3 Of My 4 Favs +1 Fall

Last night was not a good night for me and baseball. My four favorite teams are the Indians, Angels, Giants, and Cubs. How I ended up with two in the American league and two in the National league I don’t know. Happy accident! Last night though I called them all wrong and only one of them won.

My Indians I thought would for sure beat the Phillies but lost 6-2.

The Giants I thought could take the Blue Jays but with a too little too late rally by the Giants and going up against Dickey who was pitching a great game they fell 10-6.

The Cubs I had to win over the Rockies haven beaten them 9-1 the night before but flipped it and ended up losing 9-4.

The team that won that I didn’t think would was the Angels, beating the Royals 6-2. I guess homers from Pujols, Kendrick, Hamilton, and Trout will do that for you. This works for me too Because it keeps the Royals from getting closer to catching up to my Indians in their division.

Lastly my +1 I put in here for Ryan because I really think his Brewers, who played a great game, should have had this one but lost to a walk off homer by McCutchen in the 12th against them Pirates.

Some nights just go this way I guess!

Ballparks With Exspensive Beer

Nothing makes you look cooler and feel cooler than drinking a smooth beer at a ball game. Let’s face it if you’re not drinking at a sporting event then you’re missing out. Nothing beats the 80 degree baseball weather like a beer in one hand a hotdog in the other. Thanks to MSN now we know which ballparks charge you the most for your beer. In my opinion you’re better off drinking during the tailgate beforehand anyway.

What happens when you win the World Series twice in three years? That’s right not only does your ticket go up but so does your beer!  The price of a 16-ounce beer at AT&T Park went up a startling 50 cents! It’s tough to argue as long as Pablo Sandoval and company are bringing home the hardware. Beer at AT&T Park currently stands at $6.75

Sorry, there’s no hometown discount for Budweiser at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. It must sting Cardinals fans in a stadium named for the Busch family to spend more on 12 ounces of beer than their fellow beer-ballpark fans pay for a pint at Milwaukee’s Miller Park ($6) or Colorado’s Coors Field ($6). That’s for a pint! Cardinals fans will be dishing out $6.75 for just a small beer.

Who remembers the Braves wild card matchup against the Cardinals last year?  Wasn’t that nice, but was the post-season loss really grounds for bumping up the price of a 16-ounce beer by 25 cents? At $17.32, the Braves still have the lowest average ticket price of any of last year’s playoff teams but I really don’t want to pay $7.25 for a 16oz beer.

When will the Cubs realize how this works? Here’s some advice guy: Wait until some of second-year general manager Theo Epstein’s moves pay off, let the team win more than 61 games, then raise the price of beer by a quarter or so. Hopefully the new renovations won’t impact your beer price Cubs fans, if it does you can always watch your Cubs at Miller Park for the cheap good stuff. So stop paying that $7.25 and come on down! Or is it technically up?

Sorry Red Sox fans there’s no change in price for what has been the most expensive 12 ounces of Major League beer three years running.  If the on-field product is already angering fans, don’t punish them further with high beer prices. If the price doesn’t drop feel free to put on your best New York accent and tell them it’s garbage…human garbage. I ain’t paying no $7.25 for 12oz, this is garbage.

This stadium is themed with a wonderful shade of blue and you’ll also be feeling blue when you find that beer here costs $7.34. But hey, if you just bought the better parts of the Miami Marlins’ roster and some pitching help from the Mets — though R.A. Dickey hasn’t been much help so far — you’d jack up prices 15 cents too. Jeez what an odd number for the price of a beer…Canada.

The Twins have finished dead last in the American League Central Division for the past two years after being a perennial playoff contender. So why raise the price 50 cents to $7.50? Oh what’s that our smallest size is 20oz, oh I guess that’s alright then.

The price of beer holds steady in Citizens Bank Park, but the “small” is still 21 ounces. At 37 cents an ounce, that’s a better deal by volume than fans are getting anywhere else!  Still if I’m watching the Phillies play as good as they are…I’m not sure how many $7.75 beers I have to drink to start enjoying myself.

They fired manager Ozzie Guillen, sold off most of last year’s high priced roster and are still making fans pay $8 for 16 ounces of beer? Granted, the Marlins dropped ticket prices 4% this year. No offense but for a team this bad I’ll be needing my beer to keep the game interesting but I don’t want to drop $8 for 16oz. Instead I’ll by myself a 24 pack invite my friends over and watch this game on TV.

The winner of the Most Expensive Beer title for ballparks in the MLB goes to…..! The Washington Nationals! After the Nationals’ first-ever playoff appearance last year, losing to the Cardinals in a five-game division series — the Nationals raised ticket prices 15.4% and increased the price of a 16-ounce beer by a whopping $1.75. I’m not looking forward to paying $8.25 for a 16oz beer….pass!

Bittersweet at the ballpark

Today I went to my first game of the season! There’s just something about being at the ballpark win or lose, like today the indians lost 6 to 3 and got swept by the redsox, but I still loved being there. The thing that got me though is there wernt a lot of people there to start with which is sad but for the small amount that were there was still as much cheering for the Redsox as there was for the Indians. My cousin Dave and I just sat there like here we go again. This always seems to happen when the Redsox or the Yankees come to town. I almost titled this Progressive or Fenway. I mean I understand if you have a favorite team and they come to town and you get excited but what I can’t and will never understand is when people go to their home ballpark and see their hometeam and can cheer against them. The same team that the next home game they’ll be wearing their hats and jerseys, instead of the visitors, and cheering for them. It just kind of makes you sit there and go if this game was being played in Boston would this be happening? My answer is no but it does make me courious. I know when me and Dave went to Wrigley last year for the Cubs Giants game there were just as many people cheering for the Giants as the Cubs so I know its not just cleveland. I would like to know if this happens anywhere else and if it makes you as mad as it does me? I do know one thing, I am an Angels fan too and when they come to Cleveland in August ill be there with a dog and a beer wearing my tribe hat cheering for the Indians!

Brewers Second Win Plagued With Injury

The Brewers won the second game and still sit at the bottom of the MLB with a 2-5 record. Since the season started, like every other baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers ahve been hit with injury after injury. Why couldn’t Axford have been injured so I didn’t have to watch him try to close a game.

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke was taken to a local hospital Tuesday after his back “froze up,” according to WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee. The report said Roenicke was supposed to appear on his weekly radio show Tuesday morning, but his wife told the station he was taken to a hospital around 5:30 a.m. with the back issues.

If Roenicke is unable to manage the Brewers tonight for their game against Chicago at Wrigley Field, bench coach Jerry Narron likely would take over.

The Brewers have been struck by a ridiculous amount of injuries early this year. They began the season with five players on the disabled list and since have lost third baseman Aramis Ramirez (sprained knee) and left-hander Chris Narveson (sprained finger) to the DL.

Ryan Braun just returned Monday from missing three games with neck spasms and shortstop Jean Segura is out with a bruised left quadriceps.

The Magic of Baseball…Gone?

As we all know the Baseball season has started, they came up fast didn’t it, or perhaps it’s just my bad sense of time. The Astros played the first game of baseball and like me I’m sure you also think they suck. Surprisingly they won their first game of the series. That’s not what this Blog is about though it’s about the fall of baseball fandom here in the United States. Now I’m pretty sure it’s pretty obvious that baseball is no longer the American pastime as football has completely taken over. Though whenever I mock baseball or say the sport has no fans I get bombarded with remarks about how this persons a fan and this persons a fan. If this is the case then how come the stadiums and parks are always so empty? Don’t tell me you can’t afford a ticket when most good seats don’t get much more expensive than $35. This is a let less than trying to by a NFL ticket, and those stadiums are always sold out…unless you North Carolina, Cleveland, Jacksonville, or Tennessee.

If you’re such a fan then why don’t you prove it, I went to several games last year and two this year and I’m bothered by how quiet the stadium is. Show some enthusiasm, some energy, some love for your team! A friend of mine is a Cubs fan and he was describing his visits to Miller Park for example. He described the feeling of Miller Park was like being at a PGA tour, with light clapping during hits. Where’s the shouting, where’s the CHARGE! I don’t think there are any true hardcore baseball fans out there, you just want something to do that night, to kid yourself.