Random Thoughts from Miller Park: Cubs v. Brewers

My buddy Mike texted me on Monday night asking me if I had any interest in going to the Milwaukee Brewers game on Tuesday night. I thought why not?  There is nothing on television on Tuesday night (Yes, I know New Girl is on, but I am not caught up yet, guys) plus watching games with Mike is one of my favorite pastimes.  As I do when I visit Miller Park, we do a random thoughts from the stadium, let's get it.

- First of all, shoutout to the Brewers ticket office for hooking us up with Field Infield Box tickets. Mike and his friends have season tickets and they were turning in their extras for the year for this game. The Brewers gave us better seats to essentially try to fill the bowl as there were not many people coming out to see the Crew against the Chicago Cubs.

- Before the game, we stopped at Jackson's Blue Ribbon Pub, formerly Long Wongs, and at least came back impressed with their drink prices. You can get a PBR tallboy for three dollars or a silo for four dollars every day. That's a great deal before a game. You can basically have four beers for the price of one inside the stadium if you have two silos. I did not try their food but I will definitely have to go back.

- The attendance said the Brewers had over 22,000 in the stadium and I can tell you that is a flat-out lie. They had roughly around 17,000-19,000 people attending the game on Tuesday and it brought back memories of watching the team during the 2004-2006 seasons when the bandwagon was nonexistent.

- Ferguson Jenkins, the Cy Young pitcher for the Cubs, was hanging out in the lower bowl signing autographs for the Ferguson Jenkins Foundation. If I had 20 dollars to spend, I would have probably sprung for an autograph. Fergie is a massive human in case anyone was wondering.

- The game itself featured Marco Estrada and Jeff Samardzija taking the mound. Estrada is always due for one bad inning, but he is usually pretty enjoyable to watch pitch. First time seeing The Shark pitch for the Cubs, but I always remember how I felt he would be a Pro Bowl wide receiver when he caught passes from Brady Quinn.

- The Brewers struck blood first in the second with Carlos Gomez hitting in Aramis Ramirez whom had a stand-up triple which is about as rare as a blue moon. Some guy was just bouncing around searching for high fives. I always give high fives after the Brewers get some runs, but I never actively head to over rows to find people to high five, that's overdoing it.

- As mentioned earlier, there were not many people at the game on Tuesday. About halfway through the game, a family of four to six came down to the lower bowl to sit. An Event Service worker kicked everyone out of there as if someone was actually sitting there.  Such a shitty thing to do honestly. I get they did not pay for these tickets, but at the same time, let them enjoy seats that possibly they cannot afford for the whole family. I get they are doing their job, just think it is stupid when there is not remotely close to a sellout.

- Associated Bank gives out faces of players. This time we got Jonathan Lucroy and some fan took the picture off the large stick then put it on his own face. Straight nightmare fuel.

- I contemplated getting kettle corn or a pretzel with cheese. I had been craving a pretzel, but I went with the kettle corn so I could share it with the rest of the group of six who went with us.  Everyone was a big fan of it and I dominated the kettle corn game. I probably ate 40 percent of it and if you wonder why I am husky, exhibit A.

-Estrada struggled in the 7th inning giving up three runs and as I like to call it, he knotted himself a Dave Bush inning.

-Brewers bounced right back with a Carlos Gomez homer right over the left field wall. It went out so fast, he did not even do a #CarlosGomezBatFlip which is sad but the game was tied.  (Actually, reviewing the tape, we got a #CarlosGomezBatDrop

- 3-3 ballgame in the eighth and it is moving so it looks like the game will probably end around 10 pm. I realize it is a school night, but what the hell are people exiting at this point of the game? Are you kidding me? I realize this team is not good, but hell, at least see what is the outcome of the game you paid for.

- They head to the bottom of the ninth still tied up. I really did not want to see extra innings and with Ramirez up, the Brewers had the bats to come up big in this situation.  Rami gets walked and Gomez follows up with a single putting two on with no out.

- Even though Scooter Gennett is red hot, we knew Ron Roenicke could not resist a bunt and that's what he did only to have Justin Grimm, the pitcher, mishandle the ball loading the bases for Sean Halton.

- Roenicke pulled Halton for Logan Schafer and we all knew the squeeze play was coming. Sure enough, this is what happened.

- Final thought is I saw two Aaron Rodgers Brewer jerseys which are the worst possible things on earth and just when I thought it could not get worse, we had a Brett Favre Cubs jersey. ONE PLAYS FOR A WISCONSIN TEAM AND THE OTHER ONE IS IN ILLINOIS. Just unbelievable. I hate everyone.

Probably my last time at Miller Park this year and I ended up finishing 2-3 on the year. Not bad.  See you for Opening Day as I give Ryan Braun a standing ovation.

Charlie.