Tagged: Rickie Weeks
Work sucks…I know. Here’s a silver lining.
So, it’s Jackie Robinson Day (April 15th) league-wide. All teams are showing their support by wearing #42 jerseys in honor of Jackie’s retired #42.
I go to work that day like any other day. Three tickets to the Brewers vs. Reds game later that night are waiting for me on my kitchen table when I finish work.
Around 11am, my employer sends me on a special assignment (due to the nature of my employment, I can’t provide details).
This assignment was to take me into the afternoon before I could go home and get ready for the game. Fine. I have no choice.
1pm rolls around…2pm…3pm…4pm…now I’m pissed. I’m about to miss Batting Practice.
To make a long story short, I didn’t get relieved from my assignment until 930 pm. I had not only missed BP, I had missed nearly the entire game. Work sucks.
So, I walked out to my truck and got in. I turn the radio to the Brewers game. I’m cussing to myself. The first thing I here is Brewers 2B Rickie Weeks is at the plate. Soon, Bob Uecker gets excited because Weeks just hit a home run to the opposite field and near the visitor’s bullpen (near where my seats are located). I cuss out loud-thinking…great, not only do I miss BP, I miss the freakin’ game AND I miss a home run opportunity right to my seats. I’m ticked.
Until I get home.
When I get home, my house is empty. No wife, no kids. Hmm. I look to the table where I had laid out my Brewers tickets and they’re gone!! Did my wife go to the game with the kids?? Did she take it upon herself to avoid letting them go to waste??
At that moment, my cell phone rings. It’s my wife. She sounds excited. She tells me she took the kids to the game so the tickets wouldn’t go to waste.
Cool woman. I’m very impressed.
She goes on to say how Rickie Weeks hit a home run near our section and that our 3yr. old daughter got the home run ball!! WTF!?!?!
It turns out, the ball went into the Reds bullpen. My daughter ran over and asked for the baseball. Reds relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes tossed it to my wife who was holding our 2 month old son with our 3yr old daughter standing nearby.
It gets better.
It turns out that the Brewers/Rickie Weeks wanted that home run ball back. They wouldn’t tell my wife why they wanted it back (we’re assuming because it was Jackie Robinson Day). They offered her a signed Trevor Hoffman baseball in return for the Rickie Weeks game home run ball.
??
She asked herself, “what would my husband do?”
He would say, “hell no!”
So, she kept the ball. Sorry Rickie…the Brewers staff should have tried harder. A signed baseball for a game home run ball? Someone’s on drugs.
BTW, when my 3yr old found out the Brewers wanted the ball she began to cry, stating, “why do the Brewers wanna take my ball?” As tears rolled down her face.
Poor kid. You keep that ball…that’s your 1st career home run ball. Way to go kid.
Like father, like daughter.
Kudos to my wife for everything-plain and simple. She rules.
The future ballhawk star with her 1st career game home run ball…
Damn, she looks tired. Well worth it kid!!
Rickie’s black bat left a nice little black paint transfer mark on the ball where he made contact.
I guess missing the game wasn’t so bad after all!
A memorabilia collector, too…2007! Geoff Jenkins’ 200th Home run
On Sunday, May 20th, 2007, my wife and I attended the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Minnesota Twins game.
Brewers outfielder Geoff Jenkins had always been a fan-favorite in
Milwaukee. He was a fan of the “Happy Youngster”, too (you’ll have to
check out my website to see for yourselves).
I knew Geoff was sitting on 199 career home runs. I wanted #200. I
had told Geoff on a few occasions (that season and the season before)
that I would retrieve his 200th for him. We always had a laugh about
it…until this day.
I snatched it!
After a few rounds of negotiating with multiple Brewers employees, they
finally had me negotiate with Geoff, himself (after the game, of
course).
The items pictured below all came in the trade for Geoff Jenkins’ 200th career home run baseball.
Prince Fielder used this Marucci model bat for only a short time during the ’07 season. Prince has tried almost every bat co. known to man. He seems like he just can’t settle on one type. I asked Prince during Spring Training about his choice in bats. He said to me, “I use whatever I’m comfortable with at the time.”
The Geoff Jenkins bat.
Four bats for the home run baseball. Am I greedy? Did I ask for too much? Did I not get enough? All in the eye of the beholder, I would imagine.
I will revisit the topic of trading game home runs back to players in the near future. Always a popular topic with many different viewpoints…all of which I respect and would like to hear.
The end of the ’08 season…where do we go from here?
Now that the 2008 season is officially in the books, what’s next? Many important decisions need to be made.
I’ve started this blog because this is about the time depression sets in. A long winter thinking back to the previous season and a winter made even longer shoveling snow and thinking spring.
Does Sveum return? The players want him back. What about the rest of the coaching staff? Will Bill Castro remain the longest tenured coach in the league?
What player moves need to be made? Bill Hall, Rickie Weeks, Mike Cameron…to name a few.
The starting pitching might be a mess if we can’t resign the big fella. Lots of pressure to put on Yovanni Gallardo and Manny Parra if C.C. Sabathia doesn’t return.
Alcides Escobar has nothing left to prove in the minor leagues if you ask me. That kid needs to play shortstop. Does that move J.J. Hardy to third? To the trading block? I personally think he would be great at third.
Lots of talk of Prince Fielder being dealt. I don’t see this happening with no viable replacement coming from within.
The bottom line is the Brewers have some work to do to keep pace with the Cubs, Cardinals, Astros and the young and improving Reds (Sorry Pittsburgh).
Let me know what you think…it’s a long offseason.
ONLY 183 DAYS LEFT TIL’ OPENING DAY…
The Happy Youngster...Brew Town's Ballhawk 