Long day at the ballpark

Thanks to the Marquis de Perez, who put us in an early hole that we never came close to digging out of. This is not the same pitcher we saw in 2004.

We had a few chances to get back in the game today, usually involving Jeremy Burnitz, who had a single in the first but then failed in key situations twice later in the game. Craig also looked bad at the plate all day. He's always been a streaky player, and I wonder if he might be going into one of his prolonged bad streaks. He'll be okay as long as he continues to resist chasing that outside slider in the dirt that often eats him up.

Before the game, I was on Pirates Sunday with Rob Pratte, fielding calls from a lot of angry and disgruntled Pirates fans.

Photo by Rebecca.









During the show, we interviewed Burnitz, who stayed on the phone with us as long as we wanted him to and answered all our questions pleasantly and honestly. Despite evidence to the contrary later in the day, he seemed confident that both he and the team were close to breaking out of their season-long slumps. Burnitz is a good guy who has had a fine career, especially in Milwaukee, and after talking with him, I find it impossible to dislike him or blame him personally for his failures. I used to feel the same way whenever I would hear Kevin Young interviewed.

As I said during the break to Rob, "Nice guy. I just wish he was on someone else's team."