Feeling Positive

    Stanton is back! LoMo is back! Turner is looking like a real prospective and not the next Andrew Miller. So my buddy and Orlando headed off to the Brewers game Wednesday night feeling positive. Of course, we didn't spend real money. Orlando's grandson loves Sir Pizza and the box came with a coupon for two free tickets.
    The first bummer of the evening is that the hot dog guy has vanished. I usually get a huge $3 sausage from him at his stand across from the Clevelander entrance. He wasn't there -- a little-guy casualty of the Marlins' dismal year.
    Our tickets were for section 23, row 8 -- just a little outside the infield down the third base line. There were a lot of folks in our section -- many of them Sir Pizza customers, I guessed. The announced attendance was a pathetic 13,400 -- and I'll bet just a fraction of them (probably ignorant Brewer fans) paid full price for a ticket.
    We've now attended four games this year -- $20-something for opening night, $9 outfield tickets but we moved around to good seats, a freebie because we went opening night and now a Sir Pizza freebie. And we haven't even done the seniors-free Thursdays yet.
    Well, Slowey gave up three runs in the first and it was all downhill from there in a 10-1 massacre. In a bitter irony, the one run the Marlins scored came off Badenhop, one of the disasters the Marlins received in the Tiger trade, now serving as a third-string reliever with the Brewers.
    The good news: Orlando, who generally attends about 20 games a year (less this year) got a foul ball, his first ever. It landed in his coat in the seat in front of him and he just fished it out.
    For the year, the Marlins are now 19-46. The worst-ever 1962 Mets were 18-47 at this point.