Braun’s blast in 2008 set stage for wild party
With the sports world on hold, we present a countdown of the 50 greatest moments in Wisconsin sports history over the past 50 years. This is No. 12.
"Swing and a drive! Left center and deep! Get up, get outta here, gone!"
They are words that have generated goosebumps on the arms of Brewers fans for five decades. Bob Uecker, the needno-introduction play-by-play voice of Milwaukee Brewers radio, has offered the perfectly constructed narration to countless long drives over the years, and the final day of the 2008 season was no exception. Although, when Ryan Braun launched the one of the most significant home run in franchise history, it was the voice of TV announcer Brian Anderson that became forever attached to the highlight.
"And there's a drive into left field," Anderson said as the audible swell of realization radiated among fans at Miller Park. "This is hit well. And it's gone! Ryan Braun! A two-run home run. The Brewers take the lead."
It wasn't a walk-off home run, unlike two other long blasts in the week leading up to Sept. 28, 2008. But Braun's deployment of a first-pitch fastball by reliever Bob Howry gave the Brewers a 3-1 lead over the Cubs in the eighth inning, meaning three outs stood between the Brewers and at least a one-game playoff for the franchise's first postseason trip in 26 years.
"I thought I hit it good enough to be a home run, but I wasn't positive," Braun said of the 403-foot drive. "I didn't hit it as good as the grand slam the other day. I felt like the home run I hit the other day was the biggest one in my life, but I think this surpasses that."
There was one more memorable inning to go. CC Sabathia, the midseason acquisition that had electrified the 2008 Brewers, capped off his 10th complete game of the season and seventh since be
coming a Brewer. He retired Alfonso Soriano with a flyball to left and, after a Ryan Theriot single, induced a 4-6-3 double play from slugging first baseman Derrek Lee.
Ray Durham shuffled the ball to J.J. Hardy covering second, and his toss to Prince Fielder at first base ignited a wild celebration that featured the burly Sabathia screaming on the mound. The Brewers had won, 3-1.
"I didn't even know I was that excited," said Sabathia, who went 11-2 with a 1.65 earned run average and seven complete games in 17 starts with the Brewers. "‘Sheeter' (Ben Sheets) said, ‘I like the emotion that you showed.' I didn't know what he was talking about."
For several minutes afterward, players and fans waited in the stadium with an eye on the game between the Marlins and Mets. When the Marlins finished off a 4-2 win, it meant the Mets had closed the season at 89 wins, one game behind the Brewers for the National League wildcard berth. The celebration began anew in the Brewers clubhouse. After a generation's wait since reaching the 1982 World Series, the Brewers were back in the postseason.
"For us the last week was like the seventh game of the World Series every day," Braun said. "Any game we lost, we were basically done, so I think we've been in a playoff atmosphere for the last week."
Ryan Braun and interim manager Dale Sveum celebrate in 2008 after the Brewers ended a 26-year postseason drought.
September to remember
Milwaukee won Sept. 23 over Pittsburgh on Prince Fielder's two-run homer in the ninth, after Braun had singled with two outs. Two days later, Braun belted a grand slam for a 5-1 win over the Pirates in 10 innings.
The Brewers, who found themselves 21⁄2 games behind the Mets with seven baseball games left, needed every win.
Milwaukee actually pulled ahead of the Mets by a full game two days before the finale following a 5-1 win over the Cubs, a game punctuated by four strong innings from reliever Seth McClung (one hit, one walk, six strikeouts). But on the penultimate day of the season, Milwaukee gave the game back with a 7-3 loss and a Mets win. In the process, Milwaukee also lost starter Ben Sheets, who had been a workhorse during the season, to a torn elbow ligament.
In 2008, Sheets posted a 3.08 ERA over just shy of 200 innings, with a 1.150 WHIP and five complete games (three shutouts). He'd never throw a pitch in a Brewers uniform again. It was a substantial loss.
It also meant the Brewers and Mets were tied heading into the season finale. The Cubs, having already sewn up the National League Central title, opted to throw a series of relievers instead of a traditional starter. The Brewers turned to Sabathia.
"No way I don't pitch," Sabathia said. "If I was healthy enough and had enough rest, whenever they need me, I'll be ready."
"I knew he was a good pitcher but I didn't know his heart was as big as he is," general manager Doug Melvin said after the game. "That's the difference between (this) and any other acquisition in the past . ... He wanted to do this for the guys in the clubhouse."
For the first six innings, the Brewers collected only one hit against four relievers, and the Cubs brought a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh. But Durham doubled leading off against Sean Marshall and scored with two outs when future Brewers manager Craig Counsell drew a bases-loaded walk.
Sabathia worked a 1-2-3 eighth – two strikeouts and a barehanded spear of a comebacker converted into the third out – but was due up to bat first in the eighth, forcing interim manager Dale Sveum to weigh removing Sabathia for the offense (although Sabathia, who homered in his second start with Milwaukee, could handle a bat). Sabathia struck out, but Mike Cameron singled. After Durham flew out, up stepped Braun.
"He's one of the best ever after two years playing this game," Sveum said. "You've always got a feeling (he could hit a home run). It was a special moment."
Connections to Brewers history
Sveum was in an unusual spot, having been promoted to interim manager with just 12 games left in the season. Brewers manager Ned Yost had been stunningly fired following a four-game sweep in Philadelphia, the final straw in a 3-11 downward spiral that put the Brewers playoff positioning in jeopardy. Milwaukee lost four of its first five games with Sveum, too, but still finished 7-5 in those 12 games.
"I don't know if anybody's ever had the out-of-body experience that I've had the last 12 days, and the emotion," Sveum said. "A lot of people think I'm pretty calm, and I am, but there were a lot of emotions.
"This is something, since I signed in '82, that I always dreamed of," he added, referring to his days as a Brewers firstround draft choice. "Unfortunately, it took 26 years but at least in any capacity I was part of it. Obviously, I hope we can take it to another level."
One move Sveum had made was hiring Brewers legend Robin Yount to take Sveum's old place as bench coach.
"I like parties," Yount said. "If they're every 26 years, I guess that makes them all the more exciting. I came back here two years ago (as bench coach under Yost in a short-lived stint) because I thought this was a bunch of guys who could get this done. To validate that decision and make it come true for the people of Milwaukee, it's special."
Yount knew a thing or two about dramatic season finales. He hit a pair of home runs off Jim Palmer on the final day of the season in 1982, when the Brewers beat Baltimore to win the American League East title.
"His was a lot more heroic than mine," Yount said, referring to Braun's homer. "It was huge, about as big as it gets."
Braun said he was expecting a fastball from Howry, because the Cubs had been pitching him that way during the series. The day before, Cubs left-hander Ted Lilly tried to sneak a first-pitch fastball past Braun, who lined a double leading off the seventh to end Lilly's no-hit bid.
"I was just looking for something I could get the barrel on," Braun said of his approach against Howry, the seventh
Cubs pitcher of the day. "Obviously, it worked out.
"I'm kind of always sitting first-pitch fastball, but I've been taking it a lot lately. It's difficult when you're in a situation where they're throwing a different guy every inning; you don't know what to expect. So it's easiest to look fastball and adjust to everything else."
Braun finished the year with 35 homers but only hit one in September prior to the final homestand as he battled through a strained intercostal muscle. With 71 homers in his first two seasons, Braun amassed the fourth-best mark in Major League history, behind Joe DiMaggio (75), Ralph Kiner (74) and Eddie Mathews (72).
"It felt kind of like it was scripted," Braun said.
How the moment lives on
The Brewers fell to the eventual World Series champion Phillies in four games in the postseason, three games to one. But Milwaukee did win its first playoff game since 1982 with a Game 3 victory at Miller Park, and three years later, the Brewers won their first division title since 1982 and recorded a franchise-record 96 wins. The 2008 season didn't begin a wave of Brewers success immediately, but it felt like the opening of a new chapter that has featured four playoff appearances in 12 seasons.
Sabathia, as everyone expected, signed elsewhere in free agency, taking a seven-year deal with the New York Yankees.
Has Braun also played his final game? The franchise staple was heading into what most presumed to be his final year with the Brewers in 2020, but with the season in jeopardy, it's hard to know what's ahead for Braun. The 2007 Rookie of the Year and 2011 Most Valuable Player has hit more home runs than anyone in Brewers history, including a handful of wildly memorable blasts.
Yost didn't get to guide the Brewers all the way to the playoffs, but he did wind up as manager of the Kansas City Royals and took the team to the World Series in 2014 and to a World Series title in 2015. Sveum, who wasn't offered the Brewers managerial job in 2009 (it went to Ken Macha instead), wound up managing the Cubs for two years and was on Yost's staff in Kansas City.