hawing

It looked very much like the one he hit in Nats Park. Craig Counsell owns the right field corner! and it helps that MP has the picnic area there.

Yeah...I guess I must bow down to Ken Macha's genius. And here I thought I'd seen the only Counsell Crush of the year in Washington. Chat room's open and populated...just saying.

I was wondering if anyone else wondered what the point was of Counsell in the 6 spot. Fortunately, the Brewers are kind of making up for the first-inning lost opportunity now. Try walking Prince now, Johnny. (Edit: OK, then!)

Except surely someone's explosive power would then splinter the wooden ball.

I try not to be a vindictive person, but every time the out-of-town scoreboard showed Pittsburgh ahead of St. Louis, I was...content. Yep, you're losing to the Pirates, the team that is trying to avoid 100 losses. The only thing worse/better would be if they lost to PIT in St. Louis.

After a quick review of my Miller Park attendance spreadsheets (yes, I'm a nerd, but you all knew that), it appears to be the smallest crowd since May 31, 2007, when 17,704 paid to see the Brewers edge the Marlins - including the hawing party. I don't know how we've managed to be at the "smallest crowd" of most seasons in Miller Park, but there you go. The silver lining in such a small crowd was that most everyone in attendance wanted to be there, and many stayed to the end. It wasn't the worst game we've seen this year (though I've now got a bone to pick with Polish Falcons, who guaranteed a win for us), but it felt like the 2010 Brewers in a nutshell: missed opportunities, miscues, and just all around falling short. My "this hurts the Cardinals, so it is not all bad" mantra did some good. There were a few Reds fans near us, but they didn't seem all that excited. I suppose I should be glad they weren't in our faces (like a certain blue and red clad fanbase) or lecturing us on how to play/follow the game (like a certain other red-clad fanbase). Speaking of fanbases, I heard a smattering of cheers and no boos for Diego as he was introduced tonight. I'm afraid I wasn't surprised at all to see him hit one out, nor to see him come up lame as he rounded the bases. He really had trouble getting from home plate to the dugout and I am glad no one cheered or jeered at that. I took refuge in the team stores for part of this game, so I missed Dave Bush walking off the Miller Park field for perhaps the last time as a Brewer. Still, having seen him for eleven starts this year is about enough. Thanks for playing, Dave. I'll choose to remember you as you pitched on 10/4/2008. Also: since this is the last homestand (sob) of the year, the Brewers have put together yet another "thank you fans" montage that they played before tonight's game, and presumably every game this week. Toward the end of the montage is brewerfan's own Bikeage77, air drumming somewhere in the terrace level. Nice. Real nice!

I'm bumping this to remind myself to represent LouisEly at tonight's game. I'm not promising I'll cheer for every Brewer killer thing Brandon does, but for the introductions, I've got your back. Edit: Done and done. For some reason he didn't look up at the terrace boxes when I said, "This one's for LouisEly!" http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Tonight I looked over my ticket stubs from this year's games. We've been to 29 so far (30 if you include an exhibition game), and here is the starting pitcher breakdown: Davis - 2 Parra - 2 Narveson - 4 Gallardo - 5 Wolf - 7 (four in April alone, none since July 11) Bush - 10 (seven since the all-star break) Then if the pitching pattern for the rest of this week is as I expect, another Bush start Tuesday, Gallardo Thursday, probably Narv-dog on Saturday and maybe Cap on Sunday. Or maybe Bush again! 11, maybe 12 Bush starts out of 34 games? That's enough to test the mettle of even the staunchest Dave Bush fan.

Back to my mantra from the last Brewers-Reds series: at least this hurts the Cardinals' chances.

The Kauffman staff were friendly in 2003 too. I would have to say the Progressive Field staff were friendliest to me. Last year no fewer than three employees commented favorably on my Brewers hat. Two of them remarked on how nice it was of us to host them for those snowed out games in 2007.

Kam again? Because no one else is available in the bullpen? Because you have to put your best options on the field when the games affect a pennant race?

I'd like to know, as we are attending Thursday but cannot go on Friday. So far brewers.com says Yo on Thursday, Mark on Friday.

Well, he's holding his own, except for that home run (thanks a lot, RF picnic area). The chat room is occupied, if anyone feels like talking about the game.

Yeah, Bob Melvin was among the candidates beaten out by Ned in the 02-03 off-season. The only thing that concerns me (and probably no one else, except maybe my fellow moderators) about having two Melvins in high-profile positions in the Brewers' organization is the resulting need for posters here to specify which Melvin they're talking about. Think of the extra keystrokes! Also, echoing Haudricourt (gulp) and others here (perhaps better company), if Willie Randolph or Dale Sveum were considered to be credible candidates, Doug Melvin has had literally months to give either one an audition. Finally, I agree with Nottso and PilprinBuddha in that the Brewers need to be able to have fun again. When the shenanigans were stopped, the Brewers' swagger/confidence seemed to stop too (or at least wasn't evident to me, and I pay a lot of attention); things have not felt the same since.

I just hope the lack of a sweep helped maintain the integrity of the pennant races, since neither SD nor SF got the full edge.

Well, then it bugs me that two blockbuster local festivals would have their parades on the same day. How do south central Wisconsinites choose?

Every time I see Tulo succeed vs. the Brewers, I imagine that he's thinking to himself, "Take THAT, Ryan Braun!" Maybe he's got a poster of Ryan in his locker to motivate him during the stretches between Brewers series.

If you're talking about the Cheese Days parade in Monroe, I know. How dare it rain on Cheese Days?!

The Brewers helped the Giants out plenty in July. If San Francisco falters, it's on them, not us.

It depends on whether Classy Nation can forget that Trevor participated in that 9/6/2009 shockwave move at home plate.

"An historic month" is more common in British English than in American English, but it's not unacceptable. Link Now let's please focus on Tulowitzki's stellar September.

The Racing Sausages are part of Monroe's biennial Cheese Days parade on Sunday afternoon. So are Bucky Badger and the UW Marching Band.

It'd be nice to see some insurance runs in the top of the 9th.

In addition to lots of games at both Milwaukee County Stadium and Miller Park, I've attended games at the Metrodome, Wrigley Field, Comerica Park, PNC Park, Coors Field, Nationals Park, Kauffman Stadium, Safeco Field and Progressive Field. I've also been to Chase Field and Fenway Park, but only for tours. The only time I have seen the Brewers play on the road was in Washington, so for all the games I've watched in other parks, I have been a relatively neutral observer. Overall, my favorite non-Milwaukee park is still PNC. I like the facility and its setting. I feel like I understand where Pirates fans are coming from (knowing some of their pain) and as long as the Brewers aren't the opponent, I'll enjoy a game there and root for the home team. My favorite ballpark food to date is the salmon sandwich I had at Safeco. We've received a few giveaways at other parks, and my favorite of those is probably a tie between the Royals powder blue retro logo t-shirt, the Pilots cap at Safeco (we went on Turn Back the Clock day) and a Homer Simpson Pez dispenser we got at Wrigley once. The cushiest seats we've had at a road game came at Nats Park in April, where we stumbled across an in-seat menu service section in center field, with seats padded thicker than Miller Park's club level. The in-seat menu options were not bad, but not awesome. The most exciting fan atmosphere we've been in on the road was probably at Kaufmann. The Royals were actually just percentage points behind the White Sox when we visited in August 2003, the 40,000 Royals t-shirts were snapped up in 40 minutes by a capacity crowd, and everyone around us was pumped up. Oddly, the second most exciting fan experience for us probably came in Pittsburgh, because everyone was so happy to see the Pirates beat Barry Bonds and the Giants (I think in that order). It was also super cool to see Russell Branyan have a 3TO day (home run, K, walk) at Progressive Field last year, but as he was playing for Seattle, the Indians fans who turned out for that game weren't so jazzed about that.

If Rick Peterson's approach is such a sea change for the organization, I wouldn't expect an instant turnaround in the pitching fortunes, and would like to see him get more time than just 2010 to implement the changes.