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Tuesday, March 14, 2006 |
Five Parks, Six Days, Day 1: Cubs 11, Brewers 5
March for the 2000's-era Cubs signals not only spring training, but that Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are on the DL, or recovering, or are about to start pitching. It is a rotation that should have conquered the universe, but instead has spent inordinate amounts of time in rehab. The blame for this goes, it is often said, to Dusty Baker and his love of overworking his pitchers, a habit learned at Tommy Lasorda's knee.
Sunday's game was played at the Marysvale complex, a relatively new park in the Cactus League. Navy blue and white, it's a very sleek and modern stadium with the typical amenities as far as the food options go, maybe a little better than most. Though I've never been to a Milwaukee game before, I did get the sense that a lot of fans were starting to come out for their team. It surprised me to learn that the 2005 team had the most wins of any squad since 1992, when they won 92 games and placed second in the American League East. At one point inside the stadium you could see players head down the tunnel to the dugout, and some of the fans did just that. Overheard, between two girls:
"Do you need to change underwear?"Despite the rain the day before, the air had dried out nicely and we had lots of puffy, chamber of commerce cumulus clouds set in the brilliant blue skies that so often make baseball a nightmare for fielders here. The game itself consisted of a hitting, hitting, and more hitting, as is traditional in the thin, dry air here; sadly, we lost our scorecard yesterday at the Angels/Mariners game, or else I would give a fuller account. Tomo Ohka, the Brewers' starter, pitched poorly, surrendering seven earned runs, but expectations run low of a junkballer working here. Maddux, as ever, mystified the hitters, and left no doubt that he's still got a decent, not great, year left. In addition, we got to see the likes of Ben Hendrickson and Bob Howry, fringy guys who might make the team and are part of what makes spring training exciting: you never know who's going to succeed, and who's going back to AAA.
"Yeah." <giggles>
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