STILL WAITING
Brewers fans continue yearning for another trip to the World Series
The long wait for the Milwaukee Brewers’ second World Series continues.
The hopes of fans and team alike of snapping a 36-year drought in advancing to the Fall Classic were dashed Saturday night by the Los Angeles Dodgers, who captured their second consecutive pennant with a 5-1 victory in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series and will face the mighty Boston Red Sox.
Unlike the previous night, when Miller Park was as electric as the Las Vegas strip after the Brewers bolted to a 4-1 lead in the first inning, the energy was siphoned away by the Dodgers after Christian Yelich finally broke through for his first home run of the series in the first inning.
The first blow by the visitors was a two-run homer in the second by Cody Bellinger off Brewers “initial out-getter” Jhoulys Chacin, a 425-foot drive into the second deck in right. But the real dagger came in the sixth, when Yasiel Puig lined a three-run homer off reliever Jeremy Jeffress, whose all-star season ended with a mostly miserable October (6.75 ERA in eight appearances).
As damaging as those blows were,
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the real issue in the Brewers falling one game shy of the World Series was an offense that sputtered too often against the Dodgers’ strong pitching staff. In their four losses, the Brewers scored a total of eight runs, including a 2-1 loss in 13 innings in Game 4.
That’s just not enough to dispatch a strong, deep team such as the Dodgers. In their three victories, the Brewers did not score fewer than four runs, which usually is the magic number in baseball for assuring success.
Over time, Brewers fans will realize what a great ride the team gave them down the stretch, including a 20-7 September, a game No. 163 victory over the Cubs that snatched away the NL Central title and three-game sweep of Colorado in the NL Division Series. From that perspective, the Brewers far exceeded expectations in the third year of a largescale rebuild.
But the long, painful wait since the franchise’s only foray in the World Series since 1982 goes on. Not even the good vibes of having the MVP of that team, Robin Yount, throw out the ceremonial first pitch could prevent the disappointment that awaited.
Yount, who continues to support the Brewers in every way possible, knew as well or better than anyone what was at stake for the clubs. Beyond that, he understood the emotional investment of local fans in getting the first World Series to Miller Park.
“We need this stuff around here. This is what gets people excited,” said Yount, who could barely contain his own anxious excitement before the game.
“If it wasn’t for the fans, none of this stuff happens. So, to see this much excitement around here, it’s the best. You wish it could happen every year but obviously it doesn’t.”
No, it doesn’t. There was no way to know when that star-stuffed ’82 team
made it to the World Series, only to lose in heartbreak in seven games to St. Louis, that a return trip would not be forthcoming.
Many Brewers fans thought that team would make it back the next year, but a late-season fade nixed those hopes.
Then years passed, and decades, with no World Series. In 2011, the Brewers were knocked off in Game 6 of the NLCS by the Cardinals, whose destiny has been to break the hearts of Milwaukee fans in October.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the 2018 Brewers got hot just at the right time, ending a seven-year wait for postseason play. When they quickly dispatched the Rockies in the NLDS, there were hopes of surviving the Dodgers and becoming a surprise small-market entrant in the World Series.
“I think the fans of Milwaukee, and not just Milwaukee, the whole state of Wisconsin remembers the ’82 team,” said Yount, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch to former teammate and longtime pal Jim Gantner.
“I think wherever we go, we get comments on that. But the generations are turning over. The ones that saw us play are getting a little long in the tooth. We’ve got the next generation. And they’re going to remember these guys like mom and dad remember the ’82 group.
“So these guys are starting a legacy of their own, which is great.”
Perhaps that legacy will stretch to the World Series before this group is done. They became the talk of the town when they roared into the postseason at full steam, stretching their winning streak to 12 games and forcing George Webb restaurants to fork over free hamburgers for the first time since 1987.
Not all storybook tales have happy endings, however. As much as the 2018 Brewers captured the imagination of baseball fans across the state and pushed further into October than anyone predicted, there’s always disappointment when a dream ends prematurely.
So, the wait for another World Series continues. And it hurts.
But, as that pain dims in the coming days, Brewers fans will realize just how special this group was, and how for weeks on end they were the talk of baseball.