Third baseman Jeff Cirillo strolled into the Milwaukee Brewers clubhouse at County Stadium and saw the blue canvas equipment bag propped behind a couch. That was the last wisecrack uttered about Brewers pitchers and hitting. Joke time is over.
Crunch time is just around the corner.
Interleague play begins for the Brewers Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It's time to start doing it now. That's going to be the key. Villone, who spent time in the National League with San Diego, has hit a few balls into the right-field bleachers at County Stadium. Cirillo wasn't impressed.