Pirates pitching phenom Paul Skenes had one thing he wanted to do in his first trip to Milwaukee: Meet Bob Uecker.

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

This is honestly pretty damn cool. I don’t make it a habit to celebrate anything ‘pirate’ related, but the fact that one of the true up-and-coming pitching phenoms in Major League Baseball made a request to meet Mr. Baseball on his first trip to Milwaukee is awesome.

Skenes has the world by the nuts right now, #1 overall pick in last year’s draft, made his Major League debut this season and is already an All Star, blowing guys away with his 100 mph fastball, he’s dating the biggest Instagram star in the world Livvy Dunne, and now he’s scheduling meet and greets with the coolest guy on planet earth. In the words of Squirrely Dan:

Now, a bit of therapy as it relates to last night’s game: It wasn’t fun! After a long West Coast trip, it felt like the Brewers could get back on track with a 6-game homestand before the All Star break. And they still can! But it wasn’t an ideal start last night. Colin Rea had his first bad outing in forever, and the Brewers took their first real beating in a while. You have to go back to June 10th when they lost 10-2 in Detroit to find their most recent blowout loss. Jake Bauers was the only Brewer ‘pitcher’ to toss a scoreless inning last night, that’s about all you need to know.

You know what I could use today? The Royals to sweep the Cardinals in a doubleheader and the Brewers to return the favor to the Pirates tonight. That would be a tonic for my soul. The division is tightening up for the first time in a long time, I’m not going to get panicky, I didn’t think the Brewers were just going to do the lambada all season and win the divison by 10 games, but picking up 1.5 games in the standings today would be a nice gesture from the baseball gods.

PS: Last night is only one game, but I have mentally steeled myself for the annual pre-All Star break swoon, the Cardinals getting hot, the Cardinals trading for Max Scherzer in two weeks and the Brewers doing nothing timeline. I’d prefer the timeline where the Brewers win their next 5 and take an 8 game lead into the break, but it’s important to be prepared for all adventures.