MILWAUKEE,
WI—Matt Grossman, 39, is
fulfilling a dream dreamed by every red-blooded American boy since the New York
Baseball Club took the field against the Knickerbockers in the first baseball
game way back in 1846.
Matt Grossman will take the mound tonight when the Milwaukee
Brewers face off against the Minnesota Twins.
"Hell yeah, it was a surprise," Grossman intimated
in the home team's locker room at Miller
Park. "One day I'm
eating a bratwurst and pounding beers with my boys down the third base line,
the next I'm up against Mauer and Morneau. It's crazy."
Grossman, an out-of-work guidance counselor who sells
home-brewed craft beer out of his studio apartment in Madison, caught the eye of Brewers manager
Ron Roenicke when the inebriated fan hit Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder
Starling Marte flush in the temple with a bag of peanuts during the eighth inning
of Sunday night's loss.
"Velocity-wise, the pitch left a little to be
desired," Roenicke admitted. "But the last-minute movement you want
to see was there, so we decided to give the kid a shot."
Grossman, who participated in Little League ball, is hoping
to stabilize a Brewers rotation that has been one of the worst in the major
leagues this season.
"We suck," Grossman said as he forced his pudgy feet
into baseball spikes for the first time in 30 years. "We're dead last.
That ain't gonna cut it. But I think I have what it takes to turn this thing
around."
