hawing

Link Rob Picciolo, best known as a Padres and Angels coach but also a Brewers utility infielder in 1982-1983, died of a heart attack yesterday at age 64. 1982 was my first full season following the Brewers, and in my ongoing tradition of caring about underdog guys, he was one of the first players I specifically rooted for. http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/91/91-456Fr.jpg He won't be the Brewers' best-known #8, but I have fond memories of him.

I looked at her Twitter feed after learning of her death and the last tweet before the announcement of her death was only a few hours older than the announcement tweet. It's also how I learned about the documentary: http://www.rosemariemovie.com/. Now I'm interested in seeing it.

Every time STL signs or acquires a new player I find myself just assuming said player will be the next Brewer killer. In fact, I'm pre-emptively shaking my fist at Miles Mikolas right now.

The cost of relying on college students as employees is that I have a severely diminished staff at the library at the holidays, this year starting two weeks from today and lasting for a month. Here's hoping I don't get sick, because I don't know if I can actually take any days off!

Edited: Maybe our trip was worthwhile after all, since the team store upstairs had a drawing for either a $250 team store shopping spree or a "Majestic On-Field Collection" gift package, and my name was drawn for the latter! I have to get back to MKE by the close of team store business on Saturday to claim it, or they'll draw another winner, but I expect to be able to do that. According to the email I received, the gift package includes two Majestic jackets (one for men, one for women), a 3/4 sleeve BP pullover and a Ryan Braun autographed ball. I hope at least some of the clothing fits me.

Get me started on Hallmark Christmas movies at your peril. The S.O. is hooked on them. He hasn't missed a premiere yet this year (thanks to the DVR, since they air on two separate Hallmark channels). I get that it's a form of escapism, and if that's his worst habit, I'm in great shape...but man, they are painfully formulaic, to the point where we created a bingo card several years ago for elements in a Hallmark Christmas movie. Single parent. Workaholic. Loved one died on Christmas or Christmas Eve. Let's bake cookies! Current boy/girlfriend is a jerk. Someone's a soldier, firefighter or police officer. Lacey Chabert, Candace Cameron Bure, or the Winnie Cooper actress. And more and more. And this year they revved up the Christmas machine before Halloween. The brightest side for me is that via some Twitter connections, I learned several years ago that former Brewer Mitch Stetter is in the same boat, only it's his wife who watches all the Hallmark. So we Twitter bonded over that. In other Christmas movie "news," a few years back we stumbled onto this weird, slightly Christmasy bad movie on the ION network (which I'd never heard of before and I don't know if it's even still available in Madison). The movie was originally called Christmas Twister but also appears as F6 Twister. Some part of Texas sustains a crazy tornado outbreak shortly before Christmas, logical fallacies abound and unintentional hilarity ensues. It edges toward Sharknado ridiculousness without the self-awareness that the Sharknado series has developed. I found it on DVD for like 5 bucks on Amazon (as F6 Twister) and sprung for it since we had a sneaking feeling it wouldn't be aired regularly. So we watch it once a year for laughs. Here's a representative scene:

We didn't arrive in time for the extra yearbooks/media guides either. We did get a Zach Davies bobble. I hope this doesn't mean I've become a clubhouse sale snob, but I wasn't impressed with the selection this year at all. Maybe if I wore size S and didn't care how plungey the women's shirts were in front. We found more gifts for family than items for ourselves.

Wow! Nice.

Someone left a laptop behind in my library. It's in my office for safekeeping. I opened it on the unlikely chance that it wasn't locked and we might be able to identify the owner. The screen and keyboard are FILTHY. It's taking all I've got to not stop what I'm doing and clean it just for the sake of cleanliness.

At the risk of blurring the line between this forum and the Trading Post, the Bobblehead Hall of Fame is making a Tim Dillard bobblehead. Expected to ship in December! Maybe in time for holiday gifts! https://store.bobbleheadhall.com/products/timdillard?variant=54450210311

When the Nats decided not to bring Dusty back, they also declared all of the coaches "not renewed."

I probably have too many clubhouse-sale jerseys...but I do have some favorites among them. In order of acquisition: 1. Home white Doug Davis jersey, from when he wore 49 and was Sharpie (BF.net old-timers will remember this). 2. 2010 navy Joe Inglett jersey, because it's hilariously obscure and it doesn't look huge on me. 3. Tim Dillard #10 BP jersey (navy pullover with gold sides). I scored it for like $20 at a BCF stand during a 2016 game. I tweeted at Tim to ask when the heck he ever wore #10 and he thought it was some long-ago fall league. Talk about a unicorn jersey. When Tim had the social media gig with the Brewers during the last homestand of 2016, he was nice enough to sign this jersey. 4. Another BP/spring training type jersey, purchased this spring...Lou Palmisano. Yes. The WOAH SOLVDD player. That was also a $20 BCF special and there was no way I could not make that purchase. Since he was a gonna be the future. Hopefullly.

If that matchup becomes the 2017 World Series, I just won't watch.

I had a vision the other night of a CHC-NYY World Series and it was chilling. Not the good kind of chilling.

Link I'm posting this because it's newsworthy, and not so specifically because I'm pining for another forum debate on Ballpark Food vs BYO Food vs Tailgate Food. It's a nice feather in the cap of the organization.

*Disclaimer: I'm going to promote my employer with this post.* My library at the Wisconsin Historical Society has a nationally known genealogy collection and the reference librarians here might have a suggestion for you. Send an inquiry to asklibrary (at) wisconsinhistory.org. We get a ton of email from all over the world, so you will likely not get an instantaneous answer. I work in a different department, so for this kind of inquiry I'd defer to my colleagues who field more genealogy questions. Good luck. (And thanks for giving me a work-related reason to use Brewerfan today!)

I'm sorry. I can't not post this. May the board have mercy on my soul.

Talk about your Sunday Getaway lineups. I had to look some of these guys up because Rotowire didn't list their full names. Welp, 86-76 has a nicer ring to it than 85-77. Let's end the season more positively.

The only round of October baseball for either team. BREWERS (85-76) SS Eric Sogard (L) 2B Jonathan Villar ® LF Eric Thames (L) 1B Jesus Aguilar ® 3B Hernan Perez ® RF Brett Phillips (L) CF Keon Broxton ® C Jett Bandy ® RHP Aaron Wilkerson ® CARDINALS (83-78) 2B Breyvic Valera (S) SS Alex Mejia ® RF Randal Grichuk ® 1B Luke Voit ® CF Harrison Bader ® 3B Aledmys Diaz ® C Carson Kelly ® LF Magneuris Sierra (L) RHP Jack Flaherty ®

Penultimate game of the regular season! (I just enjoy having reason to use the word penultimate.) BREWERS (85-75) 1B Eric Thames (L) 2B Neil Walker (S) LF Ryan Braun ® 3B Travis Shaw (L) RF Domingo Santana ® C Stephen Vogt (L) SS Orlando Arcia ® CF Brett Phillips (L) RHP Junior Guerra ® CARDINALS (82-78) 2B Greg Garcia (L) LF Tommy Pham ® SS Paul DeJong ® 1B Jose Martinez ® RF Stephen Piscotty ® CF Harrison Bader ® 3B Aledmys Diaz ® C Carson Kelly ® RHP Luke Weaver ®

CUBS (86-68) BREWERS (82-73)

Levering had a good call. Here's a link to Uecker's call of the Arcia homer and Levering's call (spliced with Matty V's SANTA MARIA) of the Shaw blast: https://www.mlb.com/brewers/video/must-c-brewers-rally-vs-cubs/c-1846603083 "trigger warning": in between the two happy calls is the FOX tv call of the Cubs' go-ahead RBI in the 10th.

Dear sweet baby Jesus. Thank you, Travis, and highfives/hugs to all the Brewers fans who had to tolerate that crowd today. Baseball prayers for me for tomorrow gratefully accepted.

In the radio booth, Jeff Levering is throwing wonderfully professional shade at the Cubs' being able to apparently do whatever they want: take a while to decide on a challenge, change their mind and not lose said challenge, leave the batter's box whenever, etc.