Looking For #13

Somewhere north of Pigsville, about a mile away across the freeway, they have been playing baseball below the bluffs of the Veteran’s Home for 45 of the 46 years of the franchise known as the Cream City Nine, better known as the Milwaukee Brewers. During that span they have had twelve winning seasons, one of which was shortened. Only three of their players have reached the coveted Baseball Hall of Fame, primarily because they have only won one League Championship, in a league they are no longer a member of. For those who have been living in the belief of the faith known as the True Blue Brew Crewism, only 26% of that time have the faithful lived during winning seasons. Now it takes an optimist to look at 26% within a lifetime of defeats.

In the Central Division of the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals have had 29 winning seasons in that period. The Cincinnati Reds have 23 winning seasons. The Pittsburgh Pirates have 19 winning seasons in that same period. But the ultimate insult is that even the Chicago Cubs have more winning seasons in that period (15).

This is particularly tough to swallow when one grows up in the Southern half of the State where so many Chicagoans reside during the summer months in and around Lake Geneva to Burlington. It is particularly brutal when your next door neighbor growing up was a diehard Chicago Cubs/Wrigley Field Forever fan and announced their journey to their little mecca on the North side of Chicago where vines grow on their outfield walls during the summer and all you hear about is the legend of Ernie Banks. That they have more winning season during the existence of the Crew is hard to swallow.

How do we change all of this? How do we jump over the Cubs and Pirates, even the Reds in the seasons ahead?

Change the color of the uniforms.

This might be seen as a sacrilege but perhaps the Crew could turn to the colors of the Packers. ‘Green and Growing’. Nope. That didn’t work for the Bucks who are now in red.

OK. How about changing the name of the stadium to the Great American PNC Busch Ballpark? The GAPNCBB doesn’t really have a ring to it but then we could sell Bud, Iron City, Yuengling and other tasteless brews. After all, its in the water, you know.

How about management?

We have had two basic family owners during this period. Neither seem to understand one thing that seems consistent in winning and that is winning begins with winners. We never have had a winning General Manager since the great Harry Dalton. We have never brought in a real winning manager. Wouldn’t Joe Torre bring a beautiful ring to the faithful in Miller Park? Or Joe Madden? Opps, the Cubs pulled that off.

Of course it takes a bunch of talented players, especially pitchers to make a winning course a tradition. The Brewers haven’t had much of that in their past. That last first round draft choice that made the club and contributed was Ryan Braun (2005) and the last pitcher to do so was Ben Sheets (1999). That’s a problem management has to address and has not in nearly a decade. Is the owner up to it? Is the general manager up to it?

Not a single pitcher has contributed to a top Brewer record since 2004 (Ben Sheets-strikeouts with 264) and 2011 (John Axford-Most Saves in A Season with 46). It should be noted he also won the coveted 2011 Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year Award (although he is Canadian, as was his award honors namesake).

So, as we enter the 2015 edition of the least winning team in the past 46 years within the team’s existing division, what has Milwaukee done to improve its pitching staff? It lost K-Rod and Duke from the bullpen. It added no starters to last year’s lineup. With Lucroy and Gomez both having career years as the two top non-pitchers on the team last season, very little has been done except for longtime second baseman Rickie Weeks and one of the most reliable pinch hitters in the league, Lyle Overbay, departing.

But, the hope of spring is eternal in the provincial provence of Southeastern Wisconsin where cheese and beer along with sausage are the keys to any happy gathering. All eyes are now on Maryvale to see if the ‘standpat’ attitude of management will change the fortunes of the lowly Brewers as the desert flowers pop up across the Valley of the Sun. On these pewter gray days of winter in Wisconsin the only hope is that through sheer will the course of the past will change dramatically and all of the cheering of the beginning of last year will be repeated throughout the entire coming schedule.

Now that would be a miracle. And it would bring us all the #13 (winning season) we are looking for.

Play Ball!

Rosin Bag Rests

For the first Sunday since the middle of last February, the field is empty. The base paths are vacant. There are no bats in the rack nor bat weights in the on-deck circle. Rosin bags are resting, not on the mound, but in the club house, waiting for next season’s use. For Richie and others who have pushed and pulled their teams to hopeful victory during a most difficult year, the season is over. For those who love this game, the silence is now deafening.

The good news is, each of our favorite teams have a chance to win next year. All except for those who have a manager that is playing by a book designed by dummies. For this we have to understand that baseball pitchers can and should go for as long as they feel good about the way they are pitching on that particular day, in that particular game. This means that the managers, regardless of the rhyme or reason, DO NOT have to take their starter out for the guy who pitches in the seventh and then the guy who pitches in the eighth and finally for the closer in the ninth. We are reminded starting pitcher Jose Quintana had a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts through seven innings in a White Sox game in August. He looked good. He was feeling fine. Then the manager walks out of the dugout and goes to the bullpen. Why? That’s what the modern book of baseball managing says. If its written, so it shall be done.

Sure it works! Take for example the Milwaukee Brewers. How many games were their starting pitchers, while leading the game, pulled out, and watched as the game exploded  around them for a loss because the modern book of baseball managing says that it is right and just to bring in Axford?

When a starting pitcher is in a grove and his 2-seam fastball’s painting the corners along with his 4-seamer, a wicked slider and a devastating change-up, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you have caught magic in a bottle on this given day. The modern book of baseball managing should be thrown away. This game was never meant for 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th inning pitching specialists to interrupt the textural weave of a brilliant pitching performance.

Furthermore, this game was never intended for the modern book of baseball managing to have a roving shortstop or second baseman to play in the shallow outfield position of an over-shift plan to stop an above average pull hitter. This is the stuff of silly old men dressed in major league uniforms while greying at the temples. Silly men. Silly, silly men. (My apologies to the Coen Brothers and the writers of their film, ‘Intolerable Cruelty’ for that description.)

While the rosin bag rests in the box within the confines of the clubhouse, it’s time for the Hot Stove League. This is where the game of baseball gains its lore and its lure of statistical bias. This is why Tim McCarver could pull out such bizarre statistics only Elias Sports Bureau would have dug into for him to use in whatever key situation he felt was relevant. Who cares how many times a player drives a ball to the right side of the infield after falling behind on a 1 ball, 2 strike count? How many times does it matter if that batter leads the league in consecutive foul balls during a single time at bat? Do I care that David Ortiz is the only player to total 90 or more extra base hits in a season without scoring at least 100 runs when he finished the 2004 campaign with 91 extra base hits and 94 runs scored for the Red Sox? And do I care if I never hear such junk uttered by McCarver ever again? That’s perhaps redundant because Tim-boy has finally retired. Is it alleluia or hallelujah?

When you get over stat-urated, you run the risk of falling into the belief that the modern book of baseball managing actually means something. As a point to this madness of over analyzing every pitch and every at bat and every situation because of the doctrine of the modern book of baseball managing (MBOBM-every baseball stat now has an acronym so I’ll start this one in order to be placed in the register of the modern book of baseball managing on the baseball Wikipedia page), reached its height in the fifth game of the 2013 World Series in St. Louis. There were the Cardinals, in the bottom of the 9th, with two out and the potential tying run coming to the plate. The player on first was replaced by the manager because this manager had read the modern book of baseball managing and within it, on the chapter “What to do when there are two outs in the bottom of the ninth, in game five of the world series, with a runner on first and the tying run comes to the plate?”, it states put in a player who is fast.

What? What for? He only represents a run, not the winning run, not even the tying run, but just a run. The real question is what will happen at the plate? That’s the potential runner who can tie the game. If you watched and saw a young rookie, Kolten Wong, crying in the locker room after the game because he got picked off when he strayed too far off the bag, blame it on the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, not the kid who was put into a position where he could fail. As a manager of anything, business, ministry, naval vessel or a hot air ballooning fleet, you never put a young employee into a position where they can fail. That’s Business 101.

Let’s get started. Now we are into one of the most important parts of the season…the Hot Stove League where we can rip and applaud, scream and shout, laugh and cry all over again. The rosin bags are resting in the clubhouse. Let’s….

Play Ball!

Magnification Of Blunders

With the wind whirling all around us, the center of the storm is often calm. We are in the center of baseball’s annual storm. The playoffs, where pitchers dominate and star hitters rarely come through in the clutch, was best described in Ernest Thayer’s legendary poem written in 1888 “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888”, first published in The San Francisco Examiner on June 3^rd in that year. While we no longer have the Mudville Nine to worry about, today’s game during the baseball’s playoffs, still are dominated by good pitching.

Take for example game #1 of the NLCS: The visiting Dodgers put multi millionaire, Zach Greinke on the mound. With a 1-2 post-season record, his only career win coming against St. Louis for the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2011 NLCS, he responded with ten strikeouts and only one walk. However, that one walk would come back to haunt him as the runner scored on a double that should have been caught in centerfield. You might question, ‘should have caught’ statement because it was a ball, high off the wall, which would have been a good catch. But it was a catch that was possible to make. It was simply misjudged by Andre Ethier. Yet little is said about that play. Rather, the emphasis for pointing fingers is that Dodger manager, Don Mattingly, pulled his star first baseman and one of its best hitters, Adrian  Gonzalez, who had singled to put the lead run on first while the game was tied 2-2 and was hitting .333 in post season. No one knew that this game was going to go 13 innings and this was only the eighth inning. Dee Gordon came in to run and was quickly retired by a weak ground ball by rookie sensation, Yasiel Puig. One of the Dodgers star hitters was now out of the game. The point here is that he was ONE of the star hitters, not the only one.

“Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;                                                           It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;                                                                         It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,                                                         For Casey, might Casey, was advancing to the bat.”

There were other hitters in the Dodger lineup to do what Gonzalez had done so well. There was Hanley Ramirez, Carl Crawford, Puig, Uribe, Ethier and Mark Ellis to deliver. But this game, during this time of the season is not about the hitters. It’s about the pitching.

The Dodgers were no longer calm in the center of the storm.

“The sneer is gone from Casey’s lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;                                       He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.                                                           And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go.                                                       And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow.”

On the St. Louis side, steeped in tradition with one of their greatest marked by a symbol on their sleeves with the number 6 set in a circle, and legendary pitcher, Bob Gibson in the dugout before the game, did what every winning team has done from time in memoriam in the post season…they won the game with tremendous pitching.

You can’t forget the work of Joe Kelly, a Los Angeles area native, beginning the game with six solid innings coming off a 7-2 record since August 11^th with a 2.32 ERA. Don’t forget, he struck out all of the Dodgers in the first inning and then struck out Gonzalez with runners on in the second and Puig with runners on in the third. It’s not the time to forget Randy Choate and Seth Maness for their combined shutout inning of work. Carlos Martinez had a good inning and then came Trevor Rosenthal, who struck out two in his great couple of innings.

But the shock of shocks, was John Axford’s second lifetime entrance into post-season play. The boy from Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, was traded by the Brewers to St. Louis (that’s another story for another day) after being counted on to be able to loose more TV viewers than NBC. When he came into a Brewer game this season, fans would change channels just to miss the predictable debacle that would surely follow. But here he was, banging his fastball and making an inning interesting. Giving up a hit and walking another, he came in with a fastball of old to strike out the not so mighty Casey of the Dodger Nine, former Cardinal Nick Punto, to allow the game to continue. This game didn’t end suddenly as most had previously when ‘Ax’ entered a Brewer’s game. It left many in Milwaukee wondering where was this performance a few months ago for The Crew? There’s ‘beer pride’ here. This moment of past glory now resided on the hill at Busch and not at Miller.

To put the exclamation point on this note of post season pitching importance, Lance Lynn’s work for two innings wrapping up the game and the win cannot be over looked nor over stated.

“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;                                                The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,                                              And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children should,                                         But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.”

It’s not the magnification of blunders that decided this game. It wasn’t Ethier’s late start and misplay in center or a managerial decision that would do in the Dodgers on this long, long evening in St. Louis. It was pitching, namely for ‘Dizzy’ and ‘Daffy’s’ and ‘Bullet Bob’s’ legacies that brought victory to the team that plays under the Arch. And that was Friday. Same goes for Saturday’s games in both St. Louis and Boston.

Play Ball.

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Fort Simcoe Go Boom

At the junction of Highway 3 and Highway 24, due south of Brantford, Simcoe, Ontario, in 1983, an April Fools gag was pulled on the Milwaukee Brewers. John Berton Axford was born. This is the same town where famed Los Angeles Kings hockey star, Rob Blake was born. In fact, a gaggle of hockey players come from Simcoe. Jassen Cullimore, Hall of Famer Red Kelly, Andrew Penner, Dwayne Roloson, Ryan VandenBussche and Rick Wamsley all called Simcoe home.

Maybe Axford should have stayed with hockey. After a wonderful first and second year, everything has been crashing down. So far through Wednesday this year, ‘Boom Boom’ Axford has given up 6 home runs in 11 1/3^rd innings.

Momma’s of Simcoe, don’t let your boys grow up to be baseball pitchers.

On Friday, during the second game with their biggest rivals, the Brewers lost for the third straight game. Axford came in for one inning and retired the side. However, on Sunday, when mopping up and the fifth straight loss at hand, the man from Simcoe allowed two hits, walked two, had an earned run and left after 1/3^rd of an inning with the bases loaded. For those interested, that’s a WHIP of 12.00 and an ERA of 27.00. It was not a week to remember.

Momma’s of Simcoe, your boy went boom.

Al Hrabosky, a former St. Louis relief pitcher known as ‘The Mad Hungarian’ once said, “When I’m on the road, my greatest ambition is to get a standing boo.”

For the good citizens of Milwaukee, these are trying days and it is getting harder and harder not to rain down boos upon the fellow from Simcoe. Their once electric closer now has an ERA of 9.95 with no saves for the year and a WHIP of 1.97 all in 12.2 innings pitched. It’s time he visits Nashville and tries to get the kinks out of his mechanics. If not, the risk Roenicke takes the next time he signals in the ‘Sieve from Simcoe’ is loss of confidence in his leadership. ‘The Sieve’ is creating a cancer on the pitching staff. How can Henderson and the rest of the pen build trust in their existence?

Fort Simcoe go boom.

Play Ball!

Sound Of Suddenness

It begins like this.

He rolls the ball in his right hand, with his thumb pushing along the red seams, making the ball rotate over the callus of his massive paw, until the seams are exactly in the right position…that familiar comfortable position to grab onto and hurl the sphere 96 mpg at the plate 60’ 6” away.

Wap! The sound of the cowhide sphere smacking into the leather catching mitt behind the plate.

It is the sound of unforgettable presence. You know exactly where you are when you hear that sound. It is pleasure.

There are few sounds that compare. Sure, the crack of a bat is a unique sound. But it is different from the really great player and the good player. Ted Simmons hit a heavy ball. The sound of his bat striking the ball was very different. It was ‘Thud’. Ryan Braun’s sound is magic. It is an explosive ‘Crack!’ and you know the ball is gone. ‘Bang’.

But it is that simple sound of the ball banging into that perfect pocket of the mitt that is unique.

On July 28, 1997, sitting at a nearly empty Milwaukee County Stadium, in an afternoon game which was a rescheduled game that became part of a day-night double header, Roger Clemens was on the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays. In this nearly empty stadium, the sound of his fastball hitting the catchers glove was astounding, resounding in the hollow stadium. It was so loud that the echo of emptiness must have been heard by all who were to oppose him that day. It is to this day, the loudest sound I have ever heard a baseball hitting a catcher’s glove make.

Advance to this spring.

Wily Peralta is a highly acclaimed 23 year old rookie with the Milwaukee Brewers. The sound of his 96 mpg fastball hitting the glove is nearly like that. This past Tuesday, he was on the mound in Wrigley Field for his second start of the season, a season where the Brew Crew relievers picked up where they left off early last year by giving up leads continuously. Axford is Axe-less. Michael Gonzalez, who the Brewers got from the Nationals in he off season is usually off. Tom Gorzelanny, another Nationals transfer has not been sharp. Tampa Bay acquisition Burke Badenhop is bad enough. Mark Rodgers is on the DL. Chris Narveson is on the DL. Jim Henderson appears o be the only relief pitcher that has his stuff his year. Yet on this frigid Tuesday evening, where a number of his team mates (Rickie Weeks, Jean Seguari, Ryan Braun, Norichika Aoki, Carlos Gomez, Yuniesky Betancourt and Jonathan Lucroy) were wearing ski masks to temper the cold, donning short sleeves, Peralta was mowing the Cubs down, with 5 strikeouts in 6 2/3rds innings. It was like watching Mitch Seavey, the 53 year old Iditarod winner, wear a tee shirt on the first leg of the Alaskan nightmare. His fastball on this night had that sound.

However, during the Alaskan race, there are tried and true dogs to team through to victory. Not all can make it on the long journey, but the reserves come through for the winners. With the Milwaukee Brewers, there has been a history of great relief pitching. Legendary Ken Sanders, in 1971, appeared in 83 games (a Brewer record to this day), winning 7 and saving 31 games. He also holds the Brewer record for most games finished in a season (77 in 1971).

Rollie Fingers was at the head of the class. In 1981, he won the coveted MVP, the firs relief pitch to do so. He also won the Relief Man of the Year award, The Sporting News Fireman of the Year award and the Joe Cronin Award for distinguished service. The Brewers all time relief leader, Dan Plesac held court. In 1989 (with 33 saves) he is chosen to the All-Star team, making him the first Brewers pitcher ever to be chosen three straight times. In seven years, Plesac holds the Brewers record for all time saves with the team (158).

In 1995, Mike Fetters converted his first 15 save opportunities to increase his consecutive save streak to a then club record 20. There was Doug Jones with 36 saves in 1997 and then little remembered Bob Wickman (37 saves in 1999). He earned an All-Star roster spot in 2000.

Dan Kolb in 2004 had 39 saves, a new franchise record and was named to the All-Star team. The next season, Derrick Turnbow earned 39 saves out of the bullpen. In 2007, Francisco Cordero had 44 saves (a new Brewer record at the time) and earned an All-Star position. In 2009, Trevor Hoffman had 37 saves.

In 2010, Hoffman earned his 600th career save in the very twilight of his career. Then in 2011, the “Beast Mode” Brewers had a great group of relievers, Takashi Saito, LaTroy Hawkins, Francisco Rodriguez and  John Berton Axford (46 saves, tops in the National League).

Truth be told, the Milwaukee Brewers have had good relief pitching and closers in the past. But right now, even the explosive exploits of the Dominican Republic’s, 6’1”, 245 lb, flame thrower, cannot get the job done by himself.

The Brewers need, as it was almost all of last year, needs a savior.

They need it right now.

Peralta’s sound of suddenness should not go without victory.

Play Ball.

Spring Draining

The magic that is spring training has been held up a bit due to the playing of the World Baseball Classic, an event which brings mayhem to the major league training sites every four years. During this time it is called Spring Draining.

The other day in Maryvale, the Arizona Diamondbacks took on the Milwaukee Brewers. While the crowd was in a good mood before the game started, the murmur of ‘who’s that’ was fully in the air. For the Milwaukee nine, the only familiar starter from last year in the lineup was Carlos ‘Go Go’ Gomez in center field. The rest of the team was unrecognizable from last season. For the D’Backs, there was very little familiarity with last season’s team.

In both cases, it was not because there was a roster turnover but it was the return of the WBC. Most of the starters for both teams were now playing for one national team or another. For the Brewers, 8 players were with various national teams. John Axford, Jim Henderson and Taylor Green were playing with the Canadian team. Ryan Braun and Jonathon Lucroy were playing for USA. Yovani Gallardo was the leading pitcher and Marco Estrada played for Mexico, while Martin Maldonado was with the Puerto Rican national team.

Add to this unusual circumstance that Aramis Ramirez was out with an injury and Jean Segura along with Ricky Weeks were nowhere to be found, the infield was filled with complete strangers, one had no name on his back. He was merely number 94.

In the outfield, ‘Go Go’ was paired with some that were unfamiliar. Norichika Aoki was missing with a rare day off.

So, for the price of admission you saw the lineup filled with players like Josh Prince (always good to have a Prince back in the Brew Crew’s line up), Caleb Grindl and Khristopher Davis. In the infield there was Scooter Gennett and #94 along with Alex Gonzalez at first and back with the Brewers after a year away. Behind the plate was Blake Lalli. That’s right. Blake Lalli.

Oh well. Everyone needs a Lalli in the spring.

After the 19th of March, after the last ball has been thrown in San Francisco in the WBC final, order will be restored. Spring will once again be sprung. And the normality of the game will be restored. The rhythm of the season will come back again. Braun will be in left. Lucroy will be behind the plate. Axford and Henderson will be in the bullpen. And the days of Lalli will become a faint memory. You can see the smiles from here.

Play Ball!

If It’s Milwaukee, It Must Be Kielbasa

Doctors may say that the quickest way to solve a psychological condition is to eat. It’s comfort food time. It’s ‘get better’ time. It’s like ‘when the child is sick, give them some chicken soup’ kinda thing. The baseball team from the Cream City needs some chicken soup. Or….a Kielbasa.

This year the Brewers have had three major issues: 1. The psychological hurdle of AP;  2. The calamity of the Bullpen and #3. The problem of having an inexperienced manager at the helm.

The Psychological hurdle of AP

The Milwaukee Brewers this season are a team in transition, from the dynamic youthful bunch who came up through the farm system to AP, an era known as After Prince. For years, the Brewers have had great First Basemen. It all began with the popular Mike Hegan, a member of the original Seattle Pilots from whence the Brewers came. He carried on the Milwaukee tradition of big banging first sackers that was set in the days of the Braves with Joe Adcock/Frank Torre/Nippy Jones fame. George “Boomer” Scott followed up and set a new standard of banging the ball around the park, with his 36 home runs with 109 RBI in 1975 being the hallmark. Then St. Cecil of Cooper (32 home runs with 121 RBI and .313 batting average in 1982), the man who brought the Brewers into the 1982 World Series with one of the greatest clutch hits of all time to win the American League pennant over the California (nee Los Angeles, Anaheim, of Anaheim) Angels.

But the great first sackers didn’t stop there. John Jaha hit .300 with 34 home runs and 118 RBI in ’96. Richie Sexton is still legendary for hitting some of the longest home runs in the game hit 45 home runs in 2001 and 2003. Then came Lyle Overbay, who hit the cover off of the ball with more doubles (53 in 2004 while hitting .301) than any other Milwaukee first baseman before him or after. But he was just keeping the sack warm for the kid who everyone knew was the center of the first base universe storming up from the minors.

Prince Fielder was born to be a Milwaukee Brewer. He was everything a Milwaukee first baseman was all about. But Prince brought a new dimension to the game. He was an enthusiastic crusher with youth going for him. Here was the pillar of the young Brewers (50 home runs in 2007, 141 RBI and .299 batting average in 2009) and were everything the Milwaukee club was looking for ever since the great Robin Yount came up and spent the next 20 years making the Brewers a serious contender each and every year. He, along with Weeks and Hart came up through the ranks pounding the opposition with their youthful style and power (230 home runs as a Brewer). Prince was fun. Prince was the leader. Prince was the soul. Prince was the Man.

Then nothing.

If 2012 is remembered, it was for the silence of the void that was created when Prince left.

They wore Brewers on the front of their jerseys, but they simply were not the Milwaukee Brewers. Their Prince had left. Long live the Prince.

Then something very strange happened. Like the Autumn Spring, false hope gave way to a new and wonderous happening. The next ‘coming’ came and quickly went on the DL for the season. This created a nightmare of a lineup. But someone in the very mold of Adcock and Cooper moved into the outfield from his All-Star position in Right and after 2/3rds of the season, the Brewers began to look once again like the Milwaukee Brewers. Prince, for many diehards, was merely taking a vacation. And now Cory Hart took his position, not his place, but his position at first. Cory, long a favorite of the Keilbasa Krowd, began to hit the long ball once again, and did that crazy little shake of his hips to his teammates in the dugout when he banged a double time and time again.

With the help of the other corners, Aramis Ramirez at third, Norichika Aoki in right and of course Ryan Braun in left, along with the brilliant rookie catcher, Martin Maldonado, solid clutch hitting along with a couple of young rookie arms, brought back the excitement of the past few years where Milwaukee was averaging over 3 million fans at the gate. From way back, 14 1/2 to be exact, they began their move with an impressive sweep over the league leading Cincinnati Reds. Then came Houston.

The Calamity of the Bullpen

A microcosm of a season was in evidence in one single game this past Friday evening. Good fielding, good timely hitting. 24th blown save. K-Rod (Francisco Rodriguez) is finished. His $8.5 million isn’t worth the paper it is written on. John Axford is useless. If you cannot get a breaking ball over the plate, you are finished in The Show. After a tremendous seven innings pitched by rookie Mark Rogers, K-Rod came in and promptly served up a home run in the 8th inning to the lowly Astros. Then Axford’s walked the lead-off batter and flummoxed his was to the minors to lose the game in the 9th. The Houston Astros this season have NEVER had a walk-off hit before Axford showed up on a humid, air-conditioned evening before the big train on the wall of a ballpark. Axford became the Enron of Minute Maid.

The Problem of Having An Inexperienced Manager At The Helm

After the game, Ron Roenicke the Brewers manager, was downright lost for words. He visibly had lost all confidence in the team. He had visibly lost confidence in himself. Most important, it appeared that he didn’t have any answers. He appeared to be on the verge of tears. He knew he had not learned a thing from the past failures that the Brewers earned throughout this Season AP. Here was a guy who seemingly prides himself on following baseball’s crazy tradition of backing the veterans until their wheels fall off. Wake up, Scioscia’s puppet. The wheels have fallen off. They fell off when your silly decision to keep Cesar Izturis as a backup shortstop ended the progress Edwin Maysonet was making earlier in the season. The wheels fell off when you insisted K-Rod had something left in the tank. He doesn’t. It’s empty. (NOTE: He took arbitration because he couldn’t get anything close to what he was making with the Brewers.) They fell off when you continued to use Axford. Tell Milwaukee’s President of Baseball Operations and General Manager, Doug Melvin, John Axford needs to go back to the minors and work on getting his curve and screwball working again. It’s called ‘getting it over the plate’. He can get work on it down there and it won’t affect the big club’s record. Then take whatever you can get for K-Rod and save the last month’s salary for new hot water bottles for you to sit on or something. Anything but K-Rod.

You cannot fire this bullpen coach. You already did that as a miserable excuse for your inexperience in evaluating what was going on around you, Mr. Roenicke. When the fans in the stands begin to moan and get up to leave the ballpark when you walk out of the dugout and pull your ‘baseball veteran’ scam by taking out the starting pitcher and bring in the dynamic Blown Savers, you have to know, that we all know, you are going to a dry well. There is no more water in that well. It’s dry. That well dried up when the season began. You just didn’t believe it was dry because these two could still walk in from the bullpen. They are the ‘Walking Dead Arms’.

The Solution

It is time you faced the facts of the game in Milwaukee. When in doubt, eat a kielbasa. You need to understand the ‘Power of the K’. Do the honorable thing, Mr. Roenicke. Do what Max Surkont did. He ate himself out of The Show by dinning at those South side Milwaukee fans homes in the ’50s every night. That, plus a few of Milwaukee’s favorite brew, became his ticket out of baseball. But, let it be said that Big Max was more than just an expert on Polish sausages. He also was a bit of a linguist, a man of, one might say, unusual phrases. He once said, “Baseball was never meant to be taken seriously. If it were, we would play it with a javelin instead of a ball.”

So sayeth Max.

Eat, Mr. Roenicke. Don’t mess with the javelin. As they say on the South Side, ‘Eat them kielbasa and wash it down at the bubbler.’.  It is the honorable thing to do.

Then, when the urge comes to give that vet one more shot, forget it. Call in anyone except K-Rod or Axford. It is his time. And as you do that, just say, “Long Live Axford. He was the proverbial flash in the pan.”

Mr. Roenicke? Eat a Kielbasa! We will all be better for it.

Play Ball!