I don't understand why the New York Yankees make the playoffs every year while the New York Mets always seem to underachieve and fall short. They are both in one of the largest media markets and populated cities in America. Is it the ownership and management? Is it that one is located in the Bronx while the other is in Queens? I have no idea but I think there has to be something with the fact that the Mets play in a city called Flushing and their team always seems to swirl around the bowl down the drain every August and September. 2012 would be no different. The Mets are 20-40 after the All-Star break at the conclusion of this series, so I can understand how frustrated Mets fans must be. Although Brewers fans are certainly disappointed with how the team has fared overall in 2012 at least they are putting together a nice little run in the 2nd half to at least finish with a respectable record. But you want to know what? I'd still sadly trade franchises with them. I love my Brewers to death and I'm going to be a lifelong fan no matter what, but at least they have won a World Series. No wait - they have won 2 World Series Championships (1969 and 1986) and last appeared in the World Series in 2000 (which they lost to the Yankees). Every fan in Milwaukee knows that 1982 was our only World Series appearance and we lost to the St. Louis Cardinals. That's it.
Sadly I think I would trade my die-hard loyalty to my franchise for one that has won a World Series because I feel like it would make me feel like a winner instead of the loser that I have been for 31 years. I shouldn't bail on my team like that but I feel like I will die long before the Brewers win a World Series. Oh well. I guess I was born a loser and I will die a loser. No. Fuck that. I don't want to be a Met. I don't want to be a Marlin. I don't want to be a Phillie. I don't want to be a Blue Jay. I don't want to be a Royal. I don't want to be an Oriole. I don't want to be a Twin. I don't want to be a Yankee. I don't want to be a Dodger. I don't want to be a Tiger. I don't want to be a Red Sox, White Sox or any kind of Sox. I don't want to be a Giant. I don't want to be an Angel. I don't want to be an Athletic. I don't want to be an Indian. I don't want to be a Diamondback. I don't want to be a Red. I wouldn't even want to be a Pirate. I certainly don't want to be a Cardinal. And I most definitely don't ever want to be a Cub. I will accept being a Brave (but only the Milwaukee one) but I AM A BREWER. I love beer and the city that invented it, and we don't take no bullshit from anyone!! I promise you right now that I am not going to die until I see my Brewers win a World Series. I better be eternal like Highlander or some shit because modern baseball (despite the revenue sharing and wild card format) still does favor the large market teams when it comes to actually winning a championship. Ah well. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon, so let's just take it one year at a time, ok? 2013 World Series here we come!
Friday September 14 - Sunday September 16. Milwaukee Brewers vs New York Mets at Miller Park. Games 144 - 146 of 162. 3rd Place NL Central, 2.5 Games Back of Wild Card #2. The Brewers need to win almost every game from here on out for the rest of the season if they want to remain in the playoff talk. Before we go there let me clear this up - I don't think they'll make the playoffs. I think it'll just be a case of too little too late because the odds are stacked against them even though they technically still have a chance. But they certainly did their part by taking the series against the Mets. A sweep would have been magnificent, but you can't sweep every team. The offense wasn't enough to bail out Fiers and Parra in Game 1 but that kind of thing happens. Even though the Brewers are averaging like 6 runs on this current hot streak, they only managed 3 on Friday. Marcum turned in yet another short start (4 innings, 4 ER) on Saturday but the offense bailed him out. Last time that will happen. At least I hope so. I don't want Marcum back next year. Sunday was the most impressive game of the series. Brewers #1 prospect Wily Peralta went 8 innings giving up only 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk and stuck out 5. He has been nothing short of amazing since taking Mark Rodgers' spot in the starting rotation. Those 2 pitchers, with the emergence of Michael Fiers, gives me a lot of hope for next year because the offense is returning mostly intact. This rebuilding may take less time than I figured. The future is bright Milwaukee. Mets 7, Brewers 3. Brewers 9, Mets 6. Brewers 3, Mets 0.
I've been a little bit behind on this whole What's Brewing in the Crewbicle series that I've been working on during the 2012 Brewers season. Sorry. I'm trying to catch up here (it is October 2nd as I'm writing this) so that I have my last post right around the time that the season ends. And then I can start working on my year end wrap-up where I compare my 25 Brewers in 25 Days preseason predictions to the actual statistics and see how well I know my Brewers. But that will come in the next few weeks. But why do I bring this up? Since I'm posting one of these Crewbicle articles every 2-3 days instead of once a week as planned it seems like I am constantly writing about the Pittsburgh Pirates. Did we play them every week over the last month of the season? It certainly seems like it because I've run out of Pirate jokes. Why does it take pirates so long to learn the alphabet? Because they can spend years at C! What's a horny pirate's worst nightmare? A sunken chest with no booty! Why is pirating addictive? They say once ye lose yer first hand, ye get hooked! Aaaaarrr! I'll be here all week until I set sail. Looks like I haven't run out of Pirate jokes. That's because it is impossible. Pirates rule, although I do have a little bit of sympathy for the Pittsburgh variation. They have fallen hard, most;y at our hands over the last few weeks. After this series they are now below .500 at 74-75. Just a month ago (on 8/20) they were 12 games over .500, leading the 2nd Wild Card by a half a game and heading towards the playoffs and a winning record for the first time since 1992. Instead they are now spiraling out of control and heading towards their 20th consecutive losing season. As someone who sat through 13 of those (Milwaukee Brewers seasons 1992 - 2005) I feel their pain. I know I said this at one time either in person or here on the blog - I want to see the Pirates end that streak, but I don't want it to come at the Brewers' expense. That having been said this sweep over the Pirates helped us climb 5 games over and we sent them walking the plank at 1 game under. Ah well. Ye were a good mate to sail the 7 seas with Pittsburgh. Ye will be missed.
Tuesday September 18 - Sunday September 20. Milwaukee Brewers vs Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. Games 147 - 149 of 162. 3rd Place NL Central, 2.5 Games Back of Wild Card #2. It's really hard to get excited about a sweep over the Pittsburgh Pirates. First of all they're playing so poorly they might as well pack it in and call it a 20th consecutive losing season. Secondly it has come to the point where anything else would be a complete failure. St. Louis played the AAA Round Rock Express posing as the Major League Houston Astros so you know they would sweep them. The Brewers need a sweep of their own just to stay 2 1/2 games back. Now that sucks. As good as we've played over the last 30 games it's still not enough because St. Louis just can't and won't lose. So nothing excites me right now because I know the outcome. And it's too little too late unless the Cardinals fall apart. The Brewers do get an "A" for effort though and not quitting, especially in Game 3 when Fiers just didn't have it and we had to use 7 pitchers to get through 9 innings. The offense put up 5 runs in the 8th and 9th to come from behind and take the series. The other 2 games were just your standard good team over a bad team dominance. Just like old times. Did you see that? I called the Brewers a good team, something I've struggled with saying all year. I believe I said it once but put a footnote that they had a fatal flaw - the bullpen, which has fixed itself as of late. So we are back to being the team we were supposed to be. It's about time. Brewers 6, Pirates 0. Brewers 3, Pirates 1. Brewers 9, Pirates 7.
The roadtrip continues with a brutal 4 game series against the best team in the NL, the Washington Nationals and then concludes with a 3 game series against the 2nd best team in the NL, the Cincinnati Reds. These next 7 games will make or break our playoff run at the 2nd Wild Card. Unfortunately we all know the end result, but will that stop you from coming back here in a few days to see what I thought about that series? It better not. But at this point I'm convinced that I am talking to myself around here because who in the world has the time to sit back and read this shit? No one. Then why do I do it? Because I love the Brewers and I love to write. If I didn't do this or something similar than I'd probably go crazy. I already don't sleep longer than 5 hours a night because my brain works on overtime from the hours of 10pm - 2am and I just have to do something with it so I don't drive myself crazy. And I don't want to go crazy. You wouldn't like me when I'm crazy. The world just can't survive that. So instead of unleashing this mind on the world I instead chain it to this blog. You're welcome.
- pookon -
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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