concessions. Without the career fair that’s a bargain, so well done Brewers.

We got to our seats with 30 minutes before game time, and talked about baseball, my mission, and how I’m going to make it all work. Larry actually made me a little nervous about possible rainouts and make up games. I already knew that this was possible, but hearing someone else talk about it makes me a little uneasy. We were looking at the Brewers pocket schedule and discussing how I was going to make each trip happen. We noticed that the Brewers end the season with 39 games in 41 days! And that’s without any possible makeup games on either of those off days. “It’ll all work out, it’ll all work out” is what I keep telling myself.

The game got underway and the Astros struck early with a run in the first. That was the EIGHTH time that the Brewers have given up a run in the first inning! That’s a crazy stat, and I’m hoping that trend doesn’t continue. The Brewers got three in the first, and never looked back… Sort of. The Brewers had a 6-2 lead heading into the seventh, when Jose Veras entered and made things a little nerve racking. Five of the first six that came to the plate reached base, which included three singles and a triple. This was even more frustrating for me, because I was preparing to try another middle of the inning bathroom break. Veras got out of it after giving up three runs, but not the lead, and I was able to make it back to my seat without missing a pitch. K-Rod got the job done in the eighth, Axford the ninth, and the Brewers were victorious once again. Final Score: Brewers 6 Astros 5.

I tend to pick the Polish in the sausage race, because it is my favorite sausage to consume. I do however, usually look at the height of the sausages (based on how much leg is showing), to determine who is going to win. If it looks like the Polish doesn’t stand a chance due to the makeup of the other contestants, I’ll usually pick the most promising candidate. I did not do that for Monday’s game, and just went with the Polish. You tell me if that was the right decision:

This wound up being a four sausage race, and as you can see below, the Polish was not one of the four. After looking at the height of the runner, I should’ve known better. You can barely see the Chorizo on the far right, and the race wasn’t even half over yet!

That may have been more sausage race analysis than you’re used to, but that’s who I am. I can overanalyze with the best of them. It’s 1:45 am, I’m tired, and there’s a game in 15.5 hours, so that is all.

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Sunday morning started with a text from a friend who said they were tailgating in the general lot, and asked if Victoria and I would like to join. It was already 9:50 by this time, and I wished they would’ve given us a little bit more notice. We were going to try and stop by for a little bit, but once we hit traffic after 894, we took an exit and hit up Jimmy John’s instead. I got my usual Big John, which consists of delicious roast beef. We took Bluemound to the preferred lot instead of jumping back on I-94, and it went rather smoothly.

We got to Miller Park at 11:45, and went right to the upper deck. I’ll be glad when I’m done getting the picture taken up there. My knee really hasn’t gotten any better, so coming back down the stairs is the reason for the angst. It’ll be more crowded on the other levels though, so it’s really a gift and a curse.

I think tomorrow’s will be from behind home plate, I was hoping the roof might be open for it, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

We got to our seats and ate lunch, and waited for the game to start. I still snicker a little when they water the infield, because they need five guys to use a hose. I know they don’t want to mess up the infield, so it makes sense, but it still seems a little strange.

For those not too familiar with the upkeep and care for a baseball diamond, they water the “dirt” to keep it soft and not as dusty. I put dirt in quotes because it’s not really dirt, it’s a combination of sand, silt, and clay. Watering the infield wasn’t done very often, if at all, at the little league diamonds of my youth. As a result, sliding into a base could be a very painful experience. The ground underneath the top layer of sand dries out if it doesn’t rain very often, and it becomes pseudo-cement rather quickly.

The Rockies broadcast does their pregame show from the field, and I saw the same two guys prior to the first two games of the series. Today I decided to take a picture:

I just thought it looked silly, I know it’s the Rockies and there are “Cowboys” in Colorado, but nonetheless, it gave me a chuckle. “This is baseball, it ain’t no rodeo” is something that I could see some fans taunting him with. But if that’s his personality, then more power to him. If Rockies fans didn’t like it, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be wearing it during the pregame show.

Braun was being presented with his 2011 awards, and the game was pushed back 15 minutes to accommodate this. I don’t know why it was delayed 15 minutes, as his presentation lasted about five. They may have wanted to give more people a chance to get inside, since there are many tailgaters who come in late. I went down to the field level, and found a good spot in the concourse to take some pictures. They didn’t turn out the best, but they’ll  suffice. The four images below, going clockwise from top left are as follows:

1) A poster/sign someone made and brought to a game last year. The Brewers played a short video montage which highlighted some moments from his MVP season.

2) Braun tipping his cap to the crowd, after coming out of the dugout.

3) Braun, with Mark and Debbie Attanasio. Mark is the Chairman Principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, and he presented Braun with his fourth consecutive Silver Slugger award.

4) Robin Yount and Ryan Braun posing with the MVP plaque, Robin won AL MVP as a Brewer in 1982 and 1989. Robin presented Braun with the MVP award. It was a pretty special moment.

It was also a special day for Jonathan Lucroy, because it was his bobble head day! I don’t think you can call yourself a Brewer until your likeness is formed into a small ceramic sculpture with a head that is too big for the body. I am being honest, who doesn’t love a good bobble head?

This one appears to be of higher quality than in past years, and the face looks just like Lucroy, something that can’t be said about a lot of bobbles. I think they may have started paying the workers more, because the paint job appeared better than previous bobble heads. I took out my Zack Greinke bobble from last year, and Lucroy’s did seem a little better. The duration of head bobble favored Greinke though, and it wasn’t even close. I don’t know if they started using more rigid springs this year, but I timed how long it took for the bobbling to come to a complete stop, after giving each head an equal twist. Final score: Greinke 50 seconds, Lucroy 5 seconds. I was blown away. It could just be that Greinke likes shaking off signs, and Lucroy doesn’t like saying no.

The game itself was close, and was tied at one a piece heading into the 8th. The Brewers would have the top of the order leading off the bottom half, so I was hoping for a quick half inning from K-Rod, and then see what happens. As is often the case with K-Rod, he made the eighth somewhat difficult to watch. He gave up an infield single, walked Giambi on 5 pitches, and then gave up a two run double to Cuddyer, and that was that. The Brewers got their first two batters on base in the bottom half, but then Braun popped out to first (below), Aramis Ramirez flew out, and Corey Hart struck out looking, ugh.

Willy Peralta, who was just called up, made his major league debut in the top of the ninth, and I captured his first pitch as a big leaguer. He is pinned as a potential future ace, and I’m hoping he can live up to the hype. If so, I can see him anchoring the Brewers staff for years to come.

He gave up back to back singles but then struck out the third batter of the inning. Lucroy had thrown him the ball back, but the Brewers dugout was calling for it. A major league pitcher’s first strikeout ball is something that is typically kept as a momento. Peralta tossed it towards the dugout, and after a few bounces it started rolling. One of the Brewers’ bat boys didn’t know what was going on, and he quickly got up and tried to make a save with his foot. I’m almost positive that he thought it was just a scuffed ball that he would usually have given to a kid. Luckily it bounced off his foot and into the dugout. I thought it was pretty funny, but I don’t think anyone around me saw what had happened.

The Brewers went down quietly in the ninth, even though Gamel hit a another ball hard, that resulted in an out. He’s hitting a “hard” .278 in my book. He has to be leading the team in hard hit balls that haven’t fallen for base hits. The law of averages will eventually play out, and I see his batting average going up in the near future.

I missed a pitch at the game, and I’m not too happy about it. The “Ice Man” is a beer vendor at Miller Park, and he’s the man. He’s really friendly, and uses some very famous lines. “Who needs a shiver?” and “Be careful, you might get frostbite!” are the two most noteworthy. After someone buys a beer he’ll also yell “YOOOOOO!  OOOO” followed by “AAAHHH”. Whenever I see him I give him a YOOOOOOOOO! and we exchange OOOOOOs and AAAAHHHHs. I saw him in the third inning on the opposite aisle of my section, and shouted “YOOO!” He had just started talking with someone else, and didn’t hear it. Victoria was a little embarrassed because a bunch of people looked at me like I was crazy for yelling that, especially since the Ice Man didn’t reciprocate. I became distracted and was waiting for him to turn around, to redeem myself, and missed the 1-0 pitch to Nyjer in the bottom of the third. I’m better than that, I promise.

I’m going to the game tomorrow with Larry Granillo, who writes the Wezen Ball and Tater Trot Tracker blogs for Baseball Prospectus. Hopefully the Crew can get some hitting and pitching on the same night, because it seems like we get one or the other, but not both.

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Saturday was an all around great day. Victoria met me at my parents’ place in Fort around noon, and we left for my Grandpa’s around 12:45. His name is Wallace (we call him Wally), he’s 85, and lives in Delavan, Wisconsin, with his second wife (of over 35 years). He’s a great guy and I feel like he’s my link to the Rouse side of the family. My dad passed away when I was nine, so my Grandpa has been the one to tell me about the Rouse  family and its history.

I’m not sure how long this was hanging in their entryway, but recently I’ve noticed it and have asked about it each time, because I forget where the pictured Rouse lies on our family tree. This first picture is the Marriage Certificate of my Great Great Grandfather, Wallace Thurman Rouse, who my Grandpa was named after.

I think it’s cool partly because it’s so old, and because it’s an ancestor of mine. It’s dated April 16th, 1882, so it’s just over 130 years old! Also, some of the sayings that are on it might be viewed as a little strange by today’s standards. The one in the top left reads “It is not good that the man should be alone.” And then the one going down the right side reads “Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands.” I don’t think this sort of stuff appears on today’s marriage certificate. I do like old documents and pictures, as I think it provides a window into the past.

My Grandma brought out this piece as well, she said it had been printed in newspaper back in the day, without that color picture in the middle of course. It’s somewhat of his life story. Clicking on it will enlarge the image, but it still might be hard to read. One of the pedals says that he witnessed a famous bank robbery at one point. Kansas in the late 1800s was a place for outlaws apparently.

Victoria and I ate lunch with Wally, Rosalie, and my Uncle Scott. After lunch the guys played cribbage (I went 1-1), while Victoria and Rosalie talked and ran an errand. I got a picture with Wally before we headed out. Wally’s mother lived to be 98, so I’m hoping that Grandpa can try to match, if not best, that longevity.

Victoria and I made the hour drive from Delavan to Milwaukee, and as we were pulling into the preferred parking lot I noticed a great photo opportunity. I like it because it’s a welcome sign, with the glorious destination waiting in the background.

New to the main entrance staircases this year are some pretty cool advertisements for Southwest. I noticed them on opening day, but never bothered to take a picture. As you can see, each riser has a segment of a picture of Miller Park, then above it an airplane and some text for Southwest.

Also new this year is the starting lineup, that the Brewers adjust for each day’s game. This is also sponsored by Southwest.

Victoria and I went to the upper deck to get game photo number 15. When we got up there it took a few minutes for me to figure out from which section I had gotten the picture taken the day before, and then  move over a few sections.

After getting the picture we went to get some food. I went with the BBQ Brisket Grilled Cheese. It’s $6.75 and I was a little disappointed with the amount of Brisket. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, but there were five or six bites that contained nothing but bread and cheese. We got to our seats with plenty of time to spare, and I was ready for the game.

Marco Estrada got the start, because Narveson injured his shoulder and could be done for the year. Estrada, despite only pitching 5 innings, deserved the win. He gave up two hits, one run, and struck out NINE, while walking none. He actually was in line for the win after the Brewers scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Manny Para gave up two in the sixth, and Estrada got a no decision. The Brewers tied it up in the sixth, and then put a six spot on the board in the seventh to open up a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The Rockies cut it to five with a run in the ninth, but that was it. Final score: Brewers 9 Rockies 4.

Fifteen times during the game this happened:

FIFTEEN pickoff attempts at first base, I’m not one of the people that boo when the opposing pitchers does it, because it’s part of the game, but it does get old. The Brewers did it a bunch too, so it wasn’t all one sided. When Braun was on third at one point, Ed Sedar, the third base coach, leaned in and whispered: “Ryan, to get to home plate, you follow this white line, it’s straight ahead, you can’t miss it.” I guess I can’t say this for sure, but he was pointing, so it must be.

Victoria and I stayed at her Aunt and Uncle place, in Sussex. We stayed at Jan and Ron’s to cut out some travel time. Her aunt and Uncle have a few interesting things to note. The four parter below is as follows, going clockwise from top left:

1) Their Jack Russell Terrier, Balkee George, who would play tug-of-war with a rag bone all day if you were up for it. Within five minutes us of getting there at 10:30 pm, he was sitting in front of me just waiting for me to give in.

2) Iscus, one of their three Sphynx cats. Iscus is short for meniscus, because when Jan was taking his father home (she used to breed Sphynxes), she tore her meniscus. She kept one of the offspring for herself, and the rest is history.

3) Princess Yoda, another Sphynx . I’ll have to admit, it was a little creepy when one of them was under the covers, with just its tail exposed. It honestly looked like there was an opossum in the bed.

4) Their Harley Davidson themed bed. The top blanket is a leather material and the sheet set is Harley orange. They have a Harley, so I guess it makes sense.

The game is in three hours, so I need to get a move on.

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Friday was another lazy day leading up to the game. I got up around 11:45, given, I didn’t go to bed until two or so. I got some stuff done around the house, mainly replying to emails and cleaning my room up, so I can at least find stuff, maybe. I had called my former high school Calculus teacher, Mr. Johnson, on Thursday, and asked if he wanted to join me for Friday’s game. We’ve been friends since I graduated back in 2005, and I see him about twice a year. He’s a really great guy, and was a laid back teacher in a topic that is anything but laid back. I was somewhat of the class clown (while still getting A’s), and there are a bunch of lines I can recite from that class that are hilarious, but I’ll choose one. One day Mr. Johnson (AKA “Dr. J”) was drawing some functions on the dry erase board, and the equation came out to be “KY = “. He then asked the class, “What does KY equal?” I tentatively raised my hand and answered quite confidently “Jelly.” It garnered quite a bit of laughter, and Mr. Johnson thought it was funny as well. He told me that when he gets to that lesson each school year he thinks of me. Goal of being remembered? Accomplished.

This is a picture of my Calculus class, back in 2005. I’ll let you figure which one is me (it should be easy), I’m not too happy with the picture, but I am comfortable with making fun of myself.

I picked up Dr. J at his house in Fort around 4:15 and we headed to Milwaukee. We hit some Friday rush hour traffic and weren’t parked until 5:50 (it’s normally an hour drive). We got inside and went to the upper deck, again, for game photo number 14.

We talked in the upper deck for a while, then went to the concession stand to get brats and beer. I still don’t know why they only serve Miller Genuine Draft on tap at a few select concession stands. It has the word DRAFT in it’s name. I went with High Life instead, which is alright, but I prefer MGD. We made it to our seats right after the national anthem. I quickly devoured my brat (with all the trimmings), and was ready for the game. The cute moment of the game occurred when the play ball kid was put on the jumbotron. As the camera cut to him, you could hear him ask quietly “Say it now?” The answer must’ve been yes, because he quickly said “PLAY BALL”, good stuff.

I was a little nervous after hearing Marcum’s warmup music as the Brewers took the field. The song was ‘Till I Collapse, by Eminem, featuring the late Nate Dogg. I don’t know if he used this song all of last year, but I know he had it played as his warmup music for game six of the NLCS. He got shelled in that game, giving up four in the first and getting pulled after the inning. I think it’s a great song for warmup music because it gets you pumped, but it brought back some bad memories. It didn’t help that the Rockies grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first (maybe it helps get the batters pumped, instead of Marcum himself).

Between the top and bottom of the first the Brewers try to get everyone excited for the first at bats for the home team. At the end of a short video montage they shoot off fireworks over the scoreboard in center. When the roof is open they fire them more skyward, but it’s still fun when it’s closed. In addition to the ones you can see below, they also fire off some sort of apparatus that sounds like canon being fired. If you’re sitting in the right field bleachers and you don’t see the fireworks going off, it can sometimes be quite startling to hear the booms of the fireworks that don’t produce any visuals. I’ve jumped a few times when sitting over there.

The Rockies held the 1-0 lead into the fourth, when they tacked on another solo run. The Brewers however, with the help of a risky dive by the Rockies left fielder, scored a run in the bottom half. Aoki lifted a sinking liner to left, where Carlos Gonzalez dove for it, and just barely missed. The ball went to the wall and Aoki wound up with an inside-the-park home run. I think it’s the first I’ve seen in person, but I’m not 100% sure. The Rockies added another run in the sixth, but the Crew tied it in the bottom half with two runs of their own. It stayed tied into the ninth, when the Rockies got to Axford for a run. The Brewers had a runner on second with only one out in the bottom half, but couldn’t get the tying run home.

The picture above is of Carlos Gomez (left), and Rockies second basemen Marco Scutaro (right). Gamel had doubled with one out in the ninth and Gomez pinch ran for him. He’s taking his lead as the pitcher was getting ready to go to the plate. I like the picture because you can see Scutaro in the process of slapping his glove, something infielders do to *try* and keep runners close. It’s done to make it seem like the fielder is close to the bag, and acts as somewhat of a distraction to the runner as well. The pitcher did try picking off Gomez twice at second, and was close on both attempts. Gomez stole third with two outs, but was stranded when Lucroy struck out to end the game. Final score: Rockies 4 Brewers 3. The Crew need to get the bats going, so this is my advice: “Hit ’em where they ain’t!” That’s a quote from Willie Keeler, who played in the Majors from 1892 to 1910.

I had a great time catching up with Mr. Johnson, and I’ll likely go to a few more games this year. I had a fan that was sitting behind us take a picture of Dr. J and myself at some point during the game. Let me assure you that the field wasn’t that dark, I guess that’s how my camera decided to treat the background.

I did miss one pitch, I think, during the game. In the bottom of the fifth, with Gamel batting and a 1-0 count, a beer vendor was coming up the steps. He set down his bin just across the aisle from me as he talked to the fan who signaled for him. I looked inside his bin and saw mostly Miller Lites. I know they sell more Lites than MGDs, but I started wondering how many more. I’m a curious person and love statistics, so I started pondering. I probably still would’ve seen the 1-0 pitch, but as the beer distraction was ending, a four-year-old tripped and fell on the step right behind me. He didn’t cry, got up, and continued down the stairs with his dad behind him. I looked back to the field and the 2-0 pitch was being thrown. I’m not sure if at some point I caught the 1-0 pitch, but I’m not certain, I doubt it though. I wish I could lie about it and say every game was a perfect game, but I’m too honest for that.

I pulled off my first successful bathroom break in the middle of the seventh inning. Yes, I had gone 13.72 games without going to the bathroom during a game. With two outs in the top of the inning I decided I was going to try. I raced up the steps and watched as Veras walked a batter, before finally getting the third out. There weren’t many people watching from the concourse, so I was able to stand a good 8-10 feet from the last row and still see the game, right across from the Men’s room. I got to the bathroom, there was no line, thank goodness, and made it back to my seat in time for the start of the Brewer’s half of the seventh. And yes, I washed my hands.

Victoria will be joining me for Saturday and Sunday’s games. We’ll be staying with her Aunt and Uncle, who live in Sussex, allowing for some more sleep between the two games. I almost forgot; the column stemming from the interview I did with Matt Lindner on April 9th at Tribune Tower in Chicago is/was on the front page of ESPN.com!!! I took a screen shot because I wasn’t sure how long it would be there (it’s in the bottom right of the image below. As of 2:03 am on Saturday morning, it was still there. You can get to the article by CLICKING HERE. It’s just crazy seeing MY NAME on the front page of the website, next to talk of Brian Wilson needing a second Tommy John surgery.

That’s all for now, time for bed.

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Last night was a late one, as I didn’t get home until 11:30 pm, and was up until two in the morning finishing the blog post for yesterday’s game. It was a really quick turnaround as the game today was at 12:10. I got up at 8:45, ate breakfast, and then had a 30 minute phone interview with Doug Moe, a columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal. I’m not quite sure when his column will run, but I think within the next few days. I quickly showered and was on the road by 10:10. Traffic was decent and I got to Miller Park with plenty of time to spare, at 11:09. This first picture says it all; AMERICA! BEER! BASEBALL! TREES! and WISCONSIN! I have to give credit to the wind for making the picture possible, without it the flags wouldn’t have been “up” for the photo opportunity.

I went inside and returned to the upper deck for game photo number 13.

I still had about 40 minutes until first pitch, so I took photos of stuff that I think is interesting/delicious.

The four parter below, starting from the top left, and going clockwise is as follows:

1) The Klement’s clock, which is above the right field loge bleachers. It’s one of the clocks that moves only on the minute, and I will occasionally try to witness this. It’s nothing special but I think it’s exciting when the minute hand moves, don’t ask me why, I just do.

2) The American flag, which has been moved to this location since the beginning of last season, I believe. A large American as well as a Wisconsin flag waved alongside the scoreboard in centerfield for the first nine years of Miller Park, and I’m not sure what precipitated the move. My only guess is that it could’ve been distracting to batters when the flags would wave in the wind.

3) Bernie’s slide. Part of the contract that I signed with the Brewers mentioned that I could appear in Bernie’s dugout at some point during the season. I think that would be sweet, but also a conundrum because it might involve missing some pitches.

4) The polish sausage I enjoyed just before the game. The two closest condiment stands were out of sauerkraut, so I was a little upset. I always put on ketchup, mustard, onions, relish, and kraut. If the condiments are free, I’m going to get my money’s worth.

As for the game itself, not too much excitement. The Dodgers pushed a run across in the second on a sacrifice fly, but Wolf did a good job of limiting the damage because the bases had been loaded with just one out. The Crew put two on the board in the second, with an RBI double by Ishikawa (his first hit as a Brewer), and a sac fly by Randy Wolf, who did a great job of getting the runner in from third with less than two outs.

The Dodgers came right back with two of their own in the top of the third, on RBI singles by Rivera and Ethier. Kemp homered in the fifth to extend the lead to 4-2, but the Brewers cut it to one with a run in the sixth. That was all the scoring at the final was 4-3 Dodgers. The player of the game had to be Jerry Hairston Jr., who made two spectacular defensive plays. He made a diving stop to save a run in the eighth, and then made a barehanded scoop and throw to retire Ishikawa on his bunt attempt leading off the ninth. Well played Jerry, well played.

I missed back to back pitches in the third inning, and that wasn’t a typo. I sit on the aisle in section 221, and in the section to my left, a guy was trying to find his seat. There were people in his row and I was intrigued to see what was going to happen. There was no chance of a fight or anything, as it was a calm discussion, but I was still interested. For some reason he thought he was in row 6, but his ticket said row 3, so I have no idea what he was thinking. In the meantime I missed the 1-0 and 2-0 pitches to Matt Kemp, and I wasn’t pleased. Randy Wolf is a quick worker, and you have to be on your game if you don’t want to miss any pitches. I’ll get him next time though.

The cute moment during the game occurred when a beer vendor was walking down the aisle. The family on the other side of the aisle consisted of a husband and wife, and their son and daughter. The beer vendor was asking: “Who needs a beer!?” The little girl, probably aged three, said “I DO!!” It was followed by her mother saying, “not yet sweetie”, it was awesome. Later the little girl was trying to eat peanuts off the ground, much to the dismay of her father. Kids will be kids.

On my way back to my car I saw this van in the parking lot, and took a quick picture. I wonder if the owner drives it all the time, or only takes it to the games. Either way, it’s pretty legit.

It’s been a hectic first two weeks of the season, and it’s been tough keeping up with everything. Below is my bedroom at my parents’ place (where I’ll be staying when the Brewers are in Milwaukee). My suitcase is buried under there somewhere, and I haven’t even unpacked it from the recent road trip yet. Since I have over 22 hours before the next game, I should be able to pull things together.

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I really felt like just sleeping in until noon today (well, yesterday now), we’ll say Wednesday just to be clear. I didn’t get home until 11:30 on Tuesday night, and I was just plain tired. I got up around nine and worked on getting my blog post up, because I don’t want to get behind. I had a doctor’s appointment at 11:45 and made it by 11:50, but wasn’t seen until 12:05, figures. It was my three month check up with Dr. Sanyal, my oncologist since my diagnosis in 2007 (save the year I worked with the transplant doctor). The whole I reason I went with him in the first place was because he was in Fort twice a week, and that summer I was living at home, so it was pretty much by default. He’s brilliant, and I trust him 100%. I’m not bashing any of the other doctors, but I’m just really glad that I wound up with him.

He had ordered blood work a few weeks prior, and I had them drawn on April 5th. One of the tests is very complex and is actually sent to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to be analyzed, since it’s looking for a possible relapse. There are really two types of relapse, the first occurs in the bone marrow, but will only be apparent in the bone marrow for a while. Eventually, a full relapse occurs and you can see it in the bloodstream. Since I only get a bone marrow biopsy once a year, the blood work is done every three months just to make sure a full relapse hasn’t taken place. Long story short is it was clear, so that was good to hear. I did tell my doctor that my knee has been bothering me. There’s a small bruise on my left knee, but I don’t remember bumping it recently. It hurts every time I take a step, and it’s the worst while going down stairs. He ordered an x-ray and said if it doesn’t get better we’ll have an MRI done. I’m thinking I just strained something, and am hoping there are no micro tears or anything like that.

Back to baseball. I had asked the Brewers if I could get one of my “merchandise handouts” a little early, since it would be nice to have a few t-shirts for warmer weather. I’ll be in San Diego two weeks from this past Monday, so I figured I would ask. They obliged and I met with the Director of Merchandise Branding in the team store at 5:15. I picked out two shirts, tried them on, and called it even. The shirts are pictured below, I really like the yellow one, as I don’t think I’ve ever had a yellow Brewers shirt before. I talked with Jill and a few of the store employees and they were all pretty jealous of what I was doing, and that I get some Brewers’ apparel. It’s those kind of conversations that reinforce how crazy I am, and how lucky I am to have the backing of the Brewers. I was prepared to do this alone, but their help and support is something that I genuinely appreciate.

I left the store as the park was officially opening, and went to the left field bleachers to take in some batting practice. In years past I would get to the games early every single time, just to watch batting practice, and try to catch as many baseballs as possible. It kind of lost its luster for me, and I haven’t taken it as seriously as before. I have a bin of baseballs at my parents’ place, and I’m slowly trying to get rid of them. Zack Hample, a writer in New York, has his own blog and has been snagging baseballs since the early 1990’s, and has snagged over 5,000 over the years. He gives some of his baseballs away to kids, and I’ve started doing that as well. I’ll occasionally bring one or two to a game and hand them off to young kids at the games, which is great because they are (usually) very appreciative. I was in the corner spot above the Brewers bullpen when Juan Uribe belted one that was headed right at me. It was a little to my left, out over the bullpen, and I got the tip of my glove on it, only to see it trickle out and fall. It’s not a big deal, but it was a little embarrassing.

I took pictures before the game started, and four of them are below. Starting from the top left and working clockwise you have:

1) Dee Gordon (Dodger’s shortstop), taking grounders from his knees, I hadn’t seen that before and thought it looked silly. I know they do stuff like that, but hadn’t seen it in person before.

2) How much the sun comes into play while in the left field bleachers at around 5:50 in the evening. I wish I could say the sun caused me to barely miss Uribe’s HR, but that wasn’t the case.

3) Bob Uecker, as seen from my seat for the 2012 season. I love listening to Uecker, his stories are priceless and a lot of them are self deprecating. I wish I could watch on TV and listen to Uecker, but the delay is unbearable. The radio feed comes in a good three or four seconds before the TV feed, and it spoils it. I like to see replays, otherwise I would just skip the TV altogether. Don’t get my wrong, I think Bill Schroeder and Brian Anderson do a great job, but it’s Uecker, they’d say the same thing.

4) The empty right field bleachers, five minutes before the game. I was very surprised by this, I know it’s a weekday game in April, but come on. They did fill in somewhat, and I’d say they were about 30% full, but who knows if those people actually had tickets for those seats. I think it’s also worth noting Tim Dillard lugging the wheeled suitcase in the lower right corner of that picture. The most junior member of bullpen is responsible for transporting the goodies (seeds, gum, candy), out to the ‘pen. I’ll get a better picture of this later in the year.

I went to the upper deck sometime in between the second and third pictures to get game number 12 taken care of. I’m trying to figure out how to have a slideshow that’s accessible in the sidebar so you can see the progress as we go forth.

For those that aren’t aware; I’m slowly (a few sections at a time), working my way around Miller Park. Once I get done with the upper deck, I’ll be doing the same thing in the second deck (since you need a ticket to get into the club level). I didn’t want all 81 home games to look the same from my season ticket location, thus the slow moving panoramic.

The game itself was a low-scoring affair, with solo runs being scored by the Dodgers in the first and fifth, and by the Brewers in the second and the sixth. It was tied after nine, and the Brewers’ first extra inning game of the season was at hand (BONUS BASEBALL!). Loe induced an inning ending double play in the 10th, and the Brewers went to work. Lucroy walked, and T-Plush pinch ran for him. After a failed sacrifice bunt, Nyjer stole second and moved to third on the throw. Weeks was intentionally walked, and then the Dodgers did this:

As you can see, the Dodgers brought Jerry Hairston in from the outfield, and used him as a fifth infielder. This is something I don’t think teams do enough of in situations like this. If you’re going to get beat, it might as well be on a well-hit ball, and not by a dribbler that is just out of the reach of one of the infielders.

Kottaras hit for Gomez, and was walked as well, which set the bases-loaded-stage for Braun, with only one out. Braun lifted the second pitch to shallow center, and I was surprised to see Nyjer tagging. I thought he was just trying to induce a throw, but he took off for home once Kemp made the catch. Nyjer executed a great slide, but I thought he was out right away. The home plate ump, however, called him safe. I watched a replay as I left the stadium and it confirmed my inkling that he was out. A celebration ensued nonetheless:

As you can see, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is arguing with home plate umpire Mike DiMuro, and he has every right to, since it was the WRONG CALL. I’m glad the Brewers “won”, but this is one thing about baseball that really gets me going. WHY NOT EXPAND REPLAY?!?! Right now replay is only used on home run calls, but calls like this are just as influential in the outcome of a game as a home run. It worked out well for the Brewers this time, but it’s not always going to be the case, and I’ll be even more upset than I am right now. When someone at home, on their couch, in their boxers, can tell that he was out within 10 seconds of the play, why not utilize this technology to get things right. It won’t slow the game down, it might actually speed it up. Whenever there’s a horrendous call, the manager almost always comes out to argue. Instead of this we would have someone upstairs looking at the play, and quickly signal that the call was wrong. It would take 30 to 60 seconds, is that too difficult? I know there’s people who will say “Once the players don’t make mistakes, we can expect the umpires to do the same.” That’s not the point, the point is to see which team does a better job of limiting mistakes, thus winning the game. I don’t want balls and strikes touched, I know that is sacred. Major League Baseball should, however, seriously consider adopting an expanded replay system. For a lot of games it probably won’t even be utilized, because umpires get it right the majority of the time.

I apologize for the rant, but it’s something I feel strongly about.

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Tuesday started slowly as I didn’t have much to do. I was planning on leaving Madison around 3:30 for the 7:10 game. A little backstory; Todd, the husband of a friend of my sister’s, works for Midwest Family Broadcasting, who owns a bunch of Madison area radio stations. They include Magic 98, 94.1 JJO, 93.1 JAMZ, just to name a few. My sister’s friend (who was a roommate of hers while attending Whitewater) saw one of my sisters Facebook posts about me, and told her husband. He thought he could help get my message out using radio. We’d emailed back and forth and I gave him a blurb about what I was doing and why, and they’re going to play it on air. How cool is that!?!? He had mentioned that I could stop by and see their office, which also houses a few of the studios where they broadcast from. At 1:30 I realized that he had brought this up, and since I was in Madison, I gave him a call. I said I could stop by around 3:00, and he said that would work. When I was packing up and getting ready to leave, this happened:

This is my cat Prince, and yes, I named him after Prince Fielder. I got him back in 2006 and Prince was coming off his rookie season for the Brewers, and I knew he was going to be awesome. During this past offseason, I was pondering a name change since Prince was going to sign with another team. I debated going back to his original name (Simba), or The Cat formally known as Prince (but only if he signed with the Cubs). Since he didn’t sign with the Cubs, I figured it was alright to leave it as is. I snapped this picture quickly as I was leaving, and didn’t get a chance to look at it until now, and laughed out loud when I saw it. I think his expression is “OH MY GOOOOSH” or “SAY WHHAAAAAT?”, or “DON’T LEAVE MEOW!”.

Back to Midwest Family Broadcasting. Todd said that the owner really likes guitars, and has a bunch of them all over the building, as you can see from the picture of the lobby below. Most all of them are either signed by famous musicians, or contain cool artwork. Todd brought up the possibility of doing something on air on a few of the morning shows, and I said I was all for it. I gave him a few dates that should work, which are limited, since there are 18 off days from now until October 3rd. I will most likely be returning in a month or so I didn’t take any more photos. There was some really cool/interesting stuff, and I’ll be sure to bring my DSLR when I go back.

I left at 3:30 and headed to Milwaukee, but made a pitstop in Delafield to get some dinner at Noodle’s and Company. I had gotten a $25 gift card for Christmas, and a $50 gift card from a very generous coworker (Pam), as a going away/”that’s f****** awesome!” present. Pam had once asked another coworker if they thought my phone got text messages, and I still give her a hard time about that, but I digress. I usually get either the Indonesian Peanut Sauté or the Pad Thai, yesterday I went with the former, and added chicken. I think they gave me more than the normal serving, which is just what I needed, since I hadn’t eaten lunch.

I drove to Miller Park and was surprised by the lack of traffic. There was still some slowdown but it went rather smoothly, despite it being 5:15 on a weekday, and a lane being closed due to construction. I probably just jinxed myself and now today’s traffic is going to be horrific. I went through the right field entrance, I headed straight for the upper deck, to get the picture for game number 11.

I had about an hour to kill so I wandered and took some pictures. The four-parter below, going clockwise from top left is as follows:

1) The upper deck concourse in the right field corner. There is just so much room up there. The nearby sections are generally only used during sellouts, so a lot of times there’s just an open concourse like this. This picture was taken about an hour before first pitch on a weeknight in April, so that also attributes to it’s emptiness.

2) A view from the concourse into the seating bowl, behind section 410. I always like looking into sections from the tunnel and seeing the foul pole, and in this case, Bernie’s slide as well.

3) A John Axford poster in the Loge Level concourse, near home plate. I hadn’t seen this one yet, and thought it was pretty cool. His nickname (at least for fans), is either Ax, or The Ax Man, so it’s very fitting.

4) The view from my seat during the game. I just thought it was cool how the sun comes through the panels in the upper deck, and illuminates the scoreboard and the supporting section for the roof panels. The picture isn’t accurate in the sense that the scoreboard was entirely legible, and it’s just washed out in the picture, but nonetheless.

The game itself was absolutely spectacular, or at least the ending was. The Brewers built an early 2-0 lead in the second inning off of Gamel’s solo home run and Izturis’ RBI single. The Dodgers struck in the fifth with a solo run on an error, but if everything played out as it eventually did, the run would’ve scored anyways. The Dodgers tied it in the seventh on a RBI double by James Loney. The Brewers worked their squeeze magic once again (third time this year), and Aoki got the job done in the bottom half, scoring Gamel. It was looking like it was going to be one of those K-Rod – Axford shut ’em down type of eighth and ninth innings, but K-Rod gave up a two run shot to Ethier in the eighth, and things looked bleak.

Enter Gorgeous George, as Dave (Annette’s boyfriend) calls him. Georgie (what I call him) sent everyone home happy with a two-run double in the bottom of the ninth with one out, and the crowd was in a frenzy. I was jumping around in the aisle like a child who was just given ten pounds of their favorite candy while trick-or-treating, but that is completely normal for me. Gamel had a great slide and wound up scoring three of the Brewers five runs, and has his batting average up to .282. Big win for the Crew, and hopefully with Greinke on the mound tonight, we can duplicate it.

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Annette and Dave didn’t want to take the MARTA to Sunday’s game, so the three of us and Bill drove down in Annette’s car for what I thought was a 1:05 game. It actually was a 1:35 game, and I have that in my calendar, so I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s a short trip by car (assuming no traffic), and it only took us 20 minutes or so to get to the stadium. The three of them were sitting in the outfield again, but I was using the ticket the Brewers provided, and had to pick it up at will call. We got to the media will call around 11:45 but the representative said they weren’t available. At 12:00 they were released and we headed inside. We went straight to the upper deck because I wanted to get this:

We had time to kill, and it was Bark in the Park day!!! Annette and Dave have two dogs, who I alluded to in the 4-13-12 post. Annette had badly wanted to bring them, but decided otherwise. One of their dogs is somewhat skittish, and the other gets car sick, so it was probably for the best. We spent a good 30 minutes in the area that is reserved for the dogs and their owners. The Braves have a special entrance and everything, and the dogs have to stay in that area for the whole game, so it’s not like there were dogs everywhere. I took a bunch of pictures and below is a four-parter that shows what all went down.

Going clockwise from top left you have:

1) Kiddie pools set up for the dogs, for when they inevitably get too hot in the Atlanta sun, along with a Black Lab on the right.

2) A Chihuahua mix (or so Annette says) on a scooter with its owner.

3) A Great Dane, and this picture does not do it justice. That girl was six feet tall… Ok, maybe she wasn’t six feet tall, but the dog was enormous. A cocker spaniel was going bananas and trying to get off its leash to attack him. I’m not quite sure who would’ve won the fight, but my money is on the Great Dane.

4) A Wiener Dog… dressed up as a hot dog… eating a hot dog. They showed it on the jumbotron at some point during the game and it was hilarious. The camera was zoomed in on the dog, and there was a hand (maybe the camera man’s) holding a foot long hot dog. They kind of played tug of war for a bit, but the wiener dog wound up eating the whole thing, good stuff.

During half innings they would show various dogs while playing Snoop Dogg songs from the nineties. The Braves did a great job of combining pets with old school west coast hip-hip. Nicely done!

After spending some time in the Bark in the Park zone, or whatever they were calling it, if anything, I still had some time to kill. I wandered and took some pictures, including one of the Atlanta skyline.

You can see more of the exterior of Atlanta Fulton County Stadium that I alluded to yesterday (the blue wall with red lettering). You can also see the commemorative Olympic torch on the right, with the Olympic emblem to the right of that.

There were other interesting things to photograph and here’s another four-parter. Again going clockwise from top left:

1) A massive Chick-fil-A cow, with the sign reading “Choppin Makes U Hungree 4 Chikin”. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten at a Chick-fil-A, so I should probably do that before my flight leaves tomorrow night.

2) A giant Coca-Cola bottle, the Coca-Cola part is actually a cylindrical LED board, and it does other stuff other than just display “Coca-Cola”. When the Braves play their iconic chopping music, an axe is shown chopping, which is also being shown on other LED boards throughout Turner Field.

3) Red Coke bottle chairs. I would say the bottles themselves are about six feet tall, so the chairs are rather large.

4) The back of the scoreboard in centerfield. I just like it because it had a enormous baseball on it.

I also took a picture of a staircase that leads from the field level all the way up to the upper deck. There are actually another 30 or so stairs that are not pictured, maybe more. I took the picture from the left field concourse in the upper deck, and there’s a walkway that looks over the staircase. I would run those every day if I could. I don’t really like running, but I’ve always liked going up stairs, and take them whenever I can.

On my way to my seat I came across a wall in the second level concourse that commemorated the three cities that the Braves franchise has played in; Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. When they were in Boston they actually started as the Red Stockings in 1871, then the Red Caps, Beaneaters (my favorite), Doves, Rustlers, and finally the Braves (in 1941). I’m not sure what the giant pennants were made of, but I’m guessing wool or something similar.

I was in my seat by 12:55 for what I thought was the 1:05 first pitch, I was curious why they were doing some of the things they generally do 30 minutes before the game. I’m an idiot. Before the 1:35 first pitch they showed a video on the board commemorating Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier 65 years ago. I thought it would have been a longer video, but it was just some footage of players, with someone saying, before Kemp, before Aaron, before Mays, there was Jackie. They listed more players than just the three I mentioned, but that was the gist of it.

The view from my seats for today’s game, it looks like I was sitting closer than I actually was, I was in the fourth row of section 202, and I think the section between mine and the field had about 30 rows.

The game started and the Braves took an early 1-0 lead. The Brewers tied it with the help of a two base error on their left fielder, and it was even at a run a piece. My optimism was soon diminished with Chipper Jones’ three run home run in the bottom of the third. The Braves added one in the fourth and two in the eighth to build a 7-1 lead heading to the ninth. The Brewers pushed three across in the ninth, including a two run home run by Jonathan Lucroy. When he connected a guy two rows back said: “Yes!! Easy out”. It was clearly hit very well and landed about ten rows deep in left center. I turned as it was clearing the fence and said; “yeah, easy out of the park”. He chuckled a little, but then a guy a few seats next to him, who wasn’t with the guy, said “SCOREBOARD!”. I told him that I know the Braves were about to sweep us, I was just questioning the other guys’ ability to correctly judge a fly ball. I was really hoping the Brewers could have somehow won after that, but it wasn’t in the cards. If “Scoreboard” is all he has in his arsenal, I’m fearful that he’s not going to win many arguments. A sweep on the road is never fun, but I played it off like I wasn’t devastated, as to not draw attention, and more ridicule.

I missed three pitches at this game! I’m disappointed in myself. The first was the 1-0 pitch to Chipper Jones in the first inning, ending my streak at 611 consecutive pitches. A Brewers fan was taking pictures in the cross aisle in front of me and I was mad that he was just standing there, not aware that he was blocking other people’s view. He really wasn’t in my way, but he was in other peoples’ way and that’s one of my biggest pet peeves. That’s what the two and a half minutes between innings is for.

I also missed the first pitch to Pastornicky in the bottom of the fourth. Jason Heyward had just homered right before Pastornicky’s at bat, and I was still reading stuff on the scoreboard. I also missed the very last pitch of the game! I was getting my stuff gathered and looked up as the final pitch hit McCann’s glove, ending the game with a Kottaras strikeout. I wanted to get out of there quickly so I could meet Annette, Dave, and Bill at the car, and not get stuck in traffic. When I realized I missed it I was kind of shocked, because it all happened so fast, but it’s bound to happen.

I’m looking forward to the nine game home stand, hopefully the Crew can turn things around!

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