If You're Headed to Miller Park...

...over the next couple of days, be sure to check out my cover story in the Brewers GameDay magazine on centerfielder Nyjer "Tony Plush" Morgan.

Where did Nyjer's alter ego originate? How similar is baseball to his other passion, hockey? All that and more - only in Brewers GameDay!

What Goes Up...

I’m not sure what else can be said about the Brewers that hasn’t already been said.

Monday night’s game against the Dodgers saw all of the ingredients of a championship caliber team. Outstanding pitching, incredible defense, and timely hitting.

As my friend and colleague, 540 ESPN’s Drew Olson pointed out via Twitter tonight, on this current 4-game homestand, the Brewers have pitched 37 innings and surrendered 3 earned runs. That’s an ERA of 0.72. In the last month, the Brewers have gone 22-6, and separated themselves by 6 games in the NL-Central.

All of these are incredible numbers. All of these statistics are what championship teams are made out of. All of these statistics don’t lie. They tell the story of a team that has legitimate talent, believes in one another, has incredible chemistry, and would run through a wall for their low-key manager.

But they can’t keep this up.

Brewers fans need to brace themselves for the inevitable lull. At some point within the next six weeks, this Brewers team will hit a funk. They may lose four or five games in a row. They may see their lead in the division shrink as the Cardinals go on a tear.

My message for when (not if) this happens: Chill. Relax. It’s baseball.

Before the angry e-mails start flowing my way, please know that I still think the Brewers are the best team in the division. I also think they’re better than every other team in baseball except for the Phillies, Yankees, and Red Sox. They’re on par with Atlanta, but that’s rarefied air. Even though the Crew still has a slump left, wrap your minds around this:

The Milwaukee Brewers have a very legitimate chance to play in the 2011 World Series.

That doesn’t mean they won’t need to snap out of a funk before we see October. Let’s step into the “wayback machine” for a moment, shall we?

Remember when the Brewers got out to that rancid 0-4 start? Remember all of the panic buttons pushed all over town? It’s human nature. Don’t forget that the Boston Red Sox went through the exact same thing, only worse in April. Just as Brewers fans were lining up to jump off the Hoan Bridge, the Red Sox 0-6 (and then 2-10) start had Bostonians lined up at the Bunker Hill Bridge. Seems the Red Sox bounced back pretty nicely.

What gets me about poor starts are even the educated baseball fans and analysts pushing the panic button. Even the New York Times ran a headline that stated the Red Sox were “Doomed in April.”

No team is ever doomed in April.

My point of all this is simple. Enjoy the ride. This has been fun. However, in the last month, the Brewers have played .786 baseball, which is impossible to sustain over an entire season. Mathematically, that’s winning between 127-128 games in a single season. It’s never going to happen.

The slump? The lull? The funk?

It’s coming. It’s inevitable. But you know what else it is? It’s ok. And it’s baseball. It’s just part of the game.

So I suggest you enjoy the ride.

Flashback Friday - From the Archives

20 with 17

By, Doug Russell

What makes Wisconsin’s favorite son on the Sprint Cup Series tick? Why were there so many crew chief changes last year? Does he really have a cat named after Miley Cyrus? Recently, Kenseth sat down with Inside Wisconsin Sports’ Doug Russell.

Cambridge native Matt Kenseth enters the 2011 season as one of the favorites to unseat five-time defending Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson. Kenseth’s racing blood runs deep, having learned at the feet of his father, Roy Kenseth, on the Wisconsin and Northern Illinois circuit. Matt’s 17-year old son, Ross, has embarked on his own racing career as well. Currently, Matt and his wife Katie live in Mooresville, N.C. with their daughter Kaylin, 1.

1. How would you characterize your 2010 season?

MK: It was interesting for sure. We had some downs, for sure, but we also had some ups. We finished on a strong note. We still finished fifth in the points standings even though we had three different crew chiefs during the year. Even with all of the changes, I thought that was a great, great, strong finish for us.

2. What caused you to go through so many crew chiefs, from Drew Blickensderfer, to Todd Parrott, then finally to Jimmy Fennig?

MK: It’s kind of hard to explain. I wish Drew really well. Drew will be a winning and probably a champion crew chief at the Cup level. Todd has obviously won championships, and so has Jimmy. They’re all great guys, but it was all about just getting that mix right, getting to be able to work with everybody, and getting to the finish line. Success, at the end of the day, is what it’s really all about. You have to have the performance, you have to have the finishes, and the team has to be able to work together as one. It’s not always just about the driver and the crew chief versus the driver or the crew chief. It’s about getting that whole group to work well together.

3. But it seems as though there has been a lot of turmoil on your crew since Robbie Reiser moved upstairs into the front office?

MK: Yeah, I’ll go ahead and take the blame for everything going wrong, but it’s never all exactly one person. I’m still really good friends with Drew (Blickensderfer), I still feel like I’m really good friends with Todd (Parrott), and I’ve got a ton of respect for him, and I hope he still has a lot of respect for me. Actually, everything went really well there, it’s just hard to explain unless you were in there. But yeah, since Robbie left it certainly has been different. Chip (Bolin) took over the first year, and he did a really good job. Chip didn’t really want to do it, but I kind of forced him to do it. He’s not necessarily the people person and organizer, he’s more of the engineer and the guy who ‘tries to make the cars go fast’ guy. He really doesn’t care about the rest of that other stuff, and I put him in a position where he did, which is probably my fault. Since then, we had a lot of great things going on with Drew, I think Todd brought a lot to the team, and I think Jimmy brings a lot to the team.

4. It seems as though things have settled down with (Milwaukee native) Jimmy Fennig in the pit box. How did your relationship with him evolve?

MK: I’ve known Jimmy for a long time. Mark Martin was the one who got me started with Roush Racing in 1997, and Jimmy was Mark’s crew chief at the time. I used to hang out around the garage a lot and ask a lot of questions. I used to go out to the track with them and test Mark’s car when they would go out to Talladega and places like that. So, I’ve known Jimmy for a long time, he’s been around for a long time, he’s also from Wisconsin, and we have always had a great relationship. It just takes a little while of working together to get things rolling, but I feel really good about it. Jimmy is a really talented crew chief. There’s no one in the garage that’s more of a racer or anyone who works harder than Jimmy does at trying to get results. It’s been good.

5. That having been said, both Jimmy Fennig and Drew Blickensderfer have said you are among the most demanding drivers they have ever worked with. Looking in the mirror, how demanding do you think you are?

MK: (long pause) That’s hard to answer. I guess I’m probably pretty demanding, especially when you look at this season from last year. But, I expect perfection. I know it’s not realistic, but that’s what you’ve got to expect. I expect it of myself. I mean, I haven’t had a perfect race, or a perfect day, or a perfect lap yet, but I still expect that from myself. It’s what I strive for, and it’s the same for the leader of the team, to everyone on the team, to the guy building the car. It’s what you need to expect, it’s what you need to strive for. You expect to try to win races; you expect to try to win championships. I know it’s hard, but that’s what you need to be able to expect. I’ve been so fortunate in my career to work with some really great people. Robbie always demanded that out of all of his people, and so has everyone else that I’ve ever worked with. I probably am pretty demanding. I’m pretty particular and pretty picky about certain things. I think in some cases that’s been good, and sometimes it’s probably been bad, and I’ve been over the top on a lot of things.

6. Is the run that Jimmie Johnson is on right now, with five consecutive Cup championships, good for the sport?

MK: Oh, I don’t know. I guess it depends on who you are and how you look at things. Certainly I think most fans are ready to see someone else win it. As drivers, we all would like to win it. But, if I don’t win it, it doesn’t really matter who does, you’re trying to win it for your team and your organization. One thing I will say is that everyone who is watching the sport right now is witnessing history, and will someday look back and say ‘wow, remember when Jimmie won five in a row?’ Or at least five in a row, because who knows how many he can win? No one has ever come close to five in a row before, and I can’t imagine anyone ever doing it ever again in the history of the sport. That’s something that’s pretty special that everyone is getting to witness.

7. Do you feel that his accomplishment goes underappreciated outside of NASCAR?

MK: I really do, and I don’t know why that is. I even feel like its underappreciated within our sport, and I don’t know why that is. You know what, though, if I were Jimmie and I had those five trophies sitting at home, I really wouldn’t care what anybody thought about it. (laughs) I can think of a ton of other drivers that if they would’ve won two or three straight, much less five, that people would be doing back flips about it, but with Jimmie they don’t really say a lot about it. It seems kind of weird, and I don’t know why that is.

8.  Three great seasons of yours stand out. In 2002, when you had a career-high five wins; 2003, when you won the Cup Championship; and 2006, when you came in second in overall points, won over $9.5 million, and had four wins. Of those three seasons, which was the most satisfying to you?

MK: Winning the championship in 2003, for sure. The ultimate goal is to win a championship every year, so 2003 was our best season ever. We just had an unbelievable year.  We were able to win just one race that year, but we were in a position to win, gosh, just about every week. It just was one of those years where just about every week were running in the top ten, and most weeks even in the top five.

9. What made that year so successful?

MK: We just had an unbelievable year on pit road, with car preparation, and on the racetrack executing the races. It was probably a better season than even the numbers show. I mean, we tried an experimental motor the last race of the year and it blew up, and we had some problems here and there that took us out of a few finishes, but other than that we just had an unbelievably good season.

10. After that season, however, critics of the points system, including Roger Penske, pointed you out as a reason the system was flawed; winning the championship despite only one victory. Some even used the phrase, the “Matt Kenseth Rule” to describe the new points formula. Do you think that affected you negatively at all?

MK: You know, I don’t think so. I think it all depends on how you look at it. I mean, if they’re changing the whole system around because of how well we did, I think that’s a pretty high compliment. I don’t think you can be complimented much more than that, but I don’t think they changed it all because of me, either. I don’t look at it as a negative at all.

11. How much has NASCAR evolved since you began driving on the circuit in the late 1990’s?

MK: Oh man, I’ve see it change a lot already. I think I’ve been there 10 full seasons, maybe 11. I’m thankful I got in at the time I did. I got in at the ‘boom’ for sure, right when the popularity was exploding. The cars are a lot safer, the Chase for the Cup…gosh, there have been so many things that have happened. I’ve seen a lot of cool things. I’ve seen a lot of changes, and I’ve been really blessed to be a part of it. 

　
12. Would Danica Patrick be successful if she were to switch from Indy cars to NASCAR?

MK: There’s been a lot of success there as far as marketing, commercials, and sponsorships, and in getting more people to watch the races. There hasn’t been that much success on the track yet, but it seems like there has been a constant improvement. She seemed to do a little better at the end of last year. Would she succeed in NASCAR? I don’t know, but she has a better opportunity than most people would have because of being a girl, and because of a lot of the other things she’s got going on. Obviously there is a great opportunity for her, and I’m sure she’ll get as much time as she wants to try to make it work. It’s hard though. It’s a lot different driving one of our cars than an Indy car. Plus, driving a part-time schedule, going back and forth can’t be easy, but it does seem that she keeps getting better.　

13. Your daughter, Kaylin, is a year and half old. Would you encourage her to be a race car driver?

MK: Absolutely not! (laughs) I’ll leave that to Ross.　

14. Speaking of Ross, there are 16 years in between he and Kaylin. How did Ross take to becoming a big brother for the first time a lot later than most kids?

MK: Oh, he likes it. Ross has always loved kids, so I don’t think it’s been that big of an adjustment for him. He’s 17, he’s almost a man, he’s getting ready to graduate from high school, which just blows me away how fast the time goes by. Like I said, though, he’s always loved kids and they love him, so it’s been good.　

15. How did becoming a father at such an early age (21) affect you?

MK: Oh, I don’t know I ever thought about it that much. I think your maturity level changes when you have kids. Obviously you mature as you get older, that goes with everything, not just having kids.　

16. How much of Cambridge is still in you?

MK: A lot. You know, one thing about being from Wisconsin is that when you meet people, you find out where they’re from. Instead of ‘hey, I’m Jim’ its ‘hey, I’m Jim and I’m from Wisconsin!’ People are really proud of being from Wisconsin and can’t wait to tell you. I still get up there a fair amount, Katie is from the same hometown, and her family still lives up there. No matter how long we live somewhere else, we always feel like we are from Wisconsin, that’s for sure.　

17. Favre or Rodgers?

MK: Rodgers. (indignantly) Rodgers.　
　
18. Do you ever take a vacation away from the garage in the off season?

MK: We don’t have any formal vacations planned this year. We’re pretty much just laying low this winter. We went back to Wisconsin for the holidays and caught up with family. We went snowmobiling and sledding, just laying low and staying pretty close to home.

19. You and your wife have four cats; they’ve been featured in NASCAR pet calendars with the proceeds going to support animal shelters and various humane societies. I have to ask you about their names. As I understand it, one is named Lars, for Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Another is named Miley. Um, that’s quite diverse if that reflects your musical tastes.

MK: (laughs) Oh, I don’t know that any of them are named after anyone. It just so happened that when I was brining Lars home, a Metallica song was on the radio, so I was joking around saying we should name him Lars. Katie said she loved the name and it stuck. Katie named the kittens. Sulley and Miley. (chuckles) I think they’re just names.

20. Finally, how much thought have you given to your post-driving career?

MK: Not very much. I’m hoping that we can have a good year this season and get back on track so I don’t have to worry about it for a while. I don’t spend much time thinking about what’s next, I’m just so focused about being successful today.

Deion Sanders - A Look Back

Back when he retired, I wrote a column about one of the flashiest athletes in modern history, Deion Sanders. Not an official "From The Archives" per se (because it's not Friday), but just a look back at when "Prime Time" hung 'em up for good:

The Emperor’s Water Carrier Speaks

Bernie Miklasz is a fool.

I’ll get to that in a moment. First, the key word in today’s column needs to be defined.

Intent: in-tent  noun 1. something that is intended; purpose; design; intention: The original intent of the committee was to raise funds. 2. the act of intending, as to do something: criminal intent. 3. Law. the state of a person's mind that directs his or her actions toward a spcific object. 4. meaning or significance.

Miklasz, the longtime St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist and sports-talk personality, fails to invoke the word “intent” while chiding the rest of us into believing that Tony La Russa can do no wrong as a major league manager. Last night in Miami, Cardinals third baseman David Freese was knocked out cold by a Clay Hensley pitch in the top of the third inning. It was a scary moment, as Freese lay motionless at home plate at Sun Life Stadium.

Tony La Russa (being Tony La Russa) then ordered a fastball into the back of Logan Morrison, who was leading off for Florida in the back to retaliate.

Except that he didn’t.

Instead, Morrison took ball one, then strike one. He fouled off pitch number three, then singled to center.

This is important to remember in a moment. But first, let’s take a look at what Miklasz wrote today about the Freese incident:

I wonder if the fools in Milwaukee now understand why Cardinals manager Tony La Russa makes such a big deal over high pitches thrown above the shoulders, and into that dangerous area where awful things can happen to a vulnerable hitter. If anyone still needed a clue -- a picture to explain it -- all they had to do was look at Freese. This was a teaching moment for simple minds.

*Note: Because of our apparent “simple minds” as Miklasz calls   us, here is the picture in question:

Back to Bernie:

To their credit, Brewers players -- and some Milwaukee fans and media people -- understand the basics. The players know what it's like to have a 90+ mph pitch screaming in at your head. Most professional players understand that pitching inside is part of the game. And they accept that. As does La Russa. But head shots should never be acceptable, whether they're intentional or an accident. (Personally, I think MLB should automatically suspend any pitcher that strikes a batter in the head.)

Others in Milwaukee remain unaware of the potential hazards. Manager Ron Roenicke is a good guy and appears to be a terrific young manager, but his casual attitude of "Hey, we're going to pitch up and in and sometime the pitch will get away" will lead to problems for the Brewers. And at some point -- maybe after one of his own players gets hurt -- Roenicke will figure it out. And so will the more out-of-touch members of the Milwaukee media.

Once again: pitch inside all day, all night. Move every batter off the plate if you wish. And if hitters don't like it, too bad. It's good baseball to pitch inside. Heck, one of the problems with Cardinals' starting pitchers is that they don't pitch inside enough. So if Roenicke and the Brewers are making it a point of pitching inside, they're being smart. I gave you the stats on that yesterday; Pujols has not handled inside pitches well this season. So yes, pitch him tough inside. But to go above the shoulders on Pujols or any other hitter? That's reckless and gutless.

Ok…to keep track of the St. Louis insults, Bernie Miklasz just:

·        Brewers fans “fools”

·        Brewers fans have “simple minds”

·        Makes no delineation between intentional and unintentional

·        Milwaukee media members (that would be me) “out of touch”

·        Apparently called Takashi Saito both “reckless” and “gutless”

First of all, he can hurl insults at the general public all day long, but Miklasz has to realize it won’t get him anywhere as a credible journalist. If you want to go after a player (or manager) for doing something stupid (like oh, I don’t know…getting arrested for DUI, for example) then I say go for it. If Takashi Saito had deliberately gone after Albert Pujols, then Saito, in my opinion, would be fair game.

BUT, there’s that key word from above: Intent. 

Back to Bernie, who added an addendum in the online version of his story, later after receiving some pushback:

 

Moving On ...

* Update: some are wondering why the Cardinals didn't retaliate after Freese was struck in the head. They want to know the difference is between what happened in Milwaukee, and what happened in Florida. They want to know why I'm not ripping the Marlins. They're kidding right? Seriously? The Hensley pitch was random. It got away. He had no control in the game. That's why he was pulled early. And Hensley was genuinely sorry for hitting Freese in the head. But the pitch in Milwaukee that sailed at Pujols' head, hitting him on the upraised left hand, was part of a pattern that was established in Monday's game, and carried over to Tuesday's game. Big difference. While the Milwaukee reliever that hit Pujols (Takashi Saito) isn't exactly a pinpoint-control guy, he knows what he's doing out there. He's no wild child.

So Bernie…you’re assertion is that Saito went head hunting on Pujols and Hensley did not? Really? Did Tony tell you which pitch was intentional and which pitch was unintentional?

Here are the two game situations. Can you tell which one is which?

• 1 out, bases loaded. Game tied.
• 0 out, bases loaded. St. Louis down by 1.

The latter of the two is the incident that happened in Milwaukee, in case you did not know. I use this illustration as a guide for the misguided Bernie Miklasz (and perhaps all of Tony La Russa’s water-carriers), who foolishly believes that Takashi Saito went head hunting.

Bernie…it’s all about intent. To break it down as simply as I can for you and everyone else in St. Louis:

• Takashi Saito did not intend to hit Albert Pujols
• Clayton Hensley did not intend to hit David Freese
• Jason Motte tried (and failed) to hit Ryan Braun, so he cranked it up to 97 and didn’t even give him a chance to duck it. He intended to hit Braun.

Those are the facts of this matter.

There is no way you will ever convince any objective observer that with the bases loaded, up by one run, in the seventh inning, in a pennant race, that Milwaukee (or any other team, for that matter) would intentionally hit Albert Pujols (or anyone else, for that matter). It is a foolish notion that in almost identical game situations one pitch can be dismissed as “random” and another is branded as intentional because Saito, while not being a “pinpoint-control guy, he knows what he’s doing out there. He’s no wild child.”

Bernie. Stop drinking Tony’s kool-aid. You’re better than that.

Flashback Friday - From the Archives

Ten years ago this week, in my column at SportingNews.com, I tackled the topic of the rash of football players dying from heat related illnesses.

Dated August 6, 2001

LaRussa in the Wrong

Last night, Tony LaRussa decided that he was bigger than the game.

To say the history between the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals has been both storied and at times a little testy is something of an understatement.

The first sign of bad blood goes all the way back to Game 7 of the 1982 World Series, when Jim Gantner called Joaquin Andujar a “hot dog” (among other things) after grounding out in the seventh inning. Andujar and Gantner shared a heated exchange, but that series may have set the tone for what the future held for these two clubs.

Fast forward to last night. After Takashi Saito accidently hit Albert Pujols with a pitch that was up and in, LaRussa, apparently sick of his players getting thrown at, ordered his hardest thrower, Jason Motte, to plunk Ryan Braun in a childish tit-for-tat contest.

Let me say right here two things:

1)      I respect the longevity and success that Tony LaRussa has had. He has forgotten more about baseball than most of us will ever know. You cannot manage in the majors for more than 30 years, win multiple World Series and be an idiot. He is a great manager.

2)      I have no problem with teams taking justice into their own hands. If Albert Pujols had come up with no one on and two outs and Saito had gone head-hunting, that would be one thing. Considering the situation both in the game and the standings, it is pretty clear that this was not the case.

That having been said, LaRussa and WTMJ’s Greg Matzek got into it pretty good last night.

LaRussa’s unabridged comments, transcribed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold:

(On the pitch that hit Pujols)
"Yeah, real scary," La Russa said. "They almost got him yesterday too. There's nothing intentional about it. But they throw the ball in here and that's what all those idiots up there -- not idiots -- all those fans up there are yelling. Do you know how many bones there are in the hand? Do you know how many bones there are in the face? That's where those pitches are. And Braun -- we were trying to pitch him in too, and it was just a little stinger. I don't want to even hear about Braun getting a little pop in the back, when we almost lose this guy (Pujols) in several ways. The ball up and in is a dangerous pitch."

(It looked like the intent was to hit Braun.)
"You don't think they were trying to throw the ball intentionally up and in?" La Russa responded. "We weren't trying to hit Braun either. We did not hit Braun on purpose. We threw two balls in there real good just to send a message. If he ducks them, it's all over and we don't hit him. The ball they tried to throw on Pujols was aimed right where they aimed it. Did they try to hit him? No. But there's a small window here. You know how close that is to your face and your hands?

"I don't want to hear about our tactics vs. what they did," La Russa continued. "They did not make an intentional hit, but they tried to throw the ball up and in. It's a very dangerous pitch and we almost paid a hell of a price. Just look at the location and potential danger of the two (pitches).

I know that he has the deserved respect of everyone within the game of baseball. However in this case, Tony LaRussa is wrong. He was wrong to take offense to a pitch that slipped away from Takashi Saito, he was wrong in ordering Jason Motte to hit Braun, and he was wrong to try to insult our collective intelligence to say that the second pitch to Braun wasn’t trying to hit him.

In this case, the Emperor wears no clothes.