Here’s to You, Brew Crew

In the middle of the battle for our democracy, let’s take a moment to toast what I consider a notable achievement:  the Milwaukee Brewers’ championship in the 2024 National League Central Division.

The innards of Major League Baseball flowed through my viscera from about the time I was 10 – when in that much gentler era, my friends and I would ride our bikes to the Evanston, IL, El station, take the train to Wrigley Field, and sit in the bleachers (in the early ‘60s, there was nobody there 😉 ) for $2 – until well into my 40s.  The imprinting of those decades stays with me – in the same way as I recall [and so frequently (and I suspect, sometimes somewhat so tiringly) refer to here] long-ago policy and political happenings — although I have little regard for (indeed, find fairly boring) the money-ball, technology-and percentages-driven, “strikeout or homerun,” “just throw as hard as you can for as long as you can” strategies that now dominate the game.

Given the juggling of our television packages in recent years, we don’t have regular access to Brewer games, so I’ve only seen them play a few times.  It is a team of overachievers, led by a Medicare-eligible manager.  I find the team impressive because of what it has achieved without imposing talent; its lineup not only pales in comparison to the 1970s-1980s Brewers of Robin Yount and Paul Molitor; I don’t think it stands up well against the 2000s Brewer teams of Ryan Braun (with or without steroids 😉 ) and Prince Fielder. 

They say … You Can Never Tell in Baseball.  They say … Anything Can Happen in a Short Series.  They say … A Team That Gets Hot At the Right Time Can Win It All.  They say … The Best Team Doesn’t Always Win.  All true.  We’ve all seen it.  And yet, having seen the lineups and pitching staffs that the NL East Champion Philadelphia Phillies and the NL West Champion Los Angeles Dodgers field, it’s hard for me to see how, even assuming that Milwaukee prevails in its initial playoff series against the New York Mets beginning this afternoon, the scrappy Brew Crew can beat either, much less both, of the other NL Division Champions powerhouses to reach the World Series.

I’ve previously noted in these pages that Hall of Fame New York Yankee Manager Casey Stengel, who won seven World Championships and ten pennants in his twelve seasons with the Yankees, was once asked what strategies made him so effective.  He wryly replied, “There were many, but the three most important were DiMaggio, Mantle, and Berra.”  Milwaukee has gotten this far despite having no such advantages.  No matter what happens from hereon, this seems like an appropriate time to toast the team for a job well done.

Here’s to You, Brew Crew.