Just reviewed Ellie Ferguson’s “Wedding Bell Blues” at SBR — and Brewers lose again

Folks, I just reviewed Ellie Ferguson’s WEDDING BELL BLUES (available at the Naked Reader Press, www.nakedreader.com) and enjoyed it thoroughly; before I forget, here’s the link to that review:

http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/ellie-fergusons-wedding-bell-blues-a-funny-spicy-myster/

This was a funny, sexy, spicy book that made me laugh, and the plotting was good.  Nice work, Ms. Ferguson!  I look forward to whatever you write next.

Here’s a direct link to her book, which I might add is on sale right now for the low price of $1.99:

http://nakedreader.com/joomla15/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=22&category_id=6&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=11&vmcchk=1&Itemid=11

At any rate, I’m glad I had a book review to write for WEDDING BELL BLUES because otherwise, it was a somewhat depressing night again of baseball.  At least, unless you’re a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, or possibly of pitcher Jaime Garcia in particular; Garcia threw a two-hit shutout that until the 8th inning was a perfect game — then Garcia walked Casey McGehee and gave up a solid single to Yuniesky Betancourt.  It didn’t help the overall score, of course, as the Brewers still lost, 6-0. 

But it might’ve made the Brewers feel better about the loss.

As for me, I think Corey Hart is close to snapping his slump because he’s had a few intelligent at-bats (though he’s also taken Ks and hit into double plays, just like the rest of the Brewers) and has battled some rather good pitchers lately, from Tim Hudson the other night to Jaime Garcia tonight.  And he’s playing the field well, which is a big plus (especially as so many other Brewers are playing very poorly defensively; our infield, in particular, has no really good defenders and only two passable defenders, Rickie Weeks and Casey McGehee — though Prince Fielder improved a lot last year and maybe he’ll get back to that form this year.  if he does, he’ll be passable, too).

But very few bright spots exist so far for this year’s Brewers except the hitting of Fielder and Ryan Braun — and right now they’re both in mini-slumps, which isn’t helping anything.

Now, has there been some good pitching here and there?  Sure.  But no pitcher can win without some hitting coming from somewhere . . . and right now the Brewers’ hitting is nonexistent (not what I was expecting as a Brewers fan, as the Brewers are stocked with good hitters — only Carlos Gomez is a flat-out liability as a hitter and Yuniesky Betancourt, over the course of a season, is probably a .250 hitter at best).

What I’m hoping for, as a Brewers fan, is that things will improve and that this will be the last really bad streak of the season.  But to be one-hit the other night by Hudson, then two-hit tonight by Garcia, is really bad — I agree those two are very fine pitchers, but to have that happen two out of three games is nearly impossible unless you agree that the Brewers simply cannot hit the ball right now.