Headlines screamed this week, “The Brewers are trading everyone“ and so off to the cemetery I went, to pay respects, a stroll and a look up and it was as if god himself had dunked a broom in a bucket of paint and streaked it across the sky. I walked further and the river with its polluted swirls of muck and debris suffered the same mighty whisps and up ahead, 2nd floor McDonalds, more of the same in cream twirling a toilet flush infinity into my black coffee.
Carlos Gomez will be missed the most. “He brought fun back to baseball“ or at least he laughed cartoon exuberance. Knees cork screwing, toes digging tasmanian, head pops off or just helmet, but that smile, kissing the bat, rubbing the balaebooshka, climbing outfield walls, hopping in Rafer Alston skip to my lou serenades.
All My Messiahs, from frozen pizza to ding dongs, baseball cards, my first landlord, countless older brother surrogates to Rob Deer, Mark Clear to you Carlos.
I cringe at the thought of phoning Babe Ruth, not only because he`s already transformed into something I can’t fully understand yet, but because it’s Babe Ruth. I could barely whisper his name as a kid, almost embarrassed or scared like i had sinned and I never saw him play, not even on tv, just inside a book at the grade school library, but Babe Ruth. Bigger than any mountain.
What about Bob Golasso then? or Andy Replogle, Buster Ricky Keeton, Timothy Leary? In Keeton’s case, Buster was just a nickname, but I will forever find it wonderful anyway, this Brewers cast as superficial as it may be, just names, but potent, turn a dull day into scrabble related activities followed by a feeling of avalanche and escaping outside, grateful my disease caused me to swim.
There was a full moon last week and it was humid and hot in this season of sex, love or murder, babies conceived, cricket mating sirens, electric nature, a constant warning sound.
There were stubbed toes and brothers who played dirty, but morning still smelled like a never before flower and there were always the Dizzlers. Nothing but scavengers and part-time beggars, sleeping under the stars, flinging names around the campfire-from Cave Man Cleo and Slip a Mickey to Tanya the Twirler and not a night passed without some Dizzler mentioning that sweet ol’ river-the Drashkin Drew, “in which even the fairest lady swam in her stew.”
The Drashkin River was off limits to respectable citizens, had been since the crossing guard set his red Cadillac on fire, drove it into the river and drown. The river’s name was never officially changed, but after the funeral, no one ever said Drashkin anymore and only the Dizzlers dared going anywhere near.
They didn’t swim, just floated across the scum, the Hologram Pigeon Scum, a chemically infested bubbly waste, the perfect texture for Dizzlers to bath and splash and laugh and catch and cook up a new species of radioactive fish.
Some say it was those fish that sent Dizzlers up hillsides and under overpasses concocting silver shaped satellites from garbage can lids, twirling them in the moonlight and flashing shadows on cement walls. They were merely performing a bodily function and never intended to pull thousands away from their lives, but streets filled and that drive thru movie-anything is possible feeling returned. People flocked to see what came to be called Dizzlers Walk up Shadow Puppets.
There were Clones of Ichiros and Bands of Behemoths in the hundreds and thousands projected all over those walls. It was like an Old Ark had set free its residents and endless clans of baseball teams were now everywhere, returning the landscape to barnstorming chaos. Dizzier than a peacocks’ tail with as many languages as there were individuals and who knows how many dialects and accents. There was no need to convince anyone of anything. Egos hung like tennis shoes from telephone wires and people danced a rhythmic and foot stomping sosh n’ mog dance. Dugouts were built from fallen timber and burned after every game followed by collective camp fire cook ups, roasting rodents on a spittoon, wild singing and more sosh n’ mog.
I like thinking I would do more than survive under any circumstances and if need be would manufacture moonshine with the help of some friends, raise up a riot if need be, in a secret Warsaw Ghetto sort of way.
I like it when the assassin and his cock sure balabushka is free to do his thing and the fiddler with his goldfish is free to do as well and Beluga the tongue shocker with her noisemaker rattle at her side can knock us all home or sit on a southern patio and twirl feathers. The universe on a clear night seems like a chess match more than anything else with rules no human could ever understand.
I like thinking that even if our polymania of people failed, we could start over with grass and dirt and trees and we could keep starting over and starting over and starting over.
Aramis Ramirez is on the trading block and Kyle Lohse would be too if his ERA wasn’t so close to 7.00. The body of Carlos Gomez suffers wear and tear, but he’s already passed the 27 club. Jimmy Nelson is the Brewers ace and the team identity shape shifts into more clouds.
Apparently, every Brewer is up for grabs. Lohse and Matt Garza were signed long-term to play big brother to young pitchers, keep things mediocre and steady and maybe get lucky, but it’s the kids doing the baby sitting as elders are pushed out to sea to become legends in the night-time sky and we at home play Astro Jack! Set the ship on fire! Start over and if draft picks turn to duds and 100 losses happens, praises be to the city of brotherly love as the only team to ever lose 100 games five consecutive years (1938-1942)
Hope will rage under the surface like a beautiful delusion with all the squinting and what ifs and nothing to lose behavior, generating enough energy to fuel a country or cook a bowl of rice. It’s a start either way and more tasty than stale hair.
There was Carlos Gomez Wednesday night; leading off the game against the Rockies and no big deal there, but somewhere in the middle of his first inning at bat, the fireworks show went off and that’s not supposed to happen at miller park or only when there’s home runs hit by brewers.
Gomez smiled anyway; liking the innuendo and what not; the way Milwaukee says please, but the Rockies pitcher whose name I can’t remember didn’t smile and as for me; well; I was thinking “too bad for you buddy because maybe nature isn’t on your side today or at least not technology and anyway, you’re on the road and young so deal with it,” but he didn’t and Gomez worked a rare walk and I felt like anger as a talisman had been effective, but Jonathan Lucroy hit into a double play so the apparent home field premature fireworks explosion trick didn’t pan out, but it was worth a try.
The Brewers have picked up where they left off last year; as total offensive zombies except for newly acquired Adam Lind; hitting .600 and especially that double and home run Wednesday night, but the Brewers lost after leading because Carlos Gonzalez hit a game tying monster blast off the Brewer’s Johnny Broxton who used to be called Jonathon and then Wil Rosario hit a go ahead 10th inning thinger off Frankie now we have you for 2 years Rodriguez.
The Brewers got swept by the Rockies who have all that offense as usual and lots of gold glovers too and now this year they stacked their staff with sinker ballers and Walt Weiss looks like he knows what the crow he’s doing. I don’t know how good a defender Nolan Arenado is, but he had me thinking about the great ones and I don’t know how many doubles the Rockies hit in this series, but it maybe set a record and somewhere else there’s probably a guy who wears an opal on his ring finger; inherited it from his grandfather I bet, but got hooked on scholars and then hawked and hustled the ring on some street corner to pay for private schooling but fell quickly sick from seeing all those desks facing the podium with such one way obedience.
“Goebbels and bits,” he probably sang. “Goebbels and bits” he kept singing and the other students laughed, but the professor sent him away, to some room down the hall and then he was expelled so he said “screw it and onward” because what choice did he have? Oh he had plenty of choices but he made the one in his gut and wandered all kinds of streets like they did all kinds of roads railroads and rivers all those hundreds of years and he felt satisfied and made playgrounds his place to rest long after the children playing day was done and he dreamed under jungle gyms and in the morning rolled on alone but not really alone. There were others and they all roamed round the big house they shared, that everyone shared; so many rooms like behind the post office and atop city hall; in the trees behind the quick mart and the broccoli patch along the lake and the fire truck passed one day.
“It has a ladder and is red and has wheels and all of this is a miracle,” he screamed “And so is the fire the truck will be trying to put out, but it won’t put out and will never put out.”
So Adam Lind hits a home run and does his home run trot and what not round the bases to give the Brewers I think it was a 4-2 lead and then back home into the Brewers dugout for the first regular season time and all the car wash flaps and high fives and brother to brother to brother and for a few innings we were on our way, but
Parades are great and all. There are tons of em every day. Ants in my backyard and the birds above. Parades and more parades. Old people loitering outside the shopping mall. Teenage girls and their laptops, the downtown business crowd. Many parades. Gay parades. Whiner parades. Parades, parades, parades.
The faceless, lonely mobs….but I’ll stop right there before I get too self righteous and just say, I’m the warden of my own damn prison and Depression is not on the menu today. This might take hard work, but it’s not there. I scanned the itinerary and the only item under D is Dig my own turf. Depression is nowhere to be found.
I’m not celebrating the Nats clinching the National League East last night. So what if it’s the first time the Montreal Expos franchise has ever clinched a real division. Yeh, they did it back in 1981 but that doesn’t count That was the split strike season bologneeee.
And in 1994 they had the best record in baseball blah blah blah before another strike squashed the glory, but bottom line….The Expos never won crap. There’s a few fans who still cry and whine about the good ol’ days or how major league baseball screwed over the city, but no one really cared. They never went to games..And so the Nationals won and huh, what? Yeh, hockey starts next month.
Well, what about the Orioles? They clinched the AL East or what about the Canaheimel Angels? I think they clinched the AL West? There’s too many teams in the playoffs to care, but I bet champagne parties are fun. I never turn down a free drink; can’t be to picky about my company. I ain’t no sob. I hang out at the Chinese Community Center, watch people play ping pong and even play if someone nods my way; hands me a paddle; cures loneliness; for a few hours anyway.
Ah yes, the big parades and hype…every day, the eye shadow in eyes and lipstick on faces, the plates of corn beef hash slung across a diner table. Everywhere parades. Life is beautiful. It’s the system that sucks.
Altuve Altuve Altuve !!!
And outside the hype of another pair of tight jeans and far away from the whiners, complainers, and victims, there is Jose Altuve smashing Craig Biggio’s all time Astros single season hit record. I think it was 211.
I like numbers. I like Jose Altuve. He’s listed at 5 feet, 6 inches, but he’s no poodle and no Hitler or Mussolini and all the other little annoying Napoleons of the world bitching or even worse; offering serious and simple solutions at prices way too high.
Freddie Patek was listed at 5 feet 5 inches. Who cares? This isn’t a contest.
Altuve doesn’t blame the world because he ‘s 3 feet tall. Neither did Patek. Altuve just shuts up and well, he kicks ass. Congrats Jose Altuve and congrats to the Brewers who postponed the red turd celebration; beating the Cards in game 1 of their 3 game series 3-2 in 12 innings at Busch stadium.
Hector Gomez hit a bloop single over the head of fat first baseman Matt Adams driving in Carlos Gomez in the 12th, maybe the first time in Brewers history that a Gomez has ever driven in a Gomez.
Carlos Gomez heard all kinds of “expert” advice as a young baseball player and some of it was probably brilliant and perceptive, but none of it resonated with Gomez so he ignored it all until he met Dale Sveum and thank goodness for that.
disciplesofuecker.com
Gomez was signed by the New York Mets and traded to the Minnesota Twins. The experts rubber stamped him as a head case lacking discipline at the plate. They instructed him to shorten his swing and become a singles hitter; use his speed, stop swinging for the fences.
The Brewers traded one of baseball’s most underrated shortstops-JJ Hardy to get Gomez from the Twins. When Gomez arrived to Milwaukee, Dale Sveum was a Brewers coach and hitting instructor.
Sveum earned a permanent place in Brewer fan hearts with his 25 home runs as a second year shortstop in 1987; none more memorable than his game winning Easter Sunday blast to extend the Brewer,s winning streak to 12 games to start the 87 season.
Sveum’s career as a player lasted 12 years-7 teams. He then became a Brewers coach and replaced manager Ned Yost to close out the 2008 season. The Brewers won the wild card that year; back in the playoffs for the first time in almost 30 years. Sveum went on to manage the Chicago Cubs and is now the hitting instructor for the Kansas City Royals.
Sveum doesn’t instruct. He has nothing to prove. He listens instead and reminds me of Rudy Jaramillo; the former hitting coach of the Rangers and Cubs. Jaramillo was like a Zuni sculptor; looking long and hard at what’s standing in front of him and not judging, but bringing out what’s hidden inside.
Sveum; SI.com
Sveum told Gomez to keep doing what he’s doing. Swing hard on two strikes if that’s what you want to do. Swing so hard that your batting helmet falls off and you lose your balance and drop to your knees. The only advice as far as we know that Sveum offered was to wait back a split second on spiked curves and drive the ball to the opposite field.
Initially, Gomez platooned with Nyjer “T-Plush” Morgan; sharing CF duties. The part-time role for Gomez continued over the next few years with some brilliant moments, but not much consistency and plenty of bone headed base running mistakes and wild swings.
But the Brewers seemed satisfied. The low batting average, strikeouts, and ugly on base percentage didn’t matter. Gomez won games with his glove. And then in 2012, he started hitting and he hasn’t stopped and is now one of the best all around players in the game; hitting homeruns, stealing bases and not getting caught.
He won a gold glove last season and no outfield is too big for the Gomez. His first step and route to hunting down baseballs saves runs-wins games.
Gomez won’t be in the highlight reel from Sunday’s Brewer game against the Colorado Rockies; no leaping over the wall to rob homeruns; no bullet in the gap and him chugging around the bases, but he was in the lineup being Gomez and that in itself is enough for the Brewers.
He raced into shallow center field to make an inning ending catch in the seventh and no one likes to imagine extra outs at Coors Field.
Kyle Lohse was on the mound. Lohse receives the most run support of any Brewers pitcher-6 per game and like clockwork, the Brewers scored two in the second and another in the third.
But Lohse was sloppy; uncharacteristically walking three batters in the first three innings. The Rockies tied the game 3-3. The Brewers took the lead in the fifth on a two out line drive single by Jonathan Lucroy.
But nothing is secure at Coors Field except the plane ride out of Denver. The Brewers put runners on second and third with no one out in the sixth and couldn’t score a run. And in the 7th; a man on second-nobody out and still no runs, but still leading 5-3. The wasted opportunities already felt like ghosts.
The Rockies scored in the 8th to make it 5-4, but then Lyle Overbay hit a monster homer in the ninth to give the Brewers an insurance run; 6-4.
K-Rod on to close. He’s been very human recently after dominating in April and May. First batter Corey Dickerson hits a ball to the wall in right center that misses the strangely placed vertical home run line by inches. Dickerson chugs around the bases. The ball gets away during the relay so he keeps running and trips around third base and is tagged out at home.
Next batter Wilin Rosario hits a home run. 6-5. K-Rod sets the rest of the Rockies down in order. Brewers escape with a 6-5 win; sweeping the Rockies for the first time at Coors in over a decade.
Carlos Gomez talks to his, even smells and kisses it. Ichiro Suzuki carries his in a shockproof, moisture-free black case. I don’t know what Alex Gordon does, but when he swings lumber, it’s a beautiful sight to see; a Tony Gwynn and George Brett kind of grace.
A batter stands 60 feet 6 inches away from a pitcher flinging bullets in excess of 100 mph. The batter has nothing but a piece of wood and whatever science, superstition, and skill is sandwiched in his heart, mind, and swing.
The baseball bat was synonymous with Louisville Slugger for more than 100 years, but those days are gone. The industry has been saturated by competitor companies. Gomez, Ichiro and Gordon all use different brands of bats.
But Louisville will always be remembered as the pioneer. Legend has it that John Bud Hillerich sat and watched the Louisville Eclipse star Pete Browning break his bat in 1884. Browning was in the middle of a slump.
Hillerich invited Browning to his makeshift Louisville lab and the two hand crafted a bat to Browning’s specifications. Browning banged out three hits the next day and the Louisville Slugger-made of Northern White Ash was born. It provided the lumber for Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and dozens of Hall of Fame bats enshrined behind glass cases in Cooperstown, New York.
Competition and innovation no doubt played a role in the Louisville Slugger losing its monopoly, but so did mother nature. The emerald ash borer insect was first detected in Michigan in 2002 and apparently is moving east into the Northern White Ash forests of Pennsylvania and New York.
That’s a few mountains and oceans away from Kasugai, Japan-the birthplace of maybe baseball’s greatest hitter. Ichiro played 11 seasons in the Japanese Professional League before signing with the Seattle Mariners. He always uses a MZP51 Pro Maple Black Mizuno bat manufactured in Japan. Ichiro swears by the superior quality and he’s not alone.
Casey McGehee played the 2013 season in Japan and insists Japanese bats are of better quality. McGehee hit 28 home runs and resurrected his career in Japan. He was signed by the Miami Marlins for the 2014 season and brought back Mizuno bats.
Gomez Kiss, jsonline.com
MaxBat is the lumber of Carlos Gomez. The company is headquartered in Brooten, Minnesota and uses a composite of rock maple, yellow birch and northern white ash. Gomez has a charming habit of kissing and talking to his bats.
Alex Gordon uses a traditional Louisville slugger.
I think the Brewer’s Jonathan Lucroy speaks on behalf of most major league hitters when he explains the reasoning for bat selection as “all about the feel.” Lucroy uses a B45 bat.
The B45 company is located in St. Catherines, Quebec; home of the Northern Quebec yellow birch. The bouleau jaune is the officialprovincial tree of Quebec and grows north of the 45th parallel. Hence the name B45.
The soft-spoken Lucroy has earned the nickname Nerd among Brewers players. The Brewer’s stand out catcher lets his bat do the talking. On Tuesday night, his B45 Quebec yellow birch spoke for the entire Brewer’s team. The Brewers were in Arizona to play game 2 of their series against the Diamondbacks.
It was only a matter of time before Arizona manger Kirk Gibson expressed his distaste for Ryan Braun on the actual diamond. The Arizona manager publicly questioned the validity of Braun and the Brewers defeating his Diamondbacks in the 2011 Divisional Playoffs and understandably so. Braun hit .500 in that series and his name is now synonymous with PED’s.
The opportunity presented itself Tuesday night and Gibson couldn’t resist. Brewers starter Kyle Lohse was uncharacteristically wild; plunking the first batter of the game-Didi Gregorius and to start the 6th inning, he beaned Chris Owings just below the neck.
lucroy; heraldtribune.com
In the top of the seventh and the Diamondbacks leading 4-3, Braun stepped to the plate to face Evan Marshall. There were runners on second and third with one out. Marshall threw behind Braun and on the next pitch nailed him in the back.
Marshall was ejected and walked off the field to a standing ovation including high fives from manager Kirk Gibson. The Brewers and Braun remained calm.
The bases were loaded. A perfect double play situation for the D-back with one small problem. Jonathan Lucroy and his B45 bouleau jaune yellow birch bat stepped to the plate.
Brad Zeigler was summoned from the bullpen and Lucroy greeted the side winder with his second home run of the game; a grand slam. Final Score; Brewer 7, Arizona 5. Maybe Kirk Gibson wished he would have exercised a little more self-control or at least some better timing.
How great to stare at Sports Illustrated’s May 19th, 2014 cover and see Carlos Gomez hoofing around the bases. It now has a place under some binders beside the four or five other Brewer SI covers.
My favorite is Rob Deer with a Che Guevara salute after hitting a game tying three run homer into the teeth of an Easter Sunday wind. The Brewers won the game a few minutes later on Dale Sveum’s 2-run blast. It was their 12th consecutive win to start the 1987 season.
I’m not worried about the SI jinx this year because Gomez is not as the article says ” the Brewer’s table setter,” not anymore anyway. He was shifted to the clean up position right around the time SI launched its story. Gomez is 13 for 27 with a home run and eight RBI’s since making the switch. Gotta stay one step ahead of the curse I guess.
If the cover hypes up Gomez and gets him into the all-star game as a starter, I’m all for it. He’s currently fourth in the voting for outfielders. But the Gomez impact on Milwaukee is bigger than any gold glove, silver slugger award or all-star appearance.
The 28-year old is a godsend for a franchise and city that endured 2 years of Ryan Braun fiasco. The Braun image is bio genesis and muddy and probably always will be. I don’t like to admit it, but I compensate for the gash by cheering Gomez even louder.
It’s with great relief that Gomez runs out of his shoes and hits for power and takes away home runs with some of the greatest defense in the world. And oh yeh, he’s also learning how to play the marketing game; hugging a teenage girl fan, bringing her to tears and then inviting her onto the field to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. And he runs and runs and runs; even after hitting a home run.
It’s Babe Ruthian in its charm at a time when most Dominican Republic born players get judged as being overly effusive and dramatic.
Gomez is king now, but the hype is nothing new. He’s been praised since he was 16 years old and made a brief appearance in the 2008 documentary –Rumbo a las Grandes Ligas; available on you tube. See below.
The Mets signed Gomez as a 17-year old top prospect out of the Dominican Republic and then used him as a trade chip in 2008 to acquire maybe baseball’s best pitcher-Johan Santana. The Mets gave up on Gomez. And the Twins didn’t put up with him very long; trading him to Milwaukee the following year.
Only the Brewers organization seemed interested, but still, he didn’t come cheap. The Brewers traded one of baseball’s best all around shortstops in JJ Hardy to get Gomez from the Twins.
The Brewers believed in his ability and now his story is mainstream. Gomez is loved again. He is the OPS poster boy and Don Juan to teenage girls. He’s excitable and out spoken and provokes the opposition. He loves baseball.
disciplesofuecker.com
The Brewers never tried to change him. If his helmet popped off during one of Gomez’s swing like there’s no tomorrow, then so be it. If he fell over from the force of his swing,.oh well. If he tried to stretch a double into a triple and was thrown out with the team trailing 2-1 in the 8th inning, “That’s part of the deal with Go Go Gomez,” said Brewers manager Ron Roenicke.
Gomez was in the clean up position again Friday night when the Brewers hosted/demolished the Cubs, smashing line drives all over the field in the first inning. Braun launched an opposite field 2-run homer-his first at Miller Park since May of last year. The Brewers led 6-0 in the second inning.
Kudos to Braun for accepting manager Ron Roenicke’s brilliant shuffle of the batting order. There was a dull moment a few weeks ago. The Brewers had lost four in a row, but were still in first place when Roenicke made the change. How many big time number 3 hitters accept a switch to the 2 spot? Well, Braun is 13 for 27 with a home run and seven RBI’s and Segura as the lead off man is 14 for 38. And Gomez says batting fourth feels”sexy.” The new Brewers have won five of seven games.
Final score last night; Brewers 11, Cubs 5. The Brewers are 33-22.
The Road to the Big Leagues features a short clip of Gomez as a teenager; beginning at 20:37.
Kids sneaking transistor radios under blankets to hear Red Barber or Ernie Harwell while simultaneously keeping a lookout for mom or dad began with the first pitch and ended with the 27th out. That was the deal.
And if it worked, those same kids, probably felt a bit more invincible and smuggled smaller radios into school; hid them under clothes and snaked a wire up their sleeve and into their ear. They smiled or squinted; pretending to be interested in the dimensions of a scalene triangle or details of the Constitutional Congress. The teacher had no idea they were hallucinating a baseball game thanks to a broadcasters audio sketch.
These types of trespass are not that ancient. I remember committing similar crimes in the 1980’s and it bordered on treason. I was in a Milwaukee classroom listening to the enemy from Chicago-The White Sox; Lorne Brown and Early Wynn on 670 WMAQ.
It was ok to listen to the Brewers and Bob Uecker on 620 WTMJ, but the White Sox? If the teachers found out, I might be banned from hot dog lunches, but I did it anyway because I liked Harold Baines and well, the danger and risk was half the fun.
Kids would do the same today with smart phones if games were played during sunlight, but most baseball is now played at night, so the smoke and mirrors is probably carried out at home. And it must be harder to not get caught with a screen rather than a sound. But the kangaroo court hearings probably sound similar to the 1950’s and 60’s.
Mom or Dad wave their hands and blow it all off. “why don’t you wait till morning and watch the highlights? That’s all that really matters anyway.” The highlight reel having replaced the box score.
The kid shakes his head and says, “No way. Do you watch just the highlights of a movie or read just the last pages of a book? I didn’t think so.” And some kids maybe wax on about every pitch potentially being filled with a jack in the beanstalk, about there being suspense even in the top of the first, about two outs and nobody on suddenly becoming something.
Other kids remind mom and dad that Aramis Ramirez was hitting .700 with runners in scoring position, but since then is mired in a 2 for 40 slump. “And He’s do. He’s over do and I don’t want to miss his break out,” the kid says and continues. “I don’t want to miss any game because every team can win on any given day and every team features players-maybe legends walking among us.”
Mom and Dad sigh and wish they never had kids in the first place.
The Brewers opened a three game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday night and Paul Goldschmidt is one of those players among us. The circus is always in town; always in the kid’s mind. It just changes uniforms every fourth or fifth day. I understand that kid.
goldschmidt in the hills; usatoday.com
Goldschmidt is one of those players that makes me cringe. Maybe it’s his size; 6’3″, 245 pounds or maybe the way he holds the bat behind his head at a vertical angle to the ground like he’s ready to chop wood or maybe it’s the bat resembling a toothpick in his hands. Or probably it’s all of the above plus the 36 home runs he hit last year to go along with a .300 average. He’s the complete deal.
Goldschmidt lined two solid singles Monday evening, one of them as improbable as any I’ve seen. It was an inside pitch and he did more than turn it inside out. He lined a rope to the opposite field corner, but this night was Brewer bats explosion night; most runs scored since mid April and second most of the season. They weren’t cheap either.
Three no doubter home runs including Martin Maldonado’s first of the year; a moon shot to the second deck in right field. Even Ramirez hit a single in the third inning and lined out hard to center field in the fifth. It felt like a sign of better things to come, but the camera caught Ramirez sitting at the end of the dugout talking to himself. Baseball can be a very cruel game.
Carlos Gomez hit a home run on the first pitch of the game and drove in two more runs with a single. Nothing new there, but he also walked three times. I don’t remember that ever happening to Gomez. Final score Brewers 8, Diamondbacks 3. The Brewers are 22-11.
Gerrit Cole versus Marco Estrada may not echo in the halls of baseball history as one of the greatest pitching match ups of all time, but I’ll take it in terms of contrasting styles.
In one corner wearing retro Pirate white and gold is Cole and in the other corner, wearing Brewer dark blue is Estrada. On Sunday afternoon, they both represented their opposite poles real well.
Cole is 23 years young; the first pick in the 2011 draft and better than all the hype if there is such a thing coming out of media mini Pittsburgh. He throws 95 mph gas and very rarely misses the target; low and outside, high and inside, all corners, a knee buckling slider as well. Impressive! Born in Newport Beach California, went to UCLA, grows his hair shaggy now; a surfer look; a Spicolli on the hill.
zimbio.com
Estrada is 30 years old; 174th pick in the 2005 draft, does nothing sexy, just throws strikes with an 89 mph fastball inside and outside, up and down setting up his 79 mph change of pace with batters out in front-popping up and striking out. He attended Glendale Community College and California State University, has short hair and was born in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico
Neither pitcher disappointed Sunday. Estrada gave up a run on 6 hits in 6 innings. He uncharacteristically fell behind a few Pirate hitters, but managed to keep the Brewers close. Cole was a little better and lasted a little longer; 8 innings, one run allowed and in a position to win the game when history just about repeated itself.
In the top of the ninth and the Brewers trailing 2-1, Ryan Braun stepped to the plate and faced the same Jason Grilli who served up a ninth inning, go ahead 2 run homer to Braun Saturday night on a 95 mph fastball. Braun smashed that one to dead center.
Grilli must have learned his lesson. He threw Braun a slider on Sunday; maybe 84 mph and Braun knew it was coming. He waited back a split second longer and lined it over the left field wall to tie the game 2-2. And that’s how it stayed until the 14th inning; one goose egg after another until Khris Davis picked a fine time to launch his first home run of the season; a no doubter into the left field bleachers. Brewers take a 3-2 lead and K-Rod comes on to record his 7th save. Brewers win 3 out of 4 in Pittsburgh.
easter melee, yahoo
And oh yeh, the ejections. In the third inning, the Tasmanian devil-Carlos Gomez stomped to the plate and launched what he perceived to be a home run off gold chipper UCLA stud Gerrit Cole. Gomez stopped and stared at what he had created, jogged casually out of the batters box for a good 3-4 seconds and when he discovered the ball would not be leaving the yard, he kicked it into high gear all the way to third base for a head first, belly flop triple.
My first reaction was dammit Gomez. You never stop and admire your batted balls. You run like your pants are on fire unless it’s off Paul Maholm of the Braves.
Cole took offense to Gomez and greeted him at third base with “colorful words.” Carlos jawed back. The benches cleared and two Pirate players, not even in the game-Travis Snider and Russel Martin stormed to the front line and provoked the already high-strung Gomez some more. A few punches were thrown, but nothing major.
Gomez and Snider got ejected. So did Brewers bench coach Jerry Narron. Cole weaseled out of it and returned to the mound. I suffered flashbacks to Chris Carpenter bating players on and then judging their reaction as “not professional.” I think Carpenter earned his law degree from the Tony La Russa school of double standards. Anyway, I doubt this is over. The Pirates visit Milwaukee May 13th followed by a long NL Central summer.
But really, who doesn’t stop and stare at a home run? I do it in whiffle ball. It’s called a trot for Christ’s sake; a home run trot. I just wish Gomez would have sprinted from the starting gun like he usually does. He might have legged out an inside the park home run. The Brewers could have maybe won the game in 9 innings instead of 14 and rested their bullpen.
Why would pitchers and batters get along anyway? One guy stands on a mound and heaves a ball traveling in excess of 100 mph towards a guy waving a wood bat. Sounds like trouble to me. Just ask Bob Gibson or Hank Aaron.
If you want to make sense of it for yourself, here’s the link.
Memories tucked away in frozen and forgotten corners revive now; raiding human circuit boards in this season of calibration. The symbolic rites ease the transition; the holy water, resurrection, Red Sea pass over to the other side. Opening Day. Druids, Pagans, the tax man.
The gush settles and the processions and hoopla of baseball’s first week fizzles and fades. Patterns develop and we catch a glimpse of a team’s personality; of how they will face challenges. Depth is the battle cry on a 25 man roster. The summer will be long.
It’s stimulating to trace the origins of words, but no matter how far back we go, the word is still a collection of agreed upon symbols and sounds that have nothing to do with the reality it tries to represent. It’s just a hunch and maybe nothing more than mainstream schizophrenia disguised as human language.
But the etymology game allows us to maybe identify what our ancestors intended.; long before the coffee was watered down and the message in the whisper circle got misconstrued. Cherokee is more than an all terrain vehicle; Samsara more than perfume.
Take the word team. In Old English, it relates to animals yoked together or in French; equipe is rooted in eschipe, from the Anglo-Saxon scipian; to give order, navigate, arrangement to things, to man a ship, to take the sea. Then there’s the Old Norse skipa; arrange, clean or organize the space, convert.
Melvin sneaking around; sporting news.com
We have no sketches on cave man walls. There’s no correlation with a word and what we see; no pictograph illumination. But there’s a hint of the ship in eschipe and equipe. There’s a hint of surviving the volatile 162 game ocean as a team; as an island floating through water where disease spreads fast and so does momentum.
Does Milwaukee Brewer’s General Manager Doug Melvin think in terms of team-boat-navigation-momentum? Why else would he splurge on free agent pitchers Kyle Lohse in 2013 and Matt Garza in 2014?
Melvin did exactly what Garza did last night on the mound; feel his way through breezes and adjust. Garza’s fastball was drifting up and out of the strike zone so he flirted with a curve ball; a pitch he didn’t unveil until the 5th inning just one week ago against Atlanta. Garza survived last night; lasted through the 6th inning; kept his team in the game; 4-4. He didn’t have his A game, so he changed directions.
Melvin had an ace in Yovani Gallardo or a potential one, but he threw far too many pitches. Yeh, he struck out 200 plus batters per season, but walks and high pitch counts threatened his endurance and maybe more importantly, caused the defense to snore. The Brewers committed 114 errors last season; third most in baseball.
Melvin surrounded Gallardo with control pitchers. It started with Marco Estrada a cast-off claimed by Melvin from the waiver wire. He is a strike throwing machine with a deadly change-up.
Add Kyle Lohse; also a strike thrower with a deadly change-up who works fast and keeps the defense on their toes. Add Matt Garza who throws harder than Lohse , but with almost as much control. The Brewers now have four pitchers expected to win every time they take the mound. In Gallardo’s first start, he allowed no walks. Hard to remember the last time that happened. .
Melvin has also established a surrogate family for Brewer pitching prospects’ Wily Peralta and Tyer Thornburg. They’ve mastered the Lohse change-up to go with their 95 mph fastballs.
Brewer pitchers dwell on the same boat. It’s no different from any other team, but it takes a GM to create the right mix of pitchers who share secrets to their success; grips, composure, how shoes are tied, etc…. rather than hiding under egos and individual caps. Friction and fighting is maybe effective as well, but secrets revealed?….the odds seem better.
And the offense? Melvin landed shortstop Jean Segura and center fielder Carlos Gomez in under the radar trades. Both have emerged as elite players at their positions. Braun was drafted by Melvin. So was Khris Davis. So was Jonathan Lucroy; maybe the most underrated catcher in all of baseball. Aramis Ramiriez at third. Great signing. Second baseman Scooter Gennet; also drafted by Melvin, refuses to stop hitting .300.
First base. Melvin signed Mark Reynolds and Lyle Overbay at dollar store prices. The over the hill platoon is not a black and white, righty on lefty system. If Reynolds is hot, he plays because that’s how Mark Reynolds has always been…..streaky.
Reynolds walked in the top of the 7th inning last night and then he stole second. The Brewers run; led all of baseball in stolen bases in 2012 and were third last season. Segura and Gomez each stole 40 plus, but Reynolds running? Yes, when no one expected it, setting in motion a distraction. Braun delivered a 2 run double. Reynolds added a home run in the ninth. Final score Brewers 9, Phillies 4.
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