The past 33 hours...

By: Adam "Big" Rygg

Brewers On Deck - 4/1/07 - 11am - 2pm (Miller Park lots opened at 10am)

Opening Day - vs. Dodgers - 1:05pm start time

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What a day and half!

I just wanted to sit down and tell everyone how awesome these last 33 hours have been...with a couple of exceptions.

I left my house at 10am yesterday and headed with a friend to Miller Park for the 3rd Annual Brewers On Deck promotion. While waiting in lines wasn't very fun, seeing the stadium, eating a brat (or two) at 11am and getting baseballs autographed by both Ned Yost and Ben Sheets made up for it.

It was a good morning/afternoon of Brewer baseball.

Then, I had to run to Home Depot for paint so that my wife could paint our hallway. Fine, no big deal....because I was back in time for the first pitch of the Major League Baseball regular season! I watched the majority of the Cardinals/Mets game, only stopping long enough to whip up a piece for the Brewer Nation SPS. What's even better, is that the Cardinals ended up losing!

Then, the night came, and I couldn't sleep. I finally managed to nod off around 3:30am, but only after watching Sportscenter. My alarm was set for 7am because I had to get my wife to the dentist by 9. Yeah, 1.5 hours of preparation time and 30 minutes of driving into Waukesha.

Why so much preparation time? Because after we were done at the dentist's office, we immediately set out for Miller Park.

By the time we arrived to the Giants parking lot, things were already hopping pretty good near the stadium. My wife and I set out to find our tailgate party (with 1250 WSSP and the Trysting Place Pub) that I had won us passes to. We got there, and the bus from the Pub was stuck in traffic! No food lines, no drink lines, and access to say hello to WSSP personalities like:

Steve "Sparky" Fifer & Tim Allen

...and Doug Russell, Gary Ellerson & Mike Wickett (with me second from the left...hey, I'm not called Big Rygg for nothing).

After having a good time there, my wife and I headed for the stadium. We found our seats, went for a walk, bought pretzels/drinks and then made it back out in time for the starting lineup announcements. Didn't have a chance to take any pictures of that, but there were nice ovations for everyone.

We hunkered down at that point, and enjoyed a terrific afternoon of baseball.

Sheets was on fire, with only one hung pitch that Jeff Kent barely got over the wall in center. Hall almost made a play on the ball too. Sheets retired the next 22 hitters, only giving up a double to former Brewer Brady Clark in the 8th inning. Hold on while I check my notes for the number of walks Sheets gave up.......oh yeah, NONE!

Our defense played very well today too. Hardy flashed leather all over the diamond (and also contributed with a three hits, a walk, an RBI and a run scored), and Hall had a few solid plays in the outfield including a spectacular diving catch to rob an extra base hit.

The team looked solid all around, but then again I didn't get a look at any of the bullpen guys. That's a good thing though.

By the time this pitch was thrown, it was sweet music to Brewers fans' ears. Brewers Win!

Make sure to read the next post down for South Side Rob's postgame analysis!

Ah! 33 hours of awesomeness...I can get used to days like this.