On Wednesday, I attended the Brewers third game of the season vs. the Colorado Rockies game at Miller Park. Game time was at 7:10 and the gates opened at 5:40. I arrived at the ballpark with my dad two hours early and waited in line to be let in.  I ran down to near the Rockies dugout to get autographs, and they were just starting the first round of batting practice. Here is a picture of what it looked like when I got down there:

After the first round of batting practice everyone was yelling for Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez to come over and sign, and while neither of them signed, Jordan Pacheco did. He was really nice and took the time to sign almost every single card that everyone had. As a Little Leaguer who dreams of being a professional baseball player when he is older, it means a lot when a player talks to all of his fans and shows them respect.  It is great to see that it still happens. 

While Jordan Pacheco was signing some kids started yelling for Dexter Fowler to come over and sign, and he said he would after he shagged some fly balls. About ten minutes later, during the second round of batting practice, Dexter came back and signed for everyone there. He was extremely nice. He signed two cards for me, but I gave one to my friend, Ben, who didn’t get Mr. Fowler  because he was trying to get Todd Helton’s attention to come over and sign. Here is a picture of the card that I kept:

Pacheco and Fowler were the only two players that signed during batting practice. After batting practice I saw my friend Paul and we talked for a minute. He writes a blog too, so we quickly talked about that. His link is: apieceofthegame.mlblogs.com. He had to leave, so I went and sat right above the dugout where I waited for the players to sit on the benches, so I could throw them my cards. While I was waiting I had time to pull out my scorebook, and wrote down the starting lineups of the Brewers and Rockies. The Brewers had their normal starting lineup, but they had Wily Peralta pitching. He was ranked as the #61 prospect in baseball according to Baseball Prospectus. I was excited that I was going to get to see our top pitching prospect start a game, but a little worried at the same time. I remember from last year that on Tyler Thornburg’s MLB debut, he got shelled in the 5th or 6th inning. This wasn’t Peralta’s first game in the big leagues, but it was his first important start, since it is Opening Week  When I pitch in big games I get nervous and sometimes get shelled.  It’s not fun.  After I finished writing down all of the players’ names and analyzing them, I saw a head pop out of the dugout. It was Michael Cuddyer; it was his first off day of the season. I ran over towards him, clipped his card onto my sharpie and called his name.  He turned around and said to toss it down. So I did, and he signed it. Here is a picture of the card:

After he signed it I went back to my seat and looked at the lineup some more so I could look at the players’ stats in my Baseball Prospectus 2013 edition. While I was reading it, the National Anthem started, so all of the players popped out of the dugout. I stood up and took off my hat while the song was being sung. Near the end of the song,  When the National Anthem ended I quickly got out Chris Volstad’s cards and clipped them to my sharpie and started calling for him. He looked at me and waved his hand in a motion directing me to throw the cards to him. He signed my two cards and threw them back. I was really excited because he signed my 2012 Iowa Cubs card of him. I am working on getting the set signed, and I am over half way done. Here is a picture of the two cards he signed:

After Chris tossed me back the cards, I saw one of my favorite Colorado Rockies pop out of the dugout: Todd Helton. I quickly grabbed my favorite card of him and clipped it to my sharpie and started to ask him if he could sign it.  He said he would so I threw the card to him.  I was super excited. He signed the card, tossed it back to me and walked back in the dugout.  It was incredibly lucky timing as I was the only one he signed for.  Here is the card that he signed for me:

After I got Mr. Helton I was super happy. He made my day. The only thing that could have made it better was if the Brewers won.

My dad and I walked to our seats in the left field bleachers so we could watch the game. Wily Peralta looked great out of the gates. He got out of the inning 1,2,3. The Brewers started a rally with two guys on, but Aramis Ramirez and Alex Gonzalez couldn’t capitalize. We got out of the inning scoreless. Like I predicted, Peralta struggled in the next inning. He started out with a walk, and then gave up a line drive home run in left field to Wilin Rosario. He ended up getting out of the inning only allowing two runs. The Brewers started the third inning hot with a solo shot by Rickie Weeks. Braun continued and hit a single and later scored tying up the game. Juan Niasco, the Rockies pitcher, got out of the inning though with the game still tied. In the fifth inning Wily Peralta started to struggle again. He gave up three hits, and two of them being doubles in the gap to Jordan Pacheco and Reid Brignac. He only allowed two runs, but that was enough to give the Rockies the lead. He got pulled at the start of the sixth inning because his pitch count was getting too high. The Brewers scored again in the seventh inning, but it was only one run, and they were still down by one. Going into the top of the ninth the score was 4-3 Rockies, and Axford came in to try to get a hold. There were mixed reactions from the crowd, some were booing, some were thrilled. I was very nervous because he had been struggling of late, and I know from personal experience that it is very hard to come out of a slump, especially if it has carried over from the previous season. I was right. He struggled like you wouldn’t believe. He gave up a single right away, then a home run to the next batter, Michael Cuddyer. Everyone started to boo him. Then, Dexter Fowler came up to the plate, and he had a good history against Axford. He had just homered off him two nights before, and he did again. Roenicke came and pulled him out. Axford was booed off the field. The Brewers got out of the inning without allowing another run thankfully, but that wasn’t enough, we still lost because we went down 1,2,3 in the bottom of the ninth. I finished up my tallies on my scorecard, and my dad and I left the game. Here is a picture of the scorecard:

Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope you enjoyed it.  Come back to look for more blogs in the near future!!!