MESA, Arizona -- In the longest, most ridiculous game of the entire spring, the Cubs and Brewers played to a 10-10 tie in front of another sellout, 12,782, and both the Cubs and Brewers traded blown leads, errors, wild pitches, walks with the bases loaded...

And none of it means anything, because by the sixth inning -- after which eight of the 20 runs were scored -- virtually everyone who's going to be on these two rosters next Monday when they next face each other, had left the game. In fact, we were treated to the bizarre sight of the starting Brewers, dressed in suits, walking from the first base dugout to the LF corner to their waiting bus.

Of the seven Cubs pitchers, six of them will likely never see a major league mound (well, in the case of Rocky Roquet and Tim Lahey, they might, but not anytime soon). The only important appearance today was that of Sean Marshall, and quite frankly, he didn't look very good. He issued three walks (one intentional), gave up three hits (all doubles) and two runs.

Hey Lou! You out there? Carmen Pignatiello has earned the last spot in the bullpen! Send Marshall back to Iowa where he can start every fifth day and be ready in case of injury.

Micah Hoffpauir is another player whose great performance today (two home runs) earned him a trip to Des Moines, where I suspect he'll play quite a bit of outfield on the chance that it might increase his versatility as a bench player.

Alfonso Soriano and Ronny Cedeno also homered, off a number of miscellaneous Brewers minor league pitchers. Cedeno's HR landed on the net on top of the scoreboard right behind us, dropped to the ground and a kid in a Brewers Geoff Jenkins T-shirt leaped over the railing and grabbed it. Me, I got a bruised elbow out of the deal, though I don't think it'll put me on the DL.

I shouldn't complain. The sun was glorious again today. The baseball was a bit silly -- we caught Matt Murton laughing in LF after Casey McGehee (moved to catcher, presumably to increase his versatility) attempted to throw Alcides Escobar out stealing in the 10th inning. Unfortunately, neither Andres Blanco (over from the minor league camp) nor Mike Fontenot had been told about this, and neither covered second base. The resulting error put Escobar on third, where he scored on an Ed Campusano wild pitch. (Campusano has talent, but he is a long way from a major league mound.)

Same for E. J. Shanks, a sidearmer who threw the bottom of the 10th for the Brewers, gave up two hits and walked McGehee with the bases loaded to force in the tying run. And that, as they say, was that.

Today, we were joined on the lawn by BCB reader dfrancon, who had driven up just for the day from a business meeting in Tucson, and who left likely with a pretty good sunburn. Also stopping by were my friends Tom & Ginger from Chicago; Tom was nattily attired in a Cubs fez and carrying a stuffed Ryne Sandberg doll in his backpark -- you have to see this to believe it. If I can I'll get him to send a photo of it to me.

Also stopping by was BCB reader StampMe, and Mike who works at the Full Shilling -- sorry, I forgot your user name!

Thus ends the the Arizona portion of the exhibition schedule with the Cubs dead even, 14-14-2, and they are on to Las Vegas tonight (frankly, I was surprised that Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez played seven innings today). I'm heading to the airport soon, and will post a game thread for the night game at Las Vegas sometime tomorrow afternoon. The weather forecast for Monday doesn't look too good right now, but weather permitting, I will, and I know many of you will, be back at Wrigley Field on Monday. Let's play ball, for real!