Bruce Ciskie

I'd make some grand statement about "giving up" on the team, or about how my worst fears have been realized, or about how I can't believe this is happening... but none of it would be sincere. The reality is that I pretty much stopped watching, both by choice and because of real-life intervention, right around the start of September. I haven't been around to see Chris Young or Brandon Phillips or Eric Gagne or Salomon Torres or The Sweep. I chuckled when I heard Zambrano had a no-hitter in the fifth inning last night, if only because it meant whoever let those obnoxious blowhards in "my" stadium were going to pay for it in karma, just like we all did with that four-game sweep. So I say the only thing I can say to protect myself from another amazing disappointment. Go Packers. As upset as I was with the NFC Championship Game last January, my honest feeling is that the Packers don't let me down like the Brewers do. It's one thing to pick a really bad day to just not get the job done, but it's a completely different animal to melt down as historically as the Brewers are right now, one year after melting down less emphatically but in a similarly-damaging manner. I've asked and even at times begged for a coaching change, and I get Dale Sveum off the bench and into a position where he can actually make a real impact on a game with bad decisions. Shockingly, that exact scenario plays itself out every now and then. Just the change I wanted. Meanwhile, the hitters continue to make the same bad swings at the same bad pitches that they were making last year. The manager continues to make unconscionable moves and defend them with a three-year-old's logic. The players are pressing, probably playing hurt, and simply not getting the job done. It's a meltdown of epic proportions, and I guess I'm a bad fan, because I'm more than willing to turn away. In fact, I already have. I certainly am used to a sports fan's suffering. I've been a Brewer fan since the early 1980s, when I didn't even have the means to follow the team on a daily basis. But the last two years have stung. Hard. It's bad enough that we're not as good as the stupid Cubs, but to have it be so crystal clear that we're at least in part being held back by the manager and his largely incompetent staff just hurts even more. We make the big trade, and the pitcher we got hasn't lost, and yet we can't win anymore. How the hell does that work? The home-grown pitcher in a contract year who's always hurt has been healthy and can't pitch. The bullpen we threw money at still sucks. Our best hitter is either hurt or slumping terribly, and our other best hitter is just another fat guy now. Meanwhile, my two favorite seasons - football and hockey - have either started or are about to. Hard to compete with that.

http://www.liquidmatrix.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/headbang.jpg

At least we're having another winning season.

That's not my understanding of the rule. I thought it meant no local TV for those games, as it does for FOX on Saturday afternoons. Then again, with how stupid MLB's television rules are, it's thoroughly possible I don't understand them. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

ESPN Radio has just picked up the second Brewer-Philly game as it's Sunday Night game. They usually piggyback the ESPN TV game, but with the weather in such question radio has made the switch.

Toss me that check info. I'll send what I can talk my wife into letting me send. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

As a current PBP guy (in hockey, mind you), I echo pitchleague's sentiments. And as a guy who is a religious user of the MLB TV package when it's on free preview (http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif), I agree with those who have said other teams have it much, much worse. The current lack of TV PBP talent around baseball tells me that there simply aren't enough good broadcasters who are willing to commit to that work/travel schedule. I do a 40-game season with travel from here (Minnesota) to places like Anchorage, Denver, Colorado Springs, and (this year) Sault Ste Marie and Marquette, Michigan. I can't imagine working BA's schedule and maintaining some semblance of sanity in a family.

Shocking. The gutless pukes upheld it.

Well, there's more jogging that leads to outs on the basepaths. The fundamentals on this team are so poor that it's amazing they're where they are in the standings. Speaks to the overall talent level and the pitching staff. And the crappy National League. Maybe Rock will watch the full replay, because it was pretty obvious when they cut to Weeks running to second that he wasn't running as hard as he could.

Hey guys, the Mets bullpen sucks, too. Now is not the time for panic. If you're going to be mad at Ned, be mad at him for bunting with a hot hitter in Cameron when K machine Hall was on deck in the sixth. It's not Ned's fault Santana felt sorry for us and balked home a run.

Webb is an absolute idiot, or he's realized his mistake and is playing the CYA game at this point. You make the call. If this call isn't reversed, it's worse than Webb's decision. There's a mechanism in place to reverse a poor judgment by the official scorer and get it right. No reason this shouldn't be done.

The call was terrible, and it doesn't matter what MLB does. We were robbed of the moment, and such a moment is practically once-in-a-lifetime for many fans (not only does your team get a no-hitter, but you're in a position to watch it happen).

Sheets has done a lot of that lately. You'll have to ask him why, but he'll probably just mumble something about how he feels fine, so there's not really any use in asking. Bottom line is that Sheets has handled the pressure of a playoff race so well that we're probably better off if he tears up his finger again.

Darin Erstad hasn't posted a league-average OPS since 2000. I get really POed when I hear our announcers give in to the conventional wisdom crowd and talk up crappy players like that. After all, Johnny Estrada used to get his uniform dirty a lot, and I didn't hear anyone complimenting the way he went about his business. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I've seen Fielder swing at three pitches in this at-bat. None of them have been strikes. As I'm typing this, he swings and fouls off a strike, making him one-for-four in the at-bat.

I'm so frustrated with Sheets and this offense I could spit. I think I'd rather see them get no-hit than leave enough people to populate West Allis on the bases.

I'm just wondering if we all had the "OMG FIRE THAT REPORTER!!!1111!!1!" reaction when the Packers reporters mentioned the "Save Brett" report that he was going to Tampa. After all, they led credibility to an otherwise questionable report, right?

I think you're right, and that's why I smell a rat. I find it hard to believe that Howard didn't hold TH's hand at least a little bit. It's part of his job, after all. Haudricourt isn't supposed to know how to get through a PR situation. He's a writer. To me, Howard has to lead through a situation like this, not leave Haudricourt to his own devices, especially when Haudricourt has already shown a penchant for reacting emotionally to the comments on the blog. That's what tells me that this situation either wasn't taken seriously, or it was botched intentionally to keep the hits coming to the blog and the comments section. ADDENDUM: I do think something like this should be taken seriously, because for every Adam who complains, there are countless readers who will just stop reading the blog because they're sick of the attitude they're getting from the writer. Tom deserves credit for doing a lot of good work on the blog and with his overall coverage of the team, but he botched this one in amazing fashion.

Still not sure what to think of all this... On one hand, I'd be royally POed if a listener/reader ever went over my head and complained to my boss without talking to me about the issue first. Obviously, if I don't handle it appropriately, complain away. I got it coming at that point. On the other hand, that doesn't give Tom the right to act vindictively. It gives him the option of being upset, but not the right to publish the dude's last name and e-mail address. While I'm at it, has anyone thought about the idea that what Garry Howard told Adam is totally different from what he told Tom? I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but simply throwing a thought out there. We all act as if what Tom did is a fireable offense, but he's not going to get fired if he was told/encouraged to do it.

So I have to assume someone has been designated as the emergency outfielder should something happen to one of the three we have left. Is it Counsell, Branyan, or Hall? Personally, I'd be willing to stay up three hours past my normal shuteye time (I'm up daily at 4am, so West Coast games are out of the picture for me) just to see Prince Fielder playing center field because Cameron got a charley horse.

The only good thing about the way that inning ended is that Gagne can't get a win.

Boy, no one on this team plays the "wet blanket" role like Weeks, huh? http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Can Branyan hit now? Wow. What a job by Rivera to punch that thing down the line. I do think Schroeder is right in that Rivera deserves a ton of credit for being good when he's out there because of how seldom he plays. That can't be easy, and he's the ultimate pro about it.

Ack. This is ridiculous. Why even have a bench?

OMG Ned, force Acta's hand here and make him do something. He just double-switched his "closer" into the game. Get Branyan dusted off and put him up there.