This is our final day in Milwaukee. After the afternoon game between the Twins and Brewers at Miller Park, we will hit the road (presumably with hundreds or thousands of others). Our main hope is that today’s game isn’t decided by a near home run by a player with no home runs (Jason Kendall) that turned into a Little League inside the park home run when the best catcher in baseball couldn’t catch the ball and a pitcher who had been in command all night decided to throw a ball he had no business throwing. That’s our main hope. But let’s back up a day to Wednesday:

*After a morning run — continuing to fight the battle between good health and epic consumption — we picked up Taco at the airport. Being a new father, he couldn’t commit to the full series. But he found a good one-way deal on a flight so he joined for the final two games. We proceeded to introduce gastro-intestinal poison into his system.

*First stop: Kopp’s, for a second straight day of no breakfast, followed by a giant hamburger, onion rings and custard for lunch. Next: The Lakefront Brewery tour, which is definitely a nice touch. It’s a very small brewery and their tour is fairly humorous (if limited). Tons of Twins fans packed it; the early tour sold out for the first time all year. The highlight of the tour is that the brewery bought Bernie Brewer’s original chalet from old County Stadium (picture, with us in the chalet). Inside the chalet, there are all sorts of inappropriate things, such as a drawing of a man’s reproductive organ and speculation as to how Rickie Weeks injured his wrist. We added “GBRT2K9″ before leaving.

*After a quick nap — that tour wiped us out — the crew headed to McGinn’s, an establishment near Miller Park that is also known as Slim’s. From there, we obtained a ticket on the ballpark shuttle for the price of one beverage, and prepared for our maiden voyage on the Slimousine (picture No. 2). The good: the Slimousine takes the worry out of driving, allows you to bring drinks onto it, and drops you right at the ballpark. The bad: It is not particularly well-cooled, and it is full of Brewers fans who become more confident after a rival pitcher chucks a ball into left field to plate the winning run. So yeah, that was the return trip.

*The game itself: well, you probably saw it. We will say no more. One note, though: a man seated next to us was (briefly) detained by security for smuggling in and plainly drinking from a can of Milwaukee’s Best. We’re not sure if it was the act itself or the choice of beer that warranted the dressing-down. It is also beastly hot inside Miller Park, partly because it was just hot everywhere but also due to the fact that so much of it is enclosed even with the roof open. For the record, and for the second time: be glad the new Twins stadium has no roof. The aesthetics and tradition will more than make up for a few weather inconveniences. Miller Park — which still isn’t a bad yard — would be twice ballpark it is now if it didn’t have that gaping monstrosity atop it.

*Post-game: The aforementioned return trip on the Slimousine, which reeked of body odor. One man said: “Smells like Minneapolis on here!” Which would have been funnier except for the fact that it really smelled like Milwaukee. Eventually, everyone settled in with some good razzing of a Bears fan. Order had been restored. We returned to the vehicle, meandered back to the Bayview neighborhood, had a delicious ice cream drink at At Random (go there), settled Diddy’s hunger with a slice of pizza the size of a small foreign car (portions are not meager anywhere here, which might explain the, um, consistent shapes in Milwaukee) and played a few more games of shuffleboard before calling it a night.

*Today: Tailgating with real grilled food, Scott Baker vs. a rookie and the drive home. Something tells us there might be a Mike Redmond sighting. Note: We will hopefully be listening to the NBA draft on the drive back, and also providing some thoughts via the Twitter. We’re becoming increasingly convinced — especially with Randy Foye gone, paving the way for an undersized point guard who can shoot — that Stephen Curry will the pick at 6. The rest is a big mystery.

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