Booty Call

The recent struggles for the Brewers have been well documented, here and elsewhere.

If you read Tom Haudricourt's stuff on his Brewers Blog, he's absolutely falling apart right now. The sky has fallen in poor Tom's world. He's gone insane.

But it's not just the Brewers who are struggling to win games as a contending team here in September. We know the Cubs are struggling too, just as badly as the Brewers are. The Arizona Diamondbacks have lost 6 straight games - with Webb and Haren at the top of their rotation, you'd think a 6-game losing streak should be impossible. The White Sox can't beat Toronto and have lost 3 straight. The Twins aren't winning either.

Good pitchers are blowing games. Papelbon blew a save last night. The Cubs bullpen suddenly can't close games out. Torres, who has been great all year, is stumbling, today's performance notwithstanding.

The Rays are 4-6 in their last 10 games, and as I watch them play the Red Sox tonight in extra innings, those two teams are 1 for 21 with runners in scoring position tonight. Make that 1 for 22, as the Red Sox fail again as I'm writing this. Now 1 for 23.

Really, among contending teams only the Mets and Dodgers are winning - I guess you can add in Houston too, since they have crawled back into the Wild Card chase.

What the hell is going on here?

I think Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn has the answer. Tight booties.

"I tell the kids you can't play with a tight booty. There's nothing you can do in the game with a tight booty. You can't run, you can't pitch, you can't hit, you can't do anything."

So there you have it. You loosen your booty in September, you win. Maybe Gwynn can come visit his son and the Brewers in Philly and teach them how to loosen their booties.

Start with Fielder. His might take a while.