Sheets, Elephants, the Circus - This Story Has it All

Lots of fun quotes in this story about the the return of Sheets by Jayson Stark:

Of Sheets, Mike Maddux said:

"He's the kind of guy you'd want your daughter to marry," said Maddux. "He's genuine. There's a lot of smarts behind the aw-shucks."

Ooooookay - I don't have a daughter, but I'm sure the bank account looks appealing, if nothing else.

Stark challenged Maddux on the "smarts" part of that quote (and shockingly, not the part about having Ben Sheets as a son-in-law) - did Maddux mean pitching smarts?

"Everything smarts," Maddux said. "He's got the memory of an elephant."

Uh, hold on. Are we sure that elephants really have good memories?

"So I've heard," Maddux laughed. "I don't really know, because I've never asked one. But P.T. Barnum said it once. And that's good enough for me."

P.T. Barnum, eh? Perhaps this is why our pitching staff is carrying a 14.98 ERA since May* - our pitching coach quotes Carnies. The team (especially the staff) has been quite a circus this year - maybe we have finally identified the reason why. At least he doesn't talk to elephants, apparently.

(*I made that up)

And finally, a good story about the Brewers is never complete without a cerebral quote from The Glue...

"We just have to be the best team for 29 games now," Jenkins said. "We don't have to be the best team for six months anymore. ... If we can just finish the way we started, we'll be in great shape."

So true, Glue...so true. If you manage to go 19-10 over the last 29 games (which is how you started the season) you are fairly likely to win the division.