Tag Archives: little bit

Gregg Zaun is awful and why you don’t get worked up over spring training

Posted on by

My buddy John called me the other day to talk a little bit about the Brewers, one of the things he said to me was "dude, Gregg Zaun is awful." Now, I'm pretty sure that he judged this completely off of the one televised game the Brewers had shown at the time. Or maybe he is basing it off of his career numbers. Either way, he is pretty sure that Gregg Zaun is awful. Which is okay by him because "as long as you are a Brewers fan, you shouldn't expect any production out of the catcher position".

Of course, he's right. Dave Nilsson and BJ Surhoff were probably the two best catchers the Brewers have had in the past twenty years and their best seasons came away from the dish. The rest of the list is filled with a who's who of backup catchers from other, far better teams. If your team has ever signed Jason Kendall and had him be considered an "upgrade", you can be pretty sure your catcher wasn't that good.

Of course, he's also wrong. You don't judge Gregg Zaun by the same standard that you judge, say, Corey Hart. A catcher's body gets extremely beaten up over the season (and in Jason Kendall's case, his face too), while Corey Hart's just gets tatt-ed up. Hitting isn't the be-all, end-all of the catcher position. As an outfielder or a DH, Gregg Zaun IS awful, but as a catcher he is average to above average. It's all relative. (He's also wrong because as of this writing Gregg Zaun is hitting .417 in spring training! WOOO!) Continue reading »

Despite what Walk Off Walk says, I am no corporate overlord

Posted on by

extenzeHello there Walk Off Walk reader, how are you doing today? I see that you have found us via the website Walk Off Walk and their popular post "Miller Park Drunk Sells Out to Corporate Overlords from Chicago".

I just wanted to say hello and tell you a few things about myself. My name is Chad Trixie and I work in some sort of financial field. I am from the suburb of Schaumburg, but prefer to tell everyone (especially at the Big Ten college I attended) that I am from Chicago. I drive a Range Rover, which I am thinking of trading in for one of those hybrids. My favorite Cub of all time is without a doubt Ryne Sandberg. I, perhaps ironically(?), enjoy drinking Old Style even when I am not at games and I'm definitely not afraid to show up at work hungover. I'm just a regular guy.

Despite what you might think about me I am not a "corporate overlord" in this to make money. I just enjoy writing about baseball and thought this blog would be a good way to do it. In a lot of ways I am like the Cubs ownership in that I am committed to winning. I spent what it took to acquire this blog and I might lose some money, but I come from money so it's not like I need this to support myself, my dad made enough money for me to never work again which allows me to express myself creatively.
So don't expect the website to immediately turn into an ad factory. It will still be the same old Miller Park Drunk you MLB Tickets at StubHub!have known and loved. I just might write about the Cubs a little bit too. If you don't like it, don't read it. Simple as that.

Before I go I just wanted to say that everyone should check out this Acai berry website. I have personally been taking this and in the past six months I have lost 45 pounds, gotten smarter and grew three inches in my pants (if you catch my drift.) Acai berry changed my life. Let it change yours.

Guide to hangovers

Posted on by

hangoverYesterday we didn't write anything for the site. Why? We went to the game on Wednesday. I started to go through my archives and realized that for every Wednesday game I have gone to this season Thursday has suffered. I don't think that I need to spell it out for you why this happens. It's just the way it is. You can't start pre-gaming at 5 in the afternoon, watch a three hour baseball game and then stay out until bar time without some effects. For us it's not doing a whole lot of writing on Thursdays. I'll take it. The thing is this goes on a lot. It's not just a clever name. We've been down this road many, many times before. So why not give a little bit back? Why not share our vast knowledge? Why not create...(wait for it)..

Miller Park Drunk's Guide To Hangovers

Continue reading »

Ryan Braun, relax

Posted on by

Frankie says RelaxRyan Braun, I'd like to start this intervention by saying that I think you will go down as one of, if not THE, greatest Brewers of all time. Your combination of power, speed, improving everday defense and incredible bat speed make me so happy that you are on my team and not someone elses. Watching you reminds me of what it must have been like for Cardinals fans to watch Pujols, Mariners fans to watch Griffey (first time), Yankees fans to watch Mantle and Cubs fans to watch Henry Rowengartner. You are a very special player and you do some amazing things, but you need to relax.

Here's a small timeline of your weekend:

Friday: You strike out and throw your bat like you are 3 years old.
Later Friday: You hit a home run to win the game and stick your tongue out like Michael Jordan, then make a cocky trek around the bases.
Saturday: For some reason you decide to try a drag bunt and almost get hit in the head with the ball. When you get to first base you won't shut up about it.
Later Saturday: You hit a home run and basically stare down Dempster the entire trot around the bases.

When you add this to the Pittsburgh situation, I think it's about time you chill the hell out Braun. First of all, it is uncool to pout and throw your bat. You're not Jose Hernandez, if you strike out it is not the end of the world. The pitcher just won that round and as you have proven many times that you will win a later round. So relax.

Then, after openly pouting you hit a game winning home run. When you do this, you act like you are Superman. That you are four for four with fifteen home runs and eleventy runs batted in. We won the game, great. I am excited too, but you can't have it both ways. If you are going to celebrate your hits like that, you might try to mature a little bit on your outs. Relax. This is a game in May, not a game in October.

Saturday was probably the worst with your "I'm a soldier" routine (seriously, did you hang with Kellen Winslow at school?). I'm just going to break this thing down for you real quick. Throwing at people in baseball is highly discouraged by the commisioner's office. Throwing at superstars is right up there with HGH, if you do it there will be serious consequences. This isn't the 70s, bud. Not every pitcher on every team is out to get you. Quite the opposite. Yet at the same time when you act like you've been acting: whiny when you're out, cocky when you're not, ready to rumble and run your mouth when a ball gets close to you; guess what? You'll find a few guys who do want to throw at you, not a lot but a few and all it takes is one ball to your head and this whole thing is over. So RELAX. It's a long season stop pissing everyone off in May.

Boo

Posted on by

booOn Saturday we had to make a drive up to Appleton and back. This coincided with the broadcast of the Brewers game and I ended up listening to 9 1/2 innings of the game on the radio. To me, this is the great thing about baseball I listened to the whole thing on the radio and didn't feel like I missed a thing. During the game Pudge Rodriguez was ejected and then his manager was as well for arguing balls and strikes. For the rest of the game the fans booed every single ball and strike call that didn't go in their favor. At one point Uecker even commented that fans were booing a ball that was six inches off the plate which led him to say "these fans are going to boo the babysitter when they get home." I wasn't watching the pitches, but the way Uecker made it sound was rather ridiculous and this got me thinking about booing and how much I generally hate it.

When the Brewers were last home I went to a game against the Reds where Manny Parra was pitching. Parra was a little bit off that day(!). He walked one in the first inning, then gave up a double to score a run. In the second inning, he gave up a double and fans started to boo. He got out of it. Then in the third he gave up a walk followed by a two run homer and the fans REALLY started to boo. I turned to my friend and wondered aloud why they were booing as it was, you know, THE THIRD INNING and they were only down 2 runs. He then threw the next three innings scoreless. At the end of the day Parra gave up three runs and notched his only quality start of the season.

Thinking of this brought to mind a quote I heard from Jason Kendall on the pre game about "knowing which guys need a pat on the back and who needs a kick in the butt". As fans we want our team to do better. We dislike things that happen on the field, but is booing your own team really the best way to address this? I don't think so, let Kendall and Macha handle the "kick in the butt."

Think about it like this, you are at work. You do something wrong. What would you prefer to happen: A) your boss is nice about it, B) your boss says nothing, C) yelled at or D) booed by all your co-workers. Obviously, your answer is A or B and if you like someone you should always do A or B. So why when it's your favorite team at your home ball park do you go with C and D?

Here is a list of acceptable times/people to boo:

  • The Yankees are in town and Alex Rodriguez is batting: No explanation needed.
  • The umpires strike zone is actually all over the place: You are only allowed to boo, however, if it is clear to you. Don't be like those jackasses in Houston and boo any pitch you don't like. My seats are on the third base line and with a right handed batter up, I can't see the plate so I never question balls and strikes and you shouldn't either.
  • A former player returns and was a jerk and/or sucked the whole time he was here: Examples being Eric Gagne, Jose Hernandez, Jeff Suppan if he ever leaves and Bill Sharp. (feel free to add more in the comments if you'd like)
  • Another team is obviously throwing at the Brewers: This is the fans way of saying "Hey, f-you stop doing that and if you keep it up our team will come after you, but we don't really want them to because players involved in brawls get suspended and we can't really afford to lose Prince or Braun for a few games so stop doing that."
  • There is a fan in the stands being an asshole and someone stands up to them. Then the nicer fan is thrown out along with the asshole or the asshole stays.: You know what I'm talking about, this happens all the time. (I love when people are thrown out by the way because it leads to my favorite moment of fan interaction, fans singing the "nanana hey hey goodbye song" love that.)
  • An obvious call was blown by an umpire: This could be a home run, double play, someone was called safe when they were clearly out, anything.
  • Roseanne sings the National Anthem.

And that's just about it. Did you see any situation herein where you boo players on your own team? (You didn't.) The reason they are home games is because the people like the team that is playing at home and the team likes playing at home. When the team is booed, they'd rather be in Philadelphia and nobody should ever want to be in Philadelphia, ever. Seriously, Philadelphia sucks.

Stop booing the Brewers. It's annoying and stupid.