Thanks, Brewers, Wisconsin needed that!
Got to admit, the indentured servants questioned their faith when Los Angeles superstar Shohei Ohtani — the $700 million man — snapped out of his slumber and jacked a no-doubter into the stands at Dodger Stadium for a 4 to 0 lead in the second inning last night. Like Linus, we began doubting the Great Pumpkin.
Would the Brewers’ three-game advantage turn into 4 to 3 heartbreak? (Learned today no team had ever come back from an in-game deficit that large to complete a post-season series sweep.) Why do we expect the worst? Is it just this man’s character flaw or a Wisconsin thing? An inferiority complex? So accustomed to disappointment that we expect it? Just falling short — hasn’t that been the Brewers lot? L.A. took us down in the seventh game back in 2018. Swept us last year. We lost a bidding war for Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers this season. Beat him anyway. A little payback!
Now, like the Monkees, we’re a believer.
Milwaukee, you have a World Series! 44 years later, this one’s for the believers. Over the next four decades, it sometimes seemed like those words might never be said again. — Brewers website
Good that the players on the field believe in themselves because they kept chip, chipping away to overcome Ohtani’s team and win 6 to 4. Baseball’s smallest-market team reversed last year’s humiliation at the hands of the sport’s most profligate. Claiming the National League pennant for workhorse Milwaukee from the Hollywood nine! For the sixth time in eight games so far this postseason, Milwaukee came from behind to win, baby, win!
The scratch and sniff Milwaukee team outplayed L.A. in every facet of the game: stole more bases (5 to 0), pitched better (2.25 ERA to 5.56), and made spectacular plays on defense. Team with the fewest NL regular-season home runs actually hit more (7 to 1) than the Dodgers.
Grinders not glitter bugs!
“They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we have a bunch of gamers.” — Brewers manager Pat Murphy
I love these guys! No swollen egos, several reclamation projects, and a bunch of 22-year-old kids — one of them (Cooper Pratt) sipping orange soda pop in the jubilant clubhouse. Only two players over age 30 in the line-up compared to only two players under that age on the Dodgers. And did that over-priced roster (almost 2 ½ times ours!) ever look old and slow!
How many major leaguers are full-blown diabetics like Brewer outfielder Garrett Mitchell? Gives thoughtful, gracious interviews. Goes far and high to rob game-tying home runs as he did against Manny Machado in the Padres series. Hit another home run Thursday 10-15-26 to give his team the lead for good.
Who else has a heavenly talisman like the self-deprecating Bob Uecker, who apparently sends messages to an old-school manager from somewhere up in the AmFam Park dome. Manager Pat Murphy will pull a player almost mid-pitch if he isn’t performing. Whose kids join him at the past-game rostrum. Who only got the job because Milwaukee native Criag Counsell bolted for Chicago and real money.
• State Rep. Barb Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) reminded voters that Republicans voted three years ago to keep AmFam Field operating.
• Surprised by the soft porn televised advertising during the game.
• Pat Murphy seems assured of his third-straight Manager of the Year award. Here he is young, coaching Notre Dame U. Looks like Cooper Pratt.
Homeric at bats
The stuff of lore: two marathon at-bats by Jake Bauers — 12 pitches in a 7-minute 4-second battle of wills that wore out Dodger pitcher Yamamoto (surely a creation of A-I) — in the third inning yet! Resulted in a walk and a two-game lead. In the third game Wednesday, 11 pitches against Blake Snell, culminating in a two-run homer to flip the score in our favor.
Bauers’ career had been a bust, was considering leaving the game until his wife became pregnant. Needed the health insurance! Came to a realization: “I started caring about being in the moment and getting out of my own way.” Getting this from the Wall Street Journal: (Yes, it has a sports page.)
“I came into this year feeling like there was really only one person holding me back and that was myself.” — Jake Bauers
Blaska’s Bottom Line: As overheard from an old cowboy near Port Lavaca, Texas: You got to have the Want To! Attitude adjustment for the masses! Especially those who play the blame game and consider themselves chronically oppressed. As our team proved, dear teachers union candidates, money does not buy test results.
The Brewers are a can-do morale booster for a mid-size, shot-and-a-beer kind of state.
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