The Top Ten Things About Last Night's Brewers/Marlins Game at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

10. The fact that the tickets were free. (My officemate earned them for filling up at a local gas station a certain number of times, the friends who were going to go with them couldn't go, aw yeah.) Total cost: $6 for parking, $3.25 for an okay-sized bag of peanuts, $3.25 for a bottle of Aquafina water, $3.25 for a bottle of Pepsi. The Pepsi made Sammy too hyper for words, but Emma can handle her caffeine, because she's almost nine.

9. Our seats, five rows from the top in foul left-field territory, afforded us an excellent view of the game. Amazing sightlines all around the park, it's a Lutheran Church of Family Baseball.

8. Sammy, age 6: "Probably when our guy won the hot-dog race." The kids and their uncle Jeff picked "Bratwurst," who came from behind in the last few yards to outstrip my choice, "Italian Sausage." What a loser, Italian Sausage.

7. Wes Obermueller's amazing pitching performance: seven shut-out innings, two walks, two hits both to Conine. Apparently, Ned Yost didn't tell Obermueller he was starting until 90 mins. before the game, so as not to freak him out. Wes gets nervous. Jack McKeon knew, but Ober thought it might be rookie Jorge de la Rosas.

6. Lyle Overbay confounding my fantasy baseball predictions by smacking a two-run job to right. (I benched him on both my teams. I have switched his name from Lyle "Too Cool for a Nickname" Overbay to Lyle "Inconsistency Itself in the Second Half" Overbay.)

5. The fact that everyone there looked SO WISCONSINISH. Oh man, it was amazing. Lots of middle-aged Danes with brushstaches, many towheaded tween girls, ah my state, I love ya.

4. The awesome music. Hair metal and nu-metal! Geoff Jenkins on the outfield scoreboard saying "I want some R&B," and then his head doing a bobble-dance on top of a cartoon body, accompanied by Usher & Lil Jon. It totally worked, as did "Let's Get It Started," which is unfortunate.

3. The fact that no runs were scored by Florida until we were on our way out of the stadium. The game ended up 6-4, but we didn't see any of the four. Awesome, because last year we saw the Crew play the Reds and we were winning big until the 6th, whereafter we gave the game away. Sammy cried.

2. Emma's out with her mom right now but I'll answer for her: "Tied between watching Bernie Brewer slide down the slidey thing after the home runs with the fireworks going off, and when we were going to the game and we made up Goosey the Talking Flying Burping Goose and all of his evil action phrases like 'Shut up kid, I got problems of my own'."

1. Everyone sleeping on the way home. The PT Cruiser humming through the chilly night air. Uncle Jam Wants You on the stereo. The lights from other cars receding, appearing, it's like a video game, the lights defeat the darkness outside. The game defeats the darkness inside. Not feeling tired or sad. Knowing that after we drop Jeff off and get the kids into bed (still wearing their clothes, barely waking up enough to walk upstairs), I can sprawl out on the couch with Liza and watch Fox Sports World and talk about stuff. The horizon is home.