2008 Woodie Awards
Postseason for Brewers: Wisconsin sports in October not just for football fans
Jeremy Pink
Issue date: 10/1/08 Section: Opinion
Every August and September, for many years, the Milwaukee Brewers sat backseat to the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badger football team. Brett Favre, Ron Dayne, Mike Holmgren, Barry Alvarez and many others grabbed the spotlight across the state year after year. And most times, when you compared the performance of the Brewers with those of the Badgers and Packers, their treatment was justified. Fast forward to last weekend.
The Badger football team, ranked ninth in the nation, was defeated by the unranked Michigan Wolverines; the Packers were handed their second loss in row by the former division rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers, falling to a 2-2 record; three of the aforementioned four pillars of Wisconsin sports are gone; and the Brewers are in the playoffs. I will repeat that.
The Brewers, for the first time in 26 years, will be playing baseball in October.
Behind the seemingly superhuman arm of staff ace CC Sabathia and dramatic offensive performances, plus help from a few other teams, the Brewers chased down the New York Mets and the playoff ticket that had eluded them for 26 years. Most importantly, they did all of this in front of the hometown fans while the Badgers and Packers were on the road as if to say, "yeah, we're still here too."
Watching the events of the playoff-clinching game unfold was undoubtedly indescribable for all Brewer fans. For young 20-something fans, like the ones you see walking the UW-Whitewater campus, it was indescribable for one reason: this has never happened to us in our lifetime.
Any fan under the age of 26 has never witnessed playoff baseball in Milwaukee, and people even older may not have even been aware of any other playoff berth. That is why today will be a magnificent moment in the history of Brewers fandom.
For years the Brewers were the doormat of the league, considered an easy win for every other team. Sure, the Cubs have had a rought history too, having not won the World Series since 1908, but you had 11 chances since then so deal with it.
The Badger football team, ranked ninth in the nation, was defeated by the unranked Michigan Wolverines; the Packers were handed their second loss in row by the former division rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers, falling to a 2-2 record; three of the aforementioned four pillars of Wisconsin sports are gone; and the Brewers are in the playoffs. I will repeat that.
The Brewers, for the first time in 26 years, will be playing baseball in October.
Behind the seemingly superhuman arm of staff ace CC Sabathia and dramatic offensive performances, plus help from a few other teams, the Brewers chased down the New York Mets and the playoff ticket that had eluded them for 26 years. Most importantly, they did all of this in front of the hometown fans while the Badgers and Packers were on the road as if to say, "yeah, we're still here too."
Watching the events of the playoff-clinching game unfold was undoubtedly indescribable for all Brewer fans. For young 20-something fans, like the ones you see walking the UW-Whitewater campus, it was indescribable for one reason: this has never happened to us in our lifetime.
Any fan under the age of 26 has never witnessed playoff baseball in Milwaukee, and people even older may not have even been aware of any other playoff berth. That is why today will be a magnificent moment in the history of Brewers fandom.
For years the Brewers were the doormat of the league, considered an easy win for every other team. Sure, the Cubs have had a rought history too, having not won the World Series since 1908, but you had 11 chances since then so deal with it.
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