Fall takeover
It’s football weather, but Wisconsin sports fans are savoring Brewers playoff fever
These are strange days in central Wisconsin. This, of course, is Packers country, and either the green-and-gold or football in general dominate the fall conversation. But with the NFL embroiled in yet another conundrum — now, what exactly is a sack again? — and an insanely likable Brewers team stealing our hearts, it would seem baseball is the toast of Wisconsin right now.
“In just the first three weeks of the season I haven’t watched much football, said Zach Flunker of Appleton, adding that he might just be watching the Brewers instead of the Packers on Sunday. “The NFL is ruining football with the roughing the passer calls.”
Cody Ortner, who grew up in Stratford and now resides in Minneapolis, is feeling much the same.
“With how the NFL has changed this year, penalties have proven to change outcomes in games and turn people away from the game,” he said. “That just means I can focus on the Brewers more and I’m pretty certain that’s what a lot of people are doing. I know my friends are.”
Perhaps this Brewers mania has been building since last year, when the team exceeded expectations and put their rebuild on the fast track. Enter Jan. 25, an otherwise crisp Wisconsin winter day.
That’s when the Brewers made two franchise-altering moves.
First they sent No. 1 prospect Lewis Brinson and three other top prospects to the Marlins for Yelich, part of a fire sale of sorts by the struggling Miami franchise. Some Brewers fans loved the move. Some thought they were giving up too much of the team’s bright future.
Within an hour of announcing the Yelich trade, news broke that former Brewer Lorenzo Cain had agreed to a five-year, $80 million deal with the team.
Fast forward eight months. Cain and Yelich are being used in the same sentence as Molitor and Yount. And Brewers mania has gone where it hasn’t been since 1982. Not even the run in 2011 felt this good.
When Ortner talks about Wisconsin sports fans and their love for the Brewers and Packers, he said one story comes to mind. He went to a Packers game in 2011, and what stood out to him was the sight of everyone tailgating outside of Lambeau Field with the Brewers playoff game on their television sets. This type of excitement is back, he said.
And even more, said Bruce Hawley, owner of Tanners Grill and Bar, a sports pub in Kimberly.
“Everybody is kind of feeling that ‘oh maybe we do have a shot at the World Series’,” he said. “Where as in 2011 it was more of, ‘oh, thank God we made the playoffs’.”
Joe Kohlbeck, co-owner of The Bar on the Avenue and the StoneYard Bar and Grill, both in the Fox Cities, said he wondered if interest in the Brewers would die down once the NFL season arrived. It usually does, he said. But not this year. Not with this team.
Adding to the hype
On Wednesday, Yelich added some serious fuel to the fire in an essay published on The Players’ Tribune, a popular website featuring columns written by the athletes themselves. In the article, titled “Milwaukee ... LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO,” Yelich raved about Milwaukee, the Brewers organization and Brewers fans and how he’s felt embraced since the January trade went down.
He implores fans to continue to be loud during the season-ending series against the Tigers this weekend at Miller Park.
The article had Brewers fans going crazy on social media all day Wednesday. Brian Bottei, a Brewers fan from Milwaukee, said he is reveling in all the “hype” surrounding this team, from Yelich’s run toward an MVP trophy to a pitching staff that has held strong despite an absence of aces in the starting rotation.
Perhaps the players’ YouTube parodies of “The Sandlot” and “Dumb and Dumber” were early indications of just how much fun this team could be.
“It’s hype here right now, people are talking about it and there’s a connection among community members here,” Bottei said. “The Brewers also have a much more likable team than... well just about anyone.”
There is no doubt that a Brewers buzz has been making its way across the state all season long, but especially over the last six weeks. Chris Erm of Appleton feels it. He said every day he and his boss will talk about the previous night’s game and can tell the excitement is picking up.
“The vibe has been unreal and you can tell the fever is catching,” Erm said. “Walking around stores you see so many more people in Brewers gear. Also, going back to Facebook and Twitter, there is so much more conversation and comments about the Brewers now than, say, two months ago.
“Everyone in my circle is just hyped and ready for the next phase — post-season.”
Adam Gruett, a Milwaukee native, said he believes the team is built for the long haul.
“The success is not temporary,” Gruett said. “We are here to compete for years to come.”