My souvenir from the clubhouse sale

[Oldcity]

Went to the clubhouse last week mainly just to see what it's all about. My brother was looking around too, then waived me over. At first, I laughed, not believing they were selling it. "Oh wow, this would be pretty funny to have." Then I thought about it some more, and kept looking at it. "Man... I actually think I want this!"

It was just sitting there, unassuming, tucked in with all the other lineup cards. I bet almost nobody gave it a second thought. It wasn't a game the Brewers would promote, that's for sure. Still, it's a monumental game in team history. I still talk about it all the time, and I will always remember where I was while watching it. And now, I own the lineup card.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g312/saltstadt/DSCF1139.jpg

[BrewCrewForever]

The last game Ned Yost managed as a Brewer?

[Invader3K]

That's pretty cool, Stevo.

[dadofandrew]

2nd to last game, I believe. It says Game 1 at the top.

[1992casey]

I was just going to post that, Al. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Quoth Retrosheet:

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PHILLIES 8TH: Werth singled to left; SHOUSE REPLACED MOTA (PITCHING); Utley out on a sacrifice bunt (pitcher to first) [Werth to second]; Howard was walked intentionally; Burrell singled to left [Werth scored, Howard to second]; BRUNTLETT RAN FOR BURRELL; Victorino homered [Howard scored, Bruntlett scored]; FELIZ BATTED FOR DOBBS; Feliz singled to left; GAGNE REPLACED SHOUSE (PITCHING); Ruiz flied into a double play [Feliz out at first (right to first)]; 4 R, 4 H, 0 E, 0 LOB. Brewers 3, Phillies 7.

[hawing]

Ned's penultimate game as Brewers' manager, yes; but also arguably his "last straw" game.

 

Congratulations on the find, Stevo. The lineup cards were the one thing I didn't look through at the sale.

[JoeHova]

Sweet souvenir. Probably the most memorable Brewers game in the past 20 years. I actually had to listen to it on the radio because I was in Indianapolis watching Valentino Rossi dominate fools but it was the most inexplicable move I can remember ever being made by a manager. I was shocked Yost lasted 1 more game after that display, I would have fired him between games of the doubleheader.

[pretendastronaut]

Surely we all remember this gem, but it deserves to be here with that gem.

 

Yost has to take a big part of the blame as well, after making some of the worst tactical decisions you’ll see. In the eighth inning of yesterday’s first game, the Brewers were tied 3-3. Guillermo Mota allowed a leadoff single to Jayson Werth, and was lifted for Brian Shouse so that Shouse could face Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. (Charlie Manuel‘s refusal to always put a right-handed batter between those two is a big reason why the Phillies will have trouble winning a short series.) Utley sacrificed Werth to second, setting up Shouse versus Howard.

 

Yost elected to walk Howard to face Pat Burrell. This was… well, it strains my vocabulary to find the right word for it. Howard cannot hit left-handers, and would be a platoon player if performance mattered anywhere near as much as reputation does. Or if he had a competent manager. Howard is at .228/.313/.458 against lefties in his career, .212/.287/.410 this year. Howard. Can’t. Hit. Lefties. Shouse, on the other hand, is in the major leagues for exactly one reason: lefties can’t hit him, to the tune of .175/.192/.289 this year, and .211/.263/.325 for his career, which includes a bunch of years when he was barely a major leaguer. Manuel sending Howard up against Shouse was a continuation of a theme for the Phillies: not hitting for Howard when he has little chance of doing something good. He was giving Yost an out, and Yost gave it right back.

 

That set up Shouse versus Pat Burrell, which cried out for a right-handed reliever. After all, Shouse is a pure specialist (.307/.390/.455 vs. RHB career; .293/.371/.446 this year). The only way walking Howard even might make sense is if Yost were to bring in a righty to try and get a double play out of Burrell. Burrell doesn’t have the big platoon splits he showed earlier in his career—he’s a dangerous hitter against both kinds of hurlers—but leaving Shouse in to face him was asking for trouble.

 

Think about this for a second. Yost had a 481 OPS pitcher facing a 697 OPS hitter. He elected to issue an intentional walk in that situation to allow an 817 OPS pitcher to face a 905 OPS hitter with an additional runner on base. That’s when you start looking around the roof of the stadium for snipers, because gunpoint is the only place where that kind of decision makes sense.

 

So it was no surprise that four pitches later, the Phillies were up 7-3. Burrell singled in one run, and Shane Victorino cleared the bases with a three-run homer to left.

[Oldcity]

Yep. Second to last game, but essentially the game that got Yost fired. Some may call it sadistic, but I think it's a pretty awesome souvenir. Definitely will be a conversation piece, anyway.

[clint1313]

I was going to post earlier, but I actually bought game #2 at the sale. I couldn't really believe that the lineup card for Yost's last game was just sitting there with a bunch of others.

[hawing]

So the lineup cards for both of those games are now in the hands of Brewerfan members. This is just so right.

[Oldcity]

Wow, that's awesome!

[bucksbeat]

Did someone actually spell Geoff Jenkins' name wrong? Looks like Jenkens.

[TooLiveBrew]

Nice catch, bucksbeat. But it's not like anyone with the Brewers should've been familiar with him.

[hawing]

When I first checked out Stevo's photo, I thought that under the red marker under Available Pitchers, Shouse might have been spelled with an SCH instead of SH. Because of the red marker, though, it's hard to tell for sure.

[BrewCrewForever]

I still to this day can't believe Yost used Shouse to walk Howard and had him pitch to Burrell. It might be the worst managerial move in Brewers history. And I am sure Lopes and Royster had a lot of them. What in Ned's mind told him that was a good idea? Did he have money on the Phillies to win that game?