Is this the pants party?

A day game after a night game—it’s hard on players and it was hard on us. The parking lots at Miller Park open three hours before game time. We had to hustle but we made it into line to park at 10:06 a.m. Starbucks in hand. We parked our car and wandered around the parking lot trying to find the party put on by the Miller Park Drunk guy.


There is a certain amount of risk that you take when you sign up (and pay) for a game and tailgate party put on by an internet personality whom you’ve never met. It seemed legit but as my friend pointed out, it could also be a swingers’ party. I rolled the dice.

Megan and I walked up to one guy who was setting up a tent. “Is this the pants party?” we asked.

The guy looked at us and said, “Excuse me?”

“Oh, sorry, wrong party.”

We knew we were in the right place when we saw the MPD t-shirts. The next problem was that we didn’t really know anyone and no one knew who we were either. (I guess I needed a nametag that said “Hi, my name is Hangwith’em Rach”.) Finally, we just walked up to the group and said, “we’re here for the pants party.”

After that, and several cups of beer, we felt like we were with a group of our long lost friends. Great group, great food, great fun. The one thing about standing in the middle of a blacktopped parking lot at noon on a summer day—it’s hot. And, no matter how much beer you drink, you’re still hot and sweaty. One person commented that they were surprised the stadium didn’t smell worse on a day like Sunday.

Our seats were way up high in section 434 but they were in the shade and there was a nice breeze. And the Brewers were nice enough to overcome a 0-2 deficit after the first half of the inning to win, 8-4. And, by allowing two base runners in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Brewers were able to bring in Trevor Hoffman to collect his 599^th career save. Nice touch—a Hoffman appearance at the pants party.

With a sweep of the Pirates, the Brewers are now 62-68. It would be monumental if the Brewers could finish the season at .500—although if you told me that was the goal at the beginning of the season, I’d have been mad. Milwaukee will have to play some of its best baseball of the season to do so, however. Of the 32 remaining games, the Brewers have 26 games against teams with .500 records or better. Of those, nine are against the Reds, with series against the Phillies, Cardinals and Giants, who are all just a few games out of the lead in their divisions. In other words, a lot of these games will mean a lot to Milwaukee’s opponents.   

Brewers 8, Pirates 4

Game played 8-29-10