FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Another CC Sabathia start for the Milwaukee Brewers last nigh. Classic game with the Cubs from what I saw from the highlights on ESPN this morning. No doubt the Cubs-Brewers series/ rivalry is the biggest in baseball today - not the Yankees-Red Sox like the media wants you to believe. BIn the NL Central, it will be interesting with these two teams up to the final day of the regular season. I think it would be coool to see the Brew Crew make a run. But when I check Brewers box scores since July 8, I'm not thinking about the NL Central race.

 The way the Brewers are using Sabathia since being traded from Clevland back on July 7 reminds me of what it is like to be a long-time, year-round resident of the New Jersey Shore. The Brewers are acting like the careless, ignorant, arrogant summer tourists from the NYC Tri-State area, specifically Staten Island and Northern New Jersey, in the way they are using Sabathia.

Follow me here folks... 

While it's surely not every one of these people who come to the Jersey Shore from up north, its enough of them that it cannot be ignored. These tourists (not respectful travelers - disrespectful tourists. There's a big difference) we refer to as bennies or shoobies from Sandy Hook to Cape May drive drunk on our roads, piss on our properties, assaulot our police officers, disrespect locals who work in the summer tourism industry, and misuse our rental homes for three months out of the year, then spit us out and retreat back to their residences for the winter. There is no care, no regard, and no apology for the way they act all summer here. At the same time, the Brewers are essentially renting Sabathia for the rest of the summer. Let's face it folks, and Brewers fans. Milwaukee is not a major market team who is going to spend the money Sabathia will demand in free agency. (And that's just fine with me. I always root for the small market team. I'm a freaking Padres fan. I despise the Yankees.) CC Sabathia is a summer rental for the Brewers. But during this summer rental, Milwaukee has acted like the unruly Staten Island summer tourists I described above with high, high pitch counts in this coddling starting pitchers era we're in.

Last night in the loss, Sabathia threw 124 pitches. In a Brewers victory and win for CC on July 23, he threw 106 pitches. And while it was did sanwhich the All Star Game, Sabathia pitched back-to-back starts for the Brewers on Sunday July 13 and Friday July 18 tossing complete games wins in both, 122 pitches on July 13 and 110 on July 18. Since coming to Milwaukee on July 7, his least amount of pitches was in his Brewer debut on July 8, 90 pitches. So, with it being highly unlikely that they will sign Sabathia to a contract in the off-season, the Brewers may be doing harm by grossly overusing him for the rest of the summer. But what concern is that to them come winter?

So as year-round resident of a Jersey Shore town, as is the case every summer I observe and deal with idiot Staten Island, New York City, and North Jersey tourists who use and abuse the Jersey Shore all summer only to spit us out come winter.

Sounds a little like the Brewers and Sabathia, doesn't it?