Despite the fact that I tell him that he is all the time, my husband does not think that he is the luckiest man in the world. Many, if not most, men would think that a wife who likes baseball as much as I do would be awesome. Seth struggles with it. It’s not that he doesn’t like baseball. He does. It’s that he doesn’t like it as much as I do. If he were a single man (or married to someone else), he would not spend his vacation in Phoenix watching the Milwaukee Brewers play spring training games. But that’s where he was so he tried to make the most of it.
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| Taliesin West. I love Frank Lloyd Wright even if he never played an inning of baseball. |
On Day Two of the vacation, Seth asked if I wanted to tour Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home. I said sure. It was about 10 a.m. and the Brewers game didn’t start until 1 p.m. It took us longer to reach northeast Scottsdale than either of us had anticipated, however, and our tour didn’t start until 11:15. I knew that there was no way that we would be able to get back to Maryvale Stadium in time for the start of the game. But I agreed to the tour and to stop for lunch any way because Seth wanted to (plus, it might keep me from eating another funnel cake.) Things are better when Seth is happy.
We got to the game in the bottom of the second inning. Yovani Gallardo was pitching and I was glad that I had not missed his entire outing. Gallardo looked fairly sharp in his 3+ innings of work. It occurred to me that I should take notes so that I could make informed comments for the blog. But the thing that struck me about spring training is that you have to pay very close attention to all the substitutions or you will be completely lost. The score tells very little about what is transpiring or what might be important for the regular season.
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| Yovani Gallardo gave up one run on four hits. He struck out four. |
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| Mark DiFelice pitched a strong ninth inning and I was there to see it. |
I was drinking beer (but not eating!!), re-applying sun block every third inning and trying to make sure that Seth didn’t melt in the sun, so I was not able to make any keen observations. I decided that I was on vacation and it would be OK to have fun rather than worry about Brandon Boggs' ability to hit to the opposite field. I will tell you that Erick Almonte made me feel better about Prince’s eminent departure. I will also tell you that Luis Cruz missed a sign for a suicide squeeze forcing Mike Rivera to attempt to steal home. I mean, why wouldn’t you want your third string catcher to steal home? And, I will tell you that Mark DiFelice pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the win. All of my compromises worked out just fine.
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| Zelous Wheeler. He should have a band called Zelous Wheeler and the Zelous Wheelers. |
Brewers 4, A’s 3
Game played 3-11-11
#zealotsforZelous
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