When Trevor Hoffman signed a
free agent contract with the Milwaukee Brewers on January 13^th of
2009, the city rejoiced. The addition of the game’s best closing pitcher was a
massive step in the right direction to fixing one of the league’s shakiest
bullpens. Furthermore, he had a immense milestone lying ahead of him: 600
career saves. A long and winding road full of memories and un(but sometimes)wavering
performances, Trevor Hoffman had set the stage for his 600^th career
and record setting save. This is how one of Milwaukee‘s ballhawks experienced the piece of history.

           

The night prior, I had stayed
up really, really late. I’m usually a night owl anyway, but we’re talking maybe
an hour of sleep before departing for the game at 3:00pm. I was especially anxious to attend today’s game
because of the wind advisories. Over the past few days, the southeastern corner
of Wisconsin had been experiencing some crazy weather. The tail
end of the storms was a massive low pressure system, moving southeast from Canada (eh?). Winds had sustained speeds of 35 mph and had
gusts as high as 55. Depending on which way the wind would swirl in Miller Park‘s
seating bowl, it could be a ballhawking bonanza.

 

Upon arriving at Fridays, I
promptly ordered my standard Jack Daniels’ Chicken Sandwich. It’s heavenly. Moments
later, a familiar voice called out from behind me.

 

“You alone today?” asked Milwaukee‘s Nick “Happy Youngster” Yohanek.

 

“Yes, sir,” I replied. Nick
took a seat and BP was served! But it sucked. Horribly. The wind was blowing in
from our position in left field at a solid 20 mph, knocking down any potential
catches. Needless to say, the Brewers refrained from tossups. Nick and I
departed with a fist-bump and the gates were ready to open! I was very, very
eager to head up the escalator to the loge level and search for left field
easter egs:

 

But alas, I would find
nothing but other ballhawks. I soon moved to the lower LF corner to talk with
my good friends and Cardinal relievers Ryan Franklin and Trever Miller:

 

After briefly discussing the
weather with my guys, I relocated to right field:

 

There was NOTHING hit out. I
think there were only 4 BP home runs hit anywhere. One, off the bat of Matt
Holliday, found a home in the webbing of my glove, my first and only baseball
of the day:

 

 

See that little protrusion
in the RF corner next to the visiting bullpen? That’s an exclusive restaurant, sponsored
by a local airline. Nick did a little wheeling and dealing and sneaking and
snacking (on the great spread during BP) out in the landing zone. He managed to
snap a few pictures for me:

 You know those cheesy
emergency pamphlets airlines recommend you study and memorize and recite backwards
and forwards? Well, the airline came up with a “guide to proper heckling”, which
is a play off of the emergency pamphlets:

 

The captions read as
follows:

 

“In the event of Brewers
runs, a relief pitcher will descend into this area,” with an arrow denoting the
pitching mound.

 

“Heckle the relief pitcher
before helping others around you heckle the relief pitcher,”

 

“References to pitchers and
belly-itchers are encouraged at this point. Having multiple people participate
will increase the effectiveness,”

 

“Once you have heckled the
relief pitcher, join others in putting a hex on him,”

 

And my camera is crappy and
old, so I’m not able to distinguish the last caption.

 

During the game, I proceeded
to wander aimlessly. I managed to come upon the control room for Miller Park‘s
roof:

 The game itself was
incredibly exciting. Ken Macha, Chris Dickerson, Dave Duncan and a fan sitting
behind home plate were all ejected via umpire over the course of the horribly
officiated contest. Tim Timmons, Bob Davidson, Tim Tschida and Scott Barry
should be ashamed of themselves.

 

But the real action would
unfurl in the ninth inning. With a two run lead, Hells Bells rang. Trevor
Hoffman trotted to the mound and made quick work of the three hitters he would
face, recording his record 600^th career save. I had snuck down to
field level to try and get an umpire ball, but it didn’t work. I did, however,
get some awesome shots of Trevor and the celebration. I’ve got video of it, but
I’m not sure about the legality of putting it on youtube. I’ll look into that:

 

And that was all. History in
Milwaukee, and I saw it first hand! And, I’m up over 280 baseballs for the season!

-Shawn