There IS crying in baseball!
Did it have to be the Cubbies?
If Brett Favre can quarterback (verb, transitive) the Minnesota Vis-queens, if Jim Leonhard can coach (as an assistant) the Fighting Illini, … hell bellz! If Nixon can go to China, we guess Craig Counsell can coach the Chicago Cubs. Free market economy, and all that. Hard to say no to $8 million a year. Most expensive manager in baseball and worth it.
Doesn’t mean we have to like it. We grew up in an era where Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, and Hank Aaron played for the same team their entire Hall of Fame careers. In different cities, but same team. (O.K., Hank finished out his career with the Brewers, but in the same city he started in.)
With the Texas Rangers winning a world series, the Brewers are now one of only five to lack the brass ring — the others being the San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, Colorado Rockies, and the Seattle Mariners (and Seattle is the only one to have never appeared in the World Series). (Attended every home game of the 1982 series 4 to 3-game loss to the Cardinals, when the Brewers were in the American League. Still remember the electric feeling!)
Craig Counsell to Chicago is not as traumatic as the Braves moving to Atlanta in 1965. Which brings to mind a book on our reading list: Home of the Braves: The Battle for Baseball in Milwaukee by Patrick Steele.
Caught author Patrick Steele on Wisconsin PBS — oddly counter-programmed during the deciding game of Texas v. Arizona. Steele related that Milwaukee County owned the parking concession during the Braves 12-year tenure, denying an important revenue stream. Which is why Miller Park/AmFam field could not have been built downtown in baseball’s smallest market. Revenue! [ADDED — Milwaukee in 1950 ranked as the 16th most populous metropolitan area in the nation; by 2020 it had dropped to 40th place — the smallest market in major league baseball.]
Thinking big league in 1952
Amazing to think that Milwaukee County built that old stadium on spec in 1952, hoping to attract a major league team — if not to house the minor league Brewers of the American Association. Those Brewers had been owned by baseball showman Bill Veeck. Casey Stengel had once managed.
Those minor league Brewers succeeded the first Brewers, a charter member of the new American League in 1901. The first Brewers became the St. Louis Browns in 1902. As if to complete the circle, Veeck bought the St. Louis Browns and wanted to move them to Milwaukee but the American League vetoed.
Back to 1953, the Braves went to spring training as the Boston Braves but left Florida for Milwaukee to begin the season — the first franchise move since that move to St. Louis in 1902. But it spurred four more moves the next five years, with the Browns, Philadelphia Athletics, and New York’s Giants and Dodgers relocating.
As for 2024, the Brewers have already traded Mark Canha, a mid-season acquisition who put some punch into the batting order. Anyone want to bet that Corbin Burnes is gone? Who knows if Brandon Woodruff can come back from injury? Who put the bop in the bop she bop?
Blaska’s Bottom of the Ninth: Here’s the thing: The Cubs are a coming team. We hear David Ross — by all accounts a good manager — is available.
7 responses to “Say it ain’t so, Craig Counsell”
Counsel’s new deal, nearly twice the next highest salary, will definitely reset what MLB Managers will expect/be offered.
The top MLB package is way behind what top NBA, NFL, NCAA FB & BB coaches get paid; the NHL is the only one lower.
The Gotch
I knew it would happen this year. So sad though.
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Kudos on the World Series program from 1957.
Back in 2007, the State Historical Society in Madison did a clever and informative exhibit on Milwaukee World Series teams.
They featured a fabulous shot of Braves hurler Lew Burdette, who captured the MVP award during the 57 World Series. The Burdettes hosted a neighborhood celebration at their home after the Series victory.
This was before championship-level pitchers lived like sultans, however; the photo of the Burdette home revealed the most modest of ranch-style abodes.
Local businesses gave winter jobs to players.
No mention of Rogers when he jumped ship????
Come on Dave, you can do better.
“where Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, and Hank Aaron played for the same team their entire Hall of Fame careers”.
Spahn: Braves: 42, 46-64, Mets: 65, Giants: 65
Mathews: Braves: 52-66, Astros: 67, Tigers: 67-68
Aaron: Braves: 54-74, Brewers:75-76 (at least you hedged on Hank a bit).
Mathews still is one of the most underrated third basemen of any era, IMO.