The road trip could not be off to a better start. Dominant pitching performances by Ben Sheets and Dave Bush have the Brewers on the verge of a sweep in Atlanta, something they have never accomplished before in team history. It is a good time to catch the Braves on the schedule as both their lineup and their pitching staff are beat up. I know people like to discuss the sound of boos at Miller Park, but the truth is that home teams get boo'd EVERYWHERE, and the Braves heard about it from their fans last night. Don't let anyone tell you that players will want to leave Milwaukee because the fans sometimes boo their own. There is nowhere to go in baseball where fans will sit quietly when their home team is playing poorly.
Milwaukee has the best record in MLB since May 20th and now can get to ten games over .500 if the club can win today. They haven't been ten-over since July 28 of last season. The Brewers are also trying today to win their fifth consecutive road game for the first time in four years. When you pitch well, it doesn't matter if you are at home or on the road.
We've been talking a lot during our broadcasts about maple bats and their tendency to shatter, sending dangerous shards of wood in random directions. It has just been a matter of time until the list of those injured by those bat fragments grew longer. Add umpire Brian O'Nora to the list. Read about his incident from last night HERE.
The Players Association and MLB are definitely working on the issue. Coincidentally they discussed it yesterday...see the details HERE. It is just a matter of time until a fan gets hurt by one of those broken maple bats and, when it happens, I don't like baseball's chances in the civil court case. If you own stock in a maple bat company I think it might be a good time to sell.
I am not sure how coherent I was for the early-morning conversation I had with John Jagler and Gene Mueller on WTMJ today on Brewers360 but here it is. That show is very difficult for people who work night games to wake up in time for, especially when one of those people has a hotel room by the elevators and directly below a construction zone.