The Crew

Bill Hall can steal first base

2006-05-17T15:19:00.000-05:00

Inspired by his recent heroics, I've decided to reprint a collection of statements and pictures about Bill Hall, created by the fine members at the BrewerFan.net message board. Enjoy ...Bill Hall demands it.

Bill Hall

Bill Hall throws himself batting practice.
Bill Hall doesn't take days off. He simply learns a new position.
Ned Yost goes up to Bill Hall before each game, asks Bill if he'll be pencilled in as Manager for the game, then bows to Bill and thanks him profusely and goes back to his office.
Bill Hall doesn't strike out. He merely allows pitchers to live.
Bill Hall has perfected the 6-6-6 double play. Out of fear, Satan hands over this symbol to Bill Hall.
Bill Hall doesn't steal bases, he liberates them.
No matter how many times you tell yourself "I'm a white guy and he's younger than me", Bill Hall is still your father.

Bill Hall is the only man in history to turn an unassisted quadruple play.
Bill Hall's bat is not made out of wood, but out of Nerf because otherwise it wouldn't be fair.
There are no steroids in baseball, only players Bill Hall has breathed on.
Bill Hall doesn't believe in the American League.
Lisa Dergan and Scott Podsednik only hooked up after Bill Hall told him "you can have one of my ugly ones".
That isn't a wad of tobacco in Bill Hall's mouth, it's barbed-wire. He says it "levels the playing-field."

Bill Hall's glove isn't made out of cow leather, it's made out of the skin of the minotaur, which he killed when he was 6.
When Bill Hall doesn't feel like hitting a homer, he simply picks up a ball and throws it into left-field, striking Bernie Brewer in the head with enough force to cause him to tumble down the slide.
Once, after batting practice, the umpires realized that they had simply run out of baseballs. It turns out that Bill Hall had hit all of them out of the stadium. Feeling responsible, Bill Hall poured 5,000 full cups of water out of a single water-cooler. He then turned the water into baseballs.
Bill Hall can triple your career ERA in one AB.
Bill Hall blows bubbles with Skoal Mint.
Out of fear and respect, President Bush passed legislation to rename Mother's Day. Its new name will be "Bill Hall presents Pink Bat Walk-Off Day".

For Geoff Jenkins' birthday, instead of bringing a stripper into the clubhouse, the rest of the team convinced Bill Hall to show Geoff his bicep.
Bill Hall can steal first base.
Bill Hall once hit a 5-run homer.
Bill Hall lets Mark Attanasio "play boss".
Pete Rose was betting on Bill Hall. Can you blame him?
Earlier this season, after beating the Reds 11-0, Bill Hall decided it wasn't fair and played for Cinncinati the next day.
Bill Hall hits right handed out of pity for pitchers.
Hitting with Bill Hall on MLB 2006 makes the X-Box implode.
Bill Hall swings a special bat in the on deck circle; it's made of lead and weighs 100 lbs.
Bill Hall's name is used as the constitution in every country that plays baseball.
In the official version of the baseball records, all of them are marked with asterisks. The text next to the asterisk reads "this record exists only because Bill Hall has not yet chosen to break it".
Once, Bill Hall caught a foul ball playing center field.
Miller Park was only built because Bill Hall decided to move County Stadium to his backyard in order to host an annual reenactment of the movie 'Major League'.
Steroids inject Bill Hall.
Bill Hall once played shortstop, second base, and outfield in an afternoon game at Miller Park against the Astros. He then took 94 east to start at point gaurd for the Bucks in a game against the Rockets. The game was the first shutout in NBA history. The next day, the Texans instantly forfieted their game against the Packers after hearing that Bill Hall would be starting at quarterback. The city of Houston has since been renamed Bill Hall, Texas.

A catcher once tried to block the plate in front of Bill Hall. This is now known as the worst mistake in baseball history.
Whenever a first baseman is seen conversing with Bill Hall, he is simply apologizing for him for consuming Bill's oxygen.
Bill Hall hit a ball so hard off the Coke Bottle at Pac Bell that it turned into Crystal Pepsi.
When playing catcher, Bill Hall doesn't wear a cup. Baseballs can't dent steel.
During the game, the official scorer scores a home run as "BH".
Bill Hall gives chewing tobacco cancer.
Bill Hall was the MVP of the 1982 ALCS.
Bill Hall was told he couldn't join myspace because the site will crash once someones "friends" total reaches 10 Billion.
Once, Bill Hall hit for the cycle in the same at bat.
PPD stands for 'Postponed because Bill Hall says so'.
Baseball officials unanimously voted to rename the sport from "baseball" to "billhall."
Bill Hall once robbed a home run by simply telling the ball to stop flight.
Bill Hall has been named the lone National League representative at the 2006 All Star Game.
Bill Hall told Brett Favre to "man-up" like a good Mississippi boy and play in 2006.
Bill Hall understands the balk rule.
Bill Hall is to Jesus as Jesus is to Jesus.
Double headers were invented in an attempt to tire out Bill Hall...the idea failed miserably
The only reason there is an off season is because Bill Hall wanted others to regain confidence.

Roger Clemens is hiding from Bill Hall.
Bill Hall doesn't chew tobacco. Tobacco is for sissies. Bill Hall chews asbestos.
Bud Selig fought to keep Bill Hall out of the WBC, saying "we're trying to build bridges between nations, not crush them 500 feet to dead center".
Bill Hall once played 11 positions in the same game.
The knuckle ball only occurs because the ball gets nervous about Bill Hall.
Bill Hall hit a 600 foot homer for show and tell in kindergarten.
Bill Hall didn't toil in the minor leagues, he actually is a natural lefty who was teaching himself to hit right-handed out of fairness to the league.
Ben Sheets did not stop shaving, he stopped letting Bill Hall touch his face.
Bill Hall thought that Chad Bradford's pitching motion was stupid, so he decided he would hit a game winning home run with a pink bat. After that, Chad Bradford decided to roll the ball to home plate when he pitched.
Bill Hall once won the MVP, Rookie of the Year, and Cy Young awards in both leagues, all while playing shortstop in high school.
Julio Franco is only able to keep playing because Bill Hall likes talking to him at first.
Bill Hall's contract has an incentive clause simply labeled "stud fees".

Cardinals 3, Brewers 4 [11] (6-3)

2006-04-13T16:14:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Davis: 6 ip, 3 er, 4 so
Lee: 2-5, game-winning hr

They're a quality club. They're going to have a winning season. We're going to have a lot of tough games against them." - Tony La Russa

Now this was a fun game to listen to. But only because the Brewers won, of course.

It as a nitty-gritty battle between Jeff Suppan and Doug Davis that lasted 11 innings. The Brewers got on the board first, when Corey Koskie doubled and moved to third when Jim Edmonds misplayed the ball. The next batter, Bill Hall, put a ball deep enough for a sac fly.

The Brewers ended up scoring 2 more runs in the 5th, with the help of another Edmonds error. St. Louis faught back though, and evened the game at 3 in the bottom of the sixth, when David Eckstein (not my personal favorite) led off the inning with a triple, and later scored when Scott Rolen hit a single after Albert Pujols drew a walk. Pujols moved to third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jim Edmonds.

Thats when I left for class. The game stayed deadlocked while I was gone as Lehr threw a perfect inning and Wise was good for two scoreless. When I got back it was the bottom of the tenth and it was still 3-3, with Dan Kolb pitching.

Eckstein led off with a single, and thats when the Carlos Lee show started. Juan Encarnacion was up next, and he lifted a 3-2 pitch to deep left field. Carlos misplayed it at first and then recovered, ran to the wall, and pulled back what would've been the game-winning walk-off home run.

Pujols poped up (whew), but then Scott Rolen singled, putting runners at the corners with two outs. Kolb was pulled in favor of Jorge De La Rosa. The first pitch he threw was belted again to deep left by Jim Edmonds. This time Carlos made a nice running grab at the wall to end the inning.

He wasn't done there though. He was up first in the top of the 11th, and hit a slicing line drive home run to left field to give Milwaukee the lead. Turnbow came in, and after walking Aaron Miles on 4 straight balls, he shut down the Cards, and the Brewers left St. Louis with one game and a little bit of dignity remaining.

It was one of those edge-of-your-seat thrillers, and it really doesn't get much better than ending up on the winning side of games like this.

Great momentum train to ride up to Shea.

Ben Sheets on Sunday, fingers crossed.

Cardinals 8, Brewers 3 (5-3)

2006-04-13T11:27:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Bush: 6 ip, 7 h, 7 er
Lee: 1-4, 3 rbi, hr
Jenkins: 2-4, E
Weeks: 1-4, 2 so, E

"They're the champions of the Central and they're where we're striving to get." - Geoff Jenkins

This game wasn't on TV for some reason or another, and I'm kind of glad I didn't have to see it.

I sat out on our front porch with a couple of my roomies and listened to Uecker and Jim Powell call the game. It started off alright. Carlos Lee hit a three run bomb to bring the Brewers to within one, at 4-3. But that was as close as they would get.

There was a weird play in the fifth. David Eckstien was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Then Juan Encarnacion hit a single and Albert Pujols walked to load the bases.

On an 0-1 pitch, Jim Edmonds hit a line drive over Jenkins, who bobbled the play. Once the ball finally made it to Rickie Weeks, he threw it past Koskie to the dugout. So all 4 runs scored on a double and two errors. Weird.

And that was it. They loaded the bases for Prince in the eighth, but he popped out to Rolen to end the inning.

Bush was a little rough. He didn't give up much, but the Cardinals don't fool around. Anytime they get a hit, someone is scoring. Capellan came in for the 8th and 9th and was sparkling, but it was a classic case of too little, too late.

Trying to avoid the sweep today on another game thats not televised. I can't wait to get out of St. freaking Louis.

Cardinals 6, Brewers 4 (5-2)

2006-04-10T20:03:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Ohka: 4 ip, 4 er, 4 bb
Hall: 3-4, 2 2b, hr
Fielder: 2-4, rbi

"We've got a bunch of young kids that have a lot of heart. Anytime you're down four runs and get the winning run to the plate in the ninth you've done something." - Ned Yost

Mark Mulder is a good pitcher. Turns out, he's also a good batter. He hit a double, a home run, and struck out 5 en route to cashing the first win in the new Busch Stadium.

It wasn't all Cards though... Bill Hall had his first hit of the year in the second inning, a two-run home run that just barely snuck over the wall in right-center field. The Brewers found themselves winning 2 to nothing against the tough Mulder, but the Cardinal hitters were just too much for Tomo Ohka.

Ohka had obvious problems with his command today. He gave up a huge home run to Albert Pujols on the first pitch - a pitch that never really did anything but sail smoothly over the middle of the plate. By the way, Albert Pujols is ridiculous.

And so it went for a while, the Cards loaded the bases in the 4th and Ohka gave up a 2-out 2-run double to Scott Rolen. Mulder later hit a 2-run dinger in the bottom of the 7th off of Jose Capellan to make it 6-2.

Like Yost said though, the Brewers didn't give up...

Geoff Jenkins led off the ninth inning with a single, but was promptly retired on a double play ball off of Carlos Lee's bat. Next up was Bill Hall, and he smoked his second double of the day. Rickie Weeks followed it up with a single to score Hall, which promped St. Louis to turn to their closer, Jason Isringhausen. After a rough series in Chicago, he walked onto the field to the hum of boo's from the crowd.

Prince Fielder singled, which plated Rickie Weeks to make the game 6-4, with the tying run at the plate in Corey Koskie. Koskie eventually walked, and Gabe Gross strolled up to bat, with the chance to tie or win the game...

...And he grounded out softly to first base.

Still, even though a loss is a loss, as long as the Brewers continue to put themselves in a position to win, they'll be in alright shape. Time to really dig deep and take the next two from the Cardinals. Dave Bush starts on Wednesday against Jason Marquis. Do it to it.

Diamondbacks 7, Brewers 0 (5-1)

2006-04-10T14:43:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Capuano: 6.1 ip, 3 er, 4 bb, 7 so
Koskie: 3-4

''Five and one is a great start, but I'm not happy to be the first pitcher to lose a game for us this season.'' - Chris Capuano

Well, it had to happen sometime. On the first retro Sunday of the year, when the Brewers wore 80's throwback jerseys with the 'MB' ball-glove logo, they got rocked by Arizona, 7-0.

Cappy looked good until the 7th inning, where he walked 3 - one with the bases loaded. The D-Backs got some help in the same inning from Rickie Weeks and his second error of the year.

Fernandez made his first appearance (and possibly one of his last) of the year for the Crew in the 8th and 9th innings. The knuckleballer gave up 3 runs on 3 hits. He'll likely be shifted back to the minors when Ben Sheets comes off the 15-day disabled list later this month.

Well, the jerseys looked great - and I must say, Robin Yount looked right at home - but the Brewers did not, as they only mustered 4 hits on the day (3 by Corey Koskie). Its hard to be disappointed with 5-1, but lets hope the Brewers can get their bats back for the tough road trip ahead...

Diamondbacks 4, Brewers 5 (5-0)

2006-04-08T17:29:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Davis: 5 ip, 4 er, 4 so
Hardy: 3-5, game-winning run
Lee: 2-4, game-winning rbi
Fielder: 3-4, hr

"I know people are getting impatient, but just enjoy baseball right now." - Brett Favre

"I think rather than just a hot streak, this is the team we are." J.J. Hardy

Well this was an exciting one. The Brew Crew have been trailing in each of their first 5 games - today by 3 - and they've found a way to come back and win them all.

Today's game came down to the last at-bat, when Carlos Lee screamed a single to center field, scoring J.J. Hardy from second, to win 5-4 and take the series from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In a game that wasn't televised, my roommates and I were glued to the radio, and inched closer during Uecker's last call:

"And Carlos Lee with a smash up the middle! ...Hardy's rounding third! ...here's the throw... and heeee's.... safe! The Brewers win!"

Doug Davis started the game a little rough, giving up 2 runs in the top of the first, and he never really settled in, and the Brewers found themselves down 3-0 in the bottom of the third, when Carlos Lee doubled in J.J. Hardy to make it 3-1.

Leading off the fourth, Prince Fielder took an 0-2 pitch and hit it to Lake Geneva, his first home run of the year. He came up with three hits today - his bat is really starting to heat up, a sign of good things to come...

After another Arizona run made it 4-2, Gabe Gross hit a 2-rbi pinch hit single in the bottom of the 6th. Thats where the score stayed, as Jorge De La Rosa flew through 2 easy innings and Dan Kolb didn't blink in the ninth, setting the stage for the late game heroics by Hardy and Lee.

Its as simple as that: 5-0.

So lets think about this for a second. Five and oh. Best start since 1987, when they went off for 17 wins to start the season. They're all alone in first in the NL Central. But more than that, the entire National League. And if Detroit loses tonight (not really a stretch of the imagination), that would make the 2006 Milwaukee Brewers the lone undefeated team in professional baseball.

I know its only been five games. I mean, there's what - a hundred and fifty seven more? But still, the state of Wisconsin is excited. And you know what? We haven't even seen the team MVP yet...

Ben Sheets - April 16th.

But, first things first: tomorrow Chris Capuano takes the mound to try to finish off the Brewer's second straight sweep, followed by a 3 game series in St. Louis.

Diamondbacks 1, Brewers 3 (4-0)

2006-04-08T07:58:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Bush: 7 ip, 2 h, 1 er, 7 so
Lee: 1-2, hr, bb
Weeks: 1-2, 3b, bb

"I try to throw strikes and get right back up on the rubber." - Dave Bush

Well, the Brewers are still on pace for 162-0 and Turnbow is still on pace to save every game. That. Is. Ridiculous.

Weeks crushed a triple off Russ Ortiz, and Carlos Lee added a huge home run. The Brewers weren't able to make contact for a lot of hits tonight (only 4), but they were very efficient on defense, and they got the hits when they needed them. Quite a difference from the last couple years when they'd end up with 16 hits and 2 runs.

And Dave Bush. Man this guy sparkled. He gave up a dinger in the second inning, but after that he was lights out. After that, he didn't allow a hit. Just huge.

I understand that its the Pirates and Diamondbacks, but its still exciting. The Brewers are now grouped with the Tigers as the only two undefeated teams in baseball. I'm looking forward to the road trip though, to see how the Crew stacks up to the likes of St. Louis, the Mets, and Houston.

Doug Davis starts this afternoon, but its not on tv. I really don't know what I'm going to do...

Pirates 2, Brewers 3 (3-0)

2006-04-05T22:03:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Ohka: 7 ip, 1 er
Hardy: 2-3, hr
Fielder: 1-3, game-winning rbi

"I can hit. It's just a matter of time before I get it turned around. No worries." - Prince Fielder, yesterday

Sweep! Sweep! And the Milwaukee Brewers start off 3-0 for the second straight year, edging the Pitsburgh Pirates 3-2 in another see-saw battle.

This time, Tomo Ohka got the start for the Brewers, and he looked good, too. The Pirates scored early on a misplayed ball by Geoff Jenkins. It bounced off his foot. Real ugly. He had a little trouble with another ball later in the game too - I wonder what the deal is... Oh well, all's well that ends well.

Hardy tied it up again on a huge home run, his second in the first three days of the season. Crazy! He had an rbi in every game. The kid is huge. And such beautiful blue eyes. Or so I'm told.

And then... when it was all knotted up at 2 in the bottom of the 8th... when Geoff Jenkins and Bill Hall walked... with two outs... yet to muster his first hit of the year... Prince Fielder walked to the plate.

Whif. Strike One. Whif. Strick Two.

Crack. A little bloop to the opposite field dropped in nicely, and Jenkins scooted on home. Beautiful. The place went ballistic.

Then, in the top of the 9th, Turnbow came in to attempt his third save in as many days. After a single and two walks, he found himself with the bases loaded and two outs. And then Chris Duffy popped the first pitch up to J.J. Hardy - player of the series.

So there it is. 3 wins, just like that. That was just the way the Brewers needed to start the season. Off day tomorrow, and then the Diamondbacks are in town for the weekend.

This afternoon, when I should have been studying for my information systems test, I did a little research and compiled some meaningless stats comparing the results of the first series of the year and the results of the rest of the season.

For the last 35 seasons, the Brewers have split 10 opening series, lost 8 (3 sweeps), won 16 (10 sweeps), and had 3 seasons that opened with only one game against an opponent ('72, '97, and '01, which I ignored for these stats). I grouped the season results into these categories and found a decent correlation...

Won: 1240-1231 (.502)
Swept: 757-744 (.504)

Split: 654-801 (.449)

Lost: 592-702 (.457)
Got Swept: 209-276 (.431)

Completely meaningless, but it makes me feel even better about that sweep. Let's keep it going...

I don't really know what to do with this site on the off-day tomorrow - any ideas?

Pirates 5, Brewers 7 (2-0)

2006-04-05T01:12:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Capuano (1-0): 6 ip, 2 er, 7 so
Weeks: 3-5, 2 runs
Miller: 2-3, 3 rbi
Gross: 1-1, hr
Fielder: 0-5, 3 k

"Everybody's cool. I'm not worried about it." - Prince Fielder

Weeks, Jenkins, and Clark all went 3-5 today. It was a hitting barrage, as the Brewers rattled off 16, to beat the Pirates 7-5.

I skipped the first 15 minutes of work so I could watch the first inning. Sean Casey crunked a bomb to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Brady led off the bottom with a broken bat shot to left, but was caught on a delayed steal attempt while Jenkins was batting. Then I ran off to work to enjoy the next few innings via MLB Gameday.

A little background: I work as a tutor in the Information Systems Computer Lab on campus here at University of Wisconsin - La Crosse (thats right, Vinny Rattino went here, and Damien Miller lives in nearby West Salem). So, now that its nearing the end of the semester, kids don't have as many questions because they're all working on their final projects instead of rinky dink homework assignments. Anyway, long story short, I get to sit and do nothing. Jackpot.

So Gameday it is. Damien Miller (pride of Viterbo University, also in La Crosse) hit a bases loaded single to tie the game in the bottom of the second. In the bottom of the fifth, Brady Clark scored on a wild pitch by ex-Brewer Victor Santos. And then I had to leave. Great. Second day of the season and I'm already missing games. Atleast I left with a lead.

When I got home, it was time to practice. More background: the band I'm in (Tyler and Andy) has a show at a bar downtown on Thursday so we needed to sneak some practice time in. I promise this is the last you'll hear about my personal life for the rest of the season. Maybe.

So after practice in the basement, I came upstairs just in time to see Nate McLouth pop out to Corey Koskie to end the game. Brewers win!

"Prince even got a hit!" my roommate said.

"Really?" I asked him, excited and relieved.

"No," he replied coldly. "Three more strikeouts."

Well, I guess yesterday when I promised you no strikeouts and a couple hits, I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. You'll have to get used to that running theme. But, Prince Fielder is bound to come around one of these games. Just you watch. That first one's the hardest. Ask J.J. - heck, ask anyone. I'm still waiting on my first big league hit.

Anyway, apparently Cappy pitched well. Capellan struggled, but Kolb was lights out and Turnbow got his second save of the season in as many games. On pace for 162 saves, which might be a major league record. I'll have to have my statisticians check up on that.

Am I missing anything? I didn't see much of the game so let me know if anything cool happened... I changed the settings so that anyone can post a comment, thanks KP.

Ohka and Zach Duke tomorrow night. Bring out the brooms.

Pirates 2, Brewers 5 (1-0)

2006-04-03T08:53:00.000-05:00

Box Score

Davis: 6 ip, 2 er, 4 bb, 6 so
Cirillo: 1-1, 2rbi
Hardy: 1-3, hr
Lee: 2-3, hr, 2 rbi
Fielder: 0-4, 4 K

''Shoot, I've never been to the playoffs, and I'm running out of time,'' - Jeff Cirillo

Well, 2006 is off and running with a comeback win! Trailing 2 to 1 in the 7th inning, Cirillo came through with a pinch-hit 2 RBI single. For those of you keeping score, Cirillo resurrected his career with the Brewers last Spring and hit a huge home run against the Pirates on opening day a year ago. Crazy.

There haven't been many events that I've anticipated more than this. My noon class was cancelled (which was good, because I would've cancelled it myself anyway), so I came home and started up the grill. We had about 20 people stop by our place throughout the game and enjoy some brats, drinks, conversation, and some good old fashioned baseball.

After Brady Clark popped out in the bottom of the first, J.J. Hardy smoked a 1-2 pitch to deep left-center. Boom. The kid didn't hit a homerun until June 11th last year, and here he is on opening day, letting her rip. It'll be exciting to see how huge he can get in this, his sophomore season with the Brewers.

Oliver Perez looked stunning for the Pirates. After giving up the bomb to J.J, he pretty much shut the Brewers down. One young Milwaukee hitter that he especially made a fool of was Prince Fielder. 0-4 with 4 strikeouts. Perez went upstairs everytime to punch out the Prince. He had some solid atbats but he just chased too much high heat.

I think it was a good first lesson of the year for Fielder, though. In his rookie season, of course he's going to have days like this against lefty aces. The important part is that we know Yost is going to stick with him through the growing pains. See J.J. Hardy circa last year. Batting his weight for the first half, and then he exploded for .308 after the all-star break. I remember Ned Yost gave Hardy about a week off midway through the season. And that was all it took.

The Pirates trot out or old friend Victor Santos to the mound tomorrow. The 'vampire' can either be lights out or get lit up. I am willing to bet that Prince will not strike out once tomorrow. I'll even wager that he'll get two hits. Who wants a piece?

I loved Lyle Overbay as much as the next guy, but the trade was yet another beautiful example of the genious of Doug Melvin. Lose nothing at first base (save the growing pains), and snag some solid young pitching. Exactly what the Brewers needed. Anyone who's not sold on Prince Fielder... well, you will be by the end of the year. That is an Andy Camann guarantee.

Hey, leave your comments about your opening day and your reactions to the game...

Gearing up for 2006

2006-03-30T15:59:00.000-06:00

Opening day is only 4 days away.

I can almost taste the brats and miller lite. I can almost hear Uecker's voice... 'Get up, get out of here, gone!' I can almost feel the sun on the tops of my legs and the back of my neck. And I can almost see myself skipping somehow even more classes to watch the 2006 Milwaukee Brewers take the field.

I was fortunate enough to make the trip down to Phoenix for a week of Spring Training earlier this month. While in town, I was able to catch five brewers games. Monday started at the Brewer's Spring home, Maryvale Baseball Park. Dave Bush led the Crew past the Padres, 9-5, while Damien Miller contributed 3 hits and Geoff Jenkins pounded 2 doubles. On Tuesday, we took the two hour drive down to Tucson and watched Dana Eveland crumble against the Rockies, as the Brewers found themselves on the wrong end of a 9-5 contest. The next stop was a hot stop in Scottsdale for the Barry Bonds show. He juiced a steroids long bomb and a human growth hormone double. Doug Davis got lit up, and the Brewers ended up losing 10-6. Thursday's game was a see-saw battle with the Oakland A's back at Maryvale. Chad Moeller collected 4 hits. Carlos Lee, fresh off his stint with team Panama in the World Baseball Classic, went 3 for 4. Derrick Turnbow had a rough outing, allowing 5 runs in the top of the ninth, as the Brewers were edged 10-9. Our trip ended on Friday, with an 8-4 loss in Surprise, AZ to the Kansas City Royals. Tomo Ohka was inconsistent in his 4 innings, as he gave up 11 hits and 6 runs. Corey Koskie crushed a 2 run home-run in the top of the fifth and Justin Lehr continued to shine with a perfect inning and a third.

The trip was a great experience and I'd recommend it to baseball enthusiasts and casual fans alike. I was able to snag some nice autographs, including Geoff Jenkins, Prince Fielder, Jeff Cirillo, Nelson Cruz, Tomo Ohka, Chad Moeller, and Damien Miller. The ballparks were all very well-kept, with modest crowds, and the Phoenix nightlife was exciting enough for me. The treasure of the trip may have been The Big Bang in Tempe near the ASU Campus. This is an underground dueling pianos bar, where 3 piano players take turns at 2 pianos, playing requests and joking around for a very interactive and hilarious show.

Another treat was running into the television voice of the Brewers, Daron Sutton, at a nice Mexican restaurant that he recommended on his weblog. After talking Brewers for a while, he bought us starving college kids a round of Miller Lite. The food was extremely affordable and delicious, although I'll admit to being far from an expert in the field of Mexican eateries.

On Monday, Doug Davis and the Milwaukee Brewers will begin their attempt to improve on a 2005 effort of 81 wins and 81 losses, which ended a 12 year losing streak and gave Milwaukee fans a taste of good things to come. This year also marks the first season for new bullpen coach and Wisconsin Sports Legend, Robin Yount. Hopefully his presence will help usher in the entourage of young talent that the Brewers are going to be riding into the future. With future all-stars Rickie Weeks (23) and Prince Fielder (21), as well as sure-handed shortstop JJ Hardy (23) and super-utilityman Billy Hall (26), who knows where 2006 will take us?