So, I may have missed the opening day countdown, but the Brewers are off to an 11-7 start without really playing offense, so I think that’s good enough reason to bring back this post! Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the 5th annual “Rank your Milwaukee Brewers” poll. Here’s the history to see what we’re stacking up against:

2004: Brett Favre Wins (don’t ask)
2005: Derrick Turnbow
2006: JJ Hardy
2007: JJ Hardy

Hardy has it two years in a row… will he make this year the trifecta? Will Turnbow make a comeback? Will we get someone new? Vote early, vote often!

GABE KAPLER, CF	JJ HARDY, SS	COREY HART, RF	BILL HALL, 3B	RYAN BRAUN, LF	DERRICK TURNBOW, P

Sorry for the delay everyone. I know you’ve been dying to know who this year’s most uncoordinated player is. Congratulations to all of the winners.

**Blooper of the Year: Jenny wiping out on the basepaths vs. Aurora

Here are the final statistical leaders as well:
Most At Bats: Mike with 42
Most Hits: Mike with 31
Most Singles: Tim with 15
Most Doubles: Dan with 9
Most Triples: Mike with 5
Most Homeruns: Hawes with 7
Most Walks: Jenny with 13
Most Runs Scored: Mike with 21
Most RBIs: Mike with 31
Best Average: Mike with .738
Best On Base Percentage: Mike with .744
Best Slugging Percentage: Not surprisingly, Mike with 1.548

So, Mike. Really. You don’t need to move to Cincinnati. You sort of do a few things for our team.

So, I’ve been trying to put together the awards for the 2007 summer softball team and I couldn’t find the winners from 2006. Turns out I never posted the winners… so, while everyone waits with bated breath (I’m sure) for the final stats for Jonny Hammer’s and the end of the year awards, here’s a recap of who won awards in 2006.

Tim sent me a link to a message board on jsonline.com which is pretty funny. A guy who named himself “Fruitin up the town” put together a list of Ben Sheets’ injuries since 2001. Yes, it’s a funny list, but honestly. Ben Sheets never has a baseball sounding injury. He gets crap like a paper cut on his toe. How does that affect him playing baseball? Sorry for the crudeness, but that’s part of what makes it funny.

Ben Sheets has missed games due to the following “injuries”:

2001:
Dysentery
Clamidia
Athlete’s Foot

2002:
Bad Haircut (caused him to throw off-balance)
Halitosis
Loose, watery, and frequent stool

2003:
Jock itch
Paper cut to back of non-throwing hand
Fecal Incontinence

2004:
Chapped lips
Itchy anus (30 day DL)
Boner lasting longer than 4 hours

2005:
Hiccups
Bruised nuts after falling off exercise bike
Bit by chicken

2006:
Bad haircut (15 day DL)
Tummy ache

2007:
Blister on finger
Bee sting (15 day DL)
Diarrhea

I know I missed a few weeks in here, but really, it’s only be a few games. Let me catch you up.

Today is August 13th. The regular season is over and we are on top of the standings with a solid 11-1 record. We have two make up games left, against two of our toughest competitors in the league: Auroras (9-3) and Guerillas (6-5-1). The good news though, is that even if we lose our last two games, the worst we’ll finish is in a tie for 1st place. I’ve been playing with this team for over 6 years now, and we’ve never done that. I’m a big fan.

That doesn’t mean though that you kids are exempt from coming to watch one of our last two games. We play this Wednesday, 8/15 at 7:15pm and next Wednesday, 8/22 at 6:15pm. Both early games. No excuses. I’m talking to you, Bonnie.

The most updated stats that I have are below. Tim forgot the score book from our last game, so this is only up until the game before that. Coach Z’s comments are below.

Well this is beginning to sound redundant, but congratulations on yet another win this season. We were able to get our bats going after a slow start and beat Puddler’s 9-4. Special congrats this week to Theresa for hitting the first homerun by a female this year, Tara for coming up with a clutch double and triple, and Hawes for hitting 2 more homers (1 complete with a grunt). We are now 10-1 on the season, and have 3 games left.

Giddy up kids. See you Wednesday at 7:15pm!

It was the game of the year thusfar: Jonny Hammers vs. Auroras, both with matching 7-1 records and tied for 1st place in the league. It had all the makings of a classic contest and the final score of 12-11 with shows that we didn’t disappoint in giving it our best. Luckily, Hammer’s came out on top, with Hawes driving in the winning run (me) with 2 outs in the last inning. A win is a win, especially against a team we’re tied with for first, so I won’t complain.

Extra thanks to Jenny, Erica and John for coming out for the 9:15pm game and being our best fans. This week, we play at 6:15pm, so no one has an excuse for not coming because of the time of the game.

As for me, I went 1-3, but my sole hit was a solid TRIPPle over the left center fielder’s head, so I felt good about getting some power back, finally.

On to Coach Z’s comment…

Congrats to everybody on a hard fought and well deserved win! Yes we caught a couple of breaks there in the last inning, but we also had a couple of tough breaks earlier in the game, so it all evened out. We got contributions up and down the lineup and we played great defense both in the infield and the outfield (Dan’s “web gem” especially). So, we are now in the driver’s seat in the league! So lets beat the teams we should beat from here on out!

Season Stats are below. I was going to bold the leader in each category, but basically, it all goes to Mike except for Doubles and runs scored (which both go to Dan) and walks, which go to Jenny. Therefore, Game ball goes to Mike… he took his first walk of the season and perhaps in a few years… poor guy didn’t even remember that guys get a double on a walk. Oh, and he singlehandedly drove in the tying run for the game.

I sat down in front the the TV last night as not only a Milwaukee Brewers fan, but a baseball fan as well. It was the All-Star game and there is some enjoyment in watching the best of the best get together and play in a game that means something (homefield advantage in the World Series), especially when the Brewers sent an NL best 4 players to the game. While the NL lost AGAIN (10 straight years, if you count the infamous “tie” year), there were a lot of other things that bothered me about the game this year.

I’ll start off by looking at the Brewers’ performances, which overall were disappointing to me.

And some other notes…

There were some good parts to the game too… it was cool to see Ichiro’s in-the-park homerun, it was cool to see the game was actually CLOSE at the end, and it was cool to see that people like Vlad and Junior actually have pretty good arms. But, overall, I obviously had a lot to complain about.

What did you think about the game?

The team is doing great. We’re off to our best start ever and the team is really working well together.

Me, on the other hand… I’m not doing so well. I came into last night’s game with the mindset that I need to work on getting my batting average over .500. I mean, this is slow-pitch softball and I am an ok hitter… why am I batting .471? Well, I didn’t do much to help my cause last night. 0-3. And it’s not that I’m striking out a lot. I’m hitting the ball really well, I’m just hitting it DIRECTLY to where their fielders are. Either they’re scouting me (doubt that), or I have incredibly bad luck. I think I’m turning into Bill Hall–didn’t this happen to him?

I’m a team player though, so, uh, yea us! Thanks for everyone that came out to watch us last night. Meaning Tulsa. The rest of you that are reading this and didn’t go to the game, you suck.

On to Coach Z’s comments and the season stats. On July 11th, we’re playing the team we’re tied with for first place, so it really would be nice to have some fans. I promise a good game.

We continued our winning ways tonight by soundly beating Packy’s, 11-4. From the opening inning we grabbed the lead and never let it go. The defense was solid for the most part and we got hits when it mattered. We are now 7-1 and, worst case, tied with Aurora for first place. Remember we have no game next week and then the week after (July 11) we play none other than Aurora at 9:15 again.

Season Stats, leader in each category is bolded. Since I didn’t post the stats last week, the game ball goes to TRIPP for taking 3 walks over the past 2 games. Something is definately off.

I always say, if you’re going to lose, lose by a lot. For me, the hurt of the loss always is less if it wasn’t a close game. Last week, that wasn’t the case. We suffered our first loss of the season. In the last inning. And it sucked. We sucked. Hopefully we can pick ourselves up this week. We’ve got a 8:15pm game at Sijan Field. I’ll buy a beer for anyone that shows up. Which is easy to say, because I know none of you will. Jerks. I’m not bitter.

On to Coach Z’s comments and the season stats. Good thing I don’t post individual game stats, because there wasn’t much to share this week.

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later…our undefeated season came to an end last night as Jersey’s edged us 8-7. It seemed to be one of those nights that every time we hit one hard, they were positioned perfectly to make the catch. A few breaks also went their way (like TRIPP’s almost HR), and that’s just the way it went! Next week we can rebound by beating our arch nemesis Guerrillas.

Season Stats…

Johnny Hammer’s starting pitcher went the distance last night (so the bullpen didn’t blow the game like their beloved Brewers did earlier in the day), leading the team to a 13-4 victory over perennial competitor, Puddler’s Hall. Now, to Coach Z…

Well, our fast start continued tonight (even without our star player Mr. Hammer) as we beat Puddler’s Hall 13-4. Puddler’s was 2-1 coming into tonight so that was a quality win for us. Diggs, Tulsa, or whatever you want to call him filled in admirably as DH by going 2 for 3. Hawes pitched another outstanding game and Mike came through big with 4 RBI. Also congrats to Des on getting her first of many hits on the year.

Our game next week is at 8:15pm and our fanbase sucks, so get off our tooshies and come watch us. Coach Z has offered to buy a beer for anyone who shows up to cheer us on next week. Sign up below!

Season Stats…

With Coach Z finally breaking out of his hitting slump with a 3-3 performance last night, Jonny Hammer’s softball team won a stale 7-3 game last night. Statistics show that our team doesn’t hit well at 9:15pm games, and last night was no different; we had a mere 7 hits, most in the first inning, but did the best to score our runners and play some clutch defense to secure the win.

Next week’s game is at 7:15pm. Come join our new #1 Fan, Tulva the Vulva, and cheer us on to victory!

Season Stats…

From the desk of our favorite wing-thief, Tim…

It was a hard fought battle, and in the end Tara’s clutch hitting put us over the top and on to a 2-0 start to the season as we beat perennial contender Packy’s, 9-8. As soon as we get Hawes back and I remember how to make contact with the ball, we should be even better!

Coach “Jose Hernandez” Z

I think I’ll just post the running totals for the season and highlight individual game statistics below the season statistics.

It looks like the early contenders for the batting title are Dan, Jon and Mike… gotta love having your top 3 guys in the batting order hitting that well. Tripp is holding his own, batting .667 in his first game back off of the DL. Looking forward to next week–Des, Heather, Jenny and Tim, it’s time for your first hits!

I realize that the Brewers have been bad for a really long time. And I was cautiously realistic back on 4/20 when I was excited about the Brewers being in first place with a 9-6 record. And I realize we’re in a mediocre division. But here were are, on May 10th, and the Brewers haven’t lost a step.

Brewers: 23-10
Cubs: 15-15
Astros: 15-17
Pirates: 14-17
Reds: 14-19
Cardinals: 13-18

The Brewers have a lot of things going for them that set them apart too:

So my question to you is this: why are the Brewers STILL not getting much national media attention? I look at the MLB headlines on espn.com today and they talk about Bonds, and A-Rod, and the last place Cards topping the Rockies, and the Rangers activating Gagne. Then I go over to the MLB headlines on cnnsi.com, and they talk about the Cubs losing and the Tigers and the Yankees.

Aren’t people getting sick of hearing the same things over and over again? Honestly, who cares about the Cubs losing? Or how the Yankees are going to start winning and what Steinbrenner is going to do about it? Maybe I’ve got too much invested in my hometown team, but I would think hearing about a team that you haven’t heard squat about in the past 25 years might be a refreshing story.

From Coach Z…

Well we were a little intimidated at first, with our opponents not just having matching shirts (which we currently lack), but also matching pants, hats, and even socks. However, their skill did not match their appearance and we were able to defeat them easily, 23-6. Special thanks to Dan for filling in at pitcher at the last minute. Get well soon TRIPP! And congratulations to Jon on a “career” night.

Good start to the season everyone!

I think it’s a good start. All but one of our players has scored a run, which means everyone is getting on base, regardless of the method. The girls are holding their own with a .429 batting average, and Theresa hasn’t gotten warned yet for throwing her glove.

Hope to see everyone out at the game tonight–6:15pm!

Well, it’s that time of the year again–time for softball! We’ve got a new sponsor and an improved team over last year, so there’s hope!

As always, we enjoy fans at our games and it gives you an excuse to come make fun of the people that strike out. Schedule is below. All games are at Sijan Field in Bayview on Wednesdays. Hope to see you at the game!