Brewers: Craig Counsell Gives Great Response to Cubs Manager's Roof Comments from Tuesday

Well, I guess it wouldn't be the NL Central if an opposing manager wasn't insinuating whether the Brewers were manipulating their stadium in some way to gain a competitive advantage. If you're not sure what we're talking about, let's get you up to speed.

On Tuesday, the Brewers played the second game of their home series against the Chicago Cubs. As there was some potential for rain in the forecast, the roof at American Family Field started closing prior to game start before opening back up before first pitch.

That's how things stayed before roughly the eighth inning when a roof closure was once again initiated. That closure stopped briefly before the roof ultimately closed all the way for the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, as far as the actual game was concerned, the Cubs took a 6-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth before the Brewers scored two runs in both the eighth and ninth innings to come from behind and tie things up for the second straight game. Things would keep going until the 11th inning, where despite Chicago first base coach Mike Napoli and manager David Ross getting ejected for their displeasure with the home plate umpire, the Cubs would score and ultimately win by a final score of 7-6.

After the game, Ross had some choice words about the umpiring, which isn't surprising considering the ejection. But as you can see here, he also questioned the decision to close the roof late in the game, of all things (beware, as the comments contain some choice language).

Today, Brewers manager Craig Counsell had a great response to Ross' postgame comments from Tuesday.

The comments from Ross after yesterday's game were likely born out of overall frustration. But if they weren't, there is more than one reason they were silly in the first place.

For one, there was actual rain on the radar not far from the stadium when the roof started closing, which shouldn't have been surprising based on the initial attempt to close it before the game even started. So the reasoning for closing it was right there.

On top of that, while the roof started closing before the Brewers were coming to bat, it's not as though the Cubs didn't have any at bats left in them. So they had a chance to use the roof closure to their advantage as well.

Either way, Brewers manager Craig Counsell was given the opportunity to weigh in on the situation before Wednesday's rematch. And per this quote captured from Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he had this to say:

"It's always been like whether of not the field gets tarped. It's the decision of the team before the game starts and then once the game starts it sits in the umpires' hands. The umpires have always said if you think it's going to rain, close the roof so we don't have a rain delay."

Craig Counsell

The winningest manager in franchise history followed that with some classic Counsell sarcasm we've come to know and love:

"That's the point of having a roof, I think, is to prevent it raining....I can't control whether it was raining or not. I'm not in the roof business. I don't want to be in the roof business. It's a bad business to be in."

Craig Counsell

Amazingly, this isn't even the first time another NL Central manager has insinuated, or in this straight up complained, the the Brewers manipulated the stadium to their advantage. Back in 2011, as documented in this piece from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa actually filed a complaint that Milwaukee was changing the lighting on their ribbon board during their at bats.

Whether Ross actually thought the Brewers were trying to gain an advantage through their stadium yesterday or not, it's crazy that we're dealing with a situation like this again. Leave it to the Brewers' skipper to take it all in stride.