Bake-ball

I'd have to say today was one for the record books. I'm just not sure which book to put it in.

We had today off to take in an afternoon Brewers game at Miller Park. This has been an annual tradition for several years with what I call the Sports Guy Contingent.

Jeff (left) and Pete (middle) all worked with hubby as sports writers at the newspaper a dozen years ago. Since Jeff and his wife Kristin (far left) live in the Milwaukee area, we meet up at their house and head to the game.

Today was just too hot to even think about tailgating so we ate lunch at some Chinese-American sports bar. Sounds weird but it was good. We took a free shuttle from there down to the park.

Game time was 1:10 p.m. Not sure what the temperature was. We think 90 -- which means this has to have been the absolute hottest game on record for this Sports Guy outing. It rivaled the incredibly steamy July 3rd game 3 or 4 years ago -- but at least for that one we were in the shade!

Today we were baking in the sun along the third-base line. Totally baking! In the 3rd inning, when I saw paramedics tending to a heat-stroke victim in the women's bathroom, I said we better stay hydrated! So the drink of choice at Miller Park was not Miller today, but cold water. That helped -- and the fact we could finally move up a row in the 6th inning so we finally had some shade!

It was a good game. Brewers scored 3 runs in the first 2 innings so that was cool (well, nothing was cool really -- it was more likehot, sunny bake-ball than baseball). They beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-4!

A few photos:

Rickie Weeks at bat.

Ryan Braun at bat. Based on the thousands of Brewers t-shirts I saw in the crowd today, he is definitely the most popular player!

Another one for the record book: With his 4 hits today (including a home run!) Casey McGehee set a Brewers franchise record for 9 hits out of his last 9 at bats! Nice job.

Since we were on the third-base side, we got to see Braun up close (sort of). Poor guy never got any shade out there all day.

The highlight as usual is the Sausage Race! Can you imagine how hot it was in those costumes today? Yuck. Bet they all felt like they just came off a Weber grill! I know we did.

But it was fun! And who can beat a day off just 4 days after vacation? I'll take it.