Trevor Megill took aim at Tropicana Field's roof on Sunday, calling its white color a bad design choice before Game 3 of the World Series in Tampa. Walking past reporters after batting practice, the Brewers reliever said, “Whoever decided to make the roof the same goddamn color as the baseball is a f—ing idiot.”
The complaint landed because the background can make fly balls and ricochets harder to track, and the Brewers had already been working on that problem on the off day. Dario Melendez of WISN 12 News said they had been practicing those reads, a sign that Megill's gripe was not just frustration but part of the preparation for Monday's game.
Megill had also earned the right to speak from the mound. He had thrown 6 ⅔ innings this postseason, allowed one run on three hits and struck out seven, with his lone run coming in the chaotic ninth inning of Game 1 of the World Series. He also survived an overturned double play to close out that win, so his comments carried the weight of a pitcher who has been in the middle of the biggest moments.
There is a wrinkle, though. The Brewers have benefited from a similar kind of overhead oddity this postseason, when the cables at American Family Field potentially robbed Ty France of a game-changing home run in Game 1 of the NLDS off Megill, only for Jackson Chourio to catch the ball after it came down and the play to be ruled an out. The Brewers went on to win that game 3-2 and later clinched the NLDS in four games, a reminder that the same strange break can cut both ways.
The roof issue is hardly abstract at this stage, either. In Game 2 of the ALDS, a towering fly ball from Spencer Jones hit the Trop's catwalk and dropped into the glove of Victor Mesa Jr. for an out, a play that showed how much those overhead structures can matter. If the Brewers win the next two games in Tampa, they can clinch a sweep of the Rays on the road for their first-ever World Series title.
