Waiting for Ryan Braun

Are we there yet? That was pretty much my only thought as I drove from my brother's house in Mauston to Miller Park on Sunday morning. My only goal was to get there as soon as possible, so I might have driven a bit too fast (but that's subjective, right?). It was pouring rain for most of the drive, making me appreciate the retractable roof at Miller Park even more. It would suck to drive 5 1/2 hours just to sit through a rain delay. We had left a bit later than we had hoped. We had to get gas, go to the grocery store and buy beer. I love Wisconsin because you can actually buy beer in the grocery store on Sunday. What a novel concept, Minnesota. Minnesota fail.

We pulled into the Miller Park parking lot at 12:40 p.m. for a 1:10 start. I chugged a beer in the parking lot and then we headed for the stadium. I had purchased tickets from Stub Hub and they were pretty good. Section 116, Row 13--so between home plate and the visitor's dugout. The only problem is that I sat behind Marge Simpson. This chick had what seemed like two feet of hair piled on top of her head. I had to lean to the side to see around the hair. I usually end up behind tall guys. I've never had to sit behind someone with big hair before. Hairdo fail.

The Brewers opened the roof just before the game started. The rain had passed. My Mom instantly became concerned that I might get sunburned. Specifically, she became concerned that my pasty white thighs would become sunburned. The other thing that was difficult was keeping score while holding a beer and eating a pretzel with a cheese cup. I made it work though because I am big time. I did spill a bit of my beer on my Mom's foot, though. Beer fail.

Chris Narveson pitched a 1-2-3-4 (double to Bradley) first inning but got through it without giving up a run. Great start for the Narv-Dog! If you set the bar low, you'll rarely be disappointed. Rickie Weeks took the second pitch that he saw out of the Park for a 1-0 Brewers lead. Strangely, this would have held up. Narveson went on to pitch 8 scoreless innings. The Brewers added two more runs in the fifth inning and John Axford pitched a scoreless ninth to shut the door on the Mariners. Brewers win! No fail here.

After the game, I chugged a beer in the parking lot. It's all about symmetry, people. Then we headed to the hotel. We could not check in because our room was not ready. Apparently Justin Beiber was playing at Summer Fest and our hotel was taken over by teenage girls who had been inflicted with Beiber fever. Yikes. While we waited, we walked down by the Lake and around the art museum. Milwaukee gets kind of a bad rap for being sort of an armpit (the Cleveland of Wisconsin) but it is actually very pretty. I'll post pictures when I get back to St. Paul.

In an effort to fulfill my true calling as a groupie, we went to Ryan Braun's restaurant for dinner. It is a nice place. We made the rookie mistake of getting a huge appetizer and then a full meal where we should have just gotten the appetizer. It was a pretty decent meal with large portions. They had beer on tap, which totally worked for me. It wasn't the best food I've ever had but it was good. I would go back. Our waiter was cute. He said that Ryan "would probably" stop by later but we decided to just call it a night. Groupie fail.

Brewers 3, Mariners 0
Game played 6-27-10