The Wisconsin Sports Rant

The inevitable occurred tonight…the annual baseball holiday in Milwaukee known as MED (Mathematical Elimination Day). Since the Brewers belong to the worst division in baseball, it happened much later than usual this year, but nevertheless, it happened. Unfortunately, Cory Hart’s home run in the 4th inning prevented the loss from being officially credited to Mr. Loser himself, Chris CRAPuano (who, by the way, should never ever ever be allowed near the Brewers clubhouse again - sorry Chris, you may pitch well for another team next year, but to the Brewers you EQUAL a loss). In further irony, the Padres cemented their lead with Khalil Greene’s 2 run home run off of none other than ex-teammate Melvin’s Mistake (or if you prefer his birth name, Scott Linebrink, another player who has been nothing short of disastrous for this team). And just like that, the Brewers continued their losing streak, both game-wise, and season-wise. The announcers on ESPN talked about how the Brewers led the division for 133 days this year. I also have heard a lot of talk throughout the year about not getting down on the team for a single bad performance because it’s a long season. Well, that long season ended tonight and looking back, we see a team that was not nearly as good as their attendance numbers would have you believe. In fact, unless this bunch of losers wins one of the last two games, they will continue another dubious streak… a string of non-winning seasons started in 1993.

As late as a month and a half ago, there were still those delusional optimists who said “If you told me at the beginning of the season that we would be in first place in August, I would have been ecstatic!” How about now? If I told you on June 27th, La Crosse day, after Damian Miller’s walk off home run would complete a sweep of the Astros that we would end up out of the playoffs, I would have been called a downer or a pessimist. That day, we reached the high point of the year, 14 games over .500. We had a 7 1/2 game lead in the NL Central. We had weathered the 10-20 storm by going 12-2 ro get back to our high-water mark at 46-32. All we had to do was play somewhere in the neighborhood of .450 ball the rest of the way. But this is a franchise that has been as pathetic as any in major North American professional sports. They were incapable of doing that menial task of staying afloat by winning at even a below-average pace. That’s not hyperbole. That’s the truth. The Florida Marlins, a team that wasn’t even in existence the last time the Brewers had a winning record (let alone made the playoffs), has more World Series Championships than seasons in which the Milwaukee Brewers have even participated in October baseball. So am I a pessimist, or a realist?

The bottom line is that this team is a tremendous failure. That kind of sounds like the post from March where the Wisconsin Men’s Basketball team made an abrupt and embarrassing departure from the NCAA tournament. Well, at least that team made the postseason. For the Brewers that is only a pipe dream; a fantasy world that does not exist. This was the best chance in 15 years they had to play for a championship, and, as with Prince and the bases loaded last night, or Craig Counsell with the bases loaded tonight, they simply could not get it done. There will need to be serious evaluation of this team. Sure, they have what may become a great infield for years to come. But what good is that infield when your pitching staff self destructed like the child actors from Diff’rent Strokes? What does 200 homers get you when the opponents score runs in droves due to shoddy defense? I may not espouse the popular opinion, but I still don’t know that Ned Yost belongs here anymore either. What progress has this team made? They were 81-81 two years ago. Does the result of this season really show a team that has improved? All the individual achievements of Fielder, Braun, Cordero, and whoever else mean absolutely nothing except that even those performances were not good enough to push this team into the playoffs from a division where mediocrity would have sufficed. In reality, this team has not made any overall progress, which should be the ultimate judging factor.

So goodbye Milwaukee Brewers of 2007. Your season will end in just a few short days the same way it does every year. Poorly.

And now the football season is really underway! The Milwaukee Brewers officially screwed the pooch this weekend, and unless a miracle occurs, will complete one of the most amazing collapses in their pathetic history. As they have every single year, save for 1982, they will complete their season without a trip to the playoffs. Ben “Tissue Paper” Sheets can now go and get his legs waxed and eyelashes permed since he won’t have to pitch anymore this year. Francisco Cordero can go reflect on all the great saves he had while realizing that when they really needed him to get the job done, he didn’t. And the rest of the pitching staff can all worry about their jobs too, since really, none of them have proven they can play an entire season without a severe decline in performance. All in all, an expected end for this miserable franchise that can do no right.

Now, on to the real teams in our fair state! How about them Packers?? Brett Favre was absolutely brilliant today, completing tough passes all over the place. For the first time in several seasons, I was not worried about him throwing a bad pick at the end. I really felt like he was either making the pass, or putting it somewhere where it wouldn’t be picked off. Quite frankly, I am a little shocked that the Packers are 3-0 with a running game straight out of 1991. Everyone knew the pass was coming all day long, and the offense was still able to make plays. I love James Jones, and of course, Donald Driver continues to prove he is an All-Pro receiver. Greg Jennings’ return to the field proved critical, as he outran the defense for the game winning touchdown. The defense was a bit shaky with regards to the pass rush, but you cannot fault a unit that held the reigning league MVP in check. All in all, a very successful afternoon. To beat three straight playoff teams from last season to start this one is truly a remarkable feat. I think Packer fans everywhere are probably a little higher on the team than perhaps they should be, but I do believe the Packers are for real.

Last, but certainly not least, are the Wisconsin Badgers. Say what you will, they have now won 13 straight football games.  Think about that for a moment.  13 straight wins.  This game was a battle, and could very well have gone the Hawkeyes’ way, but the bottom line is that the Badgers found a way to win, as they have in almost every game of Coach Bielema’s short tenure. Kirk “I hate the Badgers” Herbstreit stated throughout the game that Iowa’s defensive speed up front was beating Wisconsin’s size on the offensive line, and for a long while that may have been true. But as Bielema said at the end of the game, it is a 4 quarter game (actually 5 at Wisconsin home games, but who’s counting?). In the end, the Badgers’ power allowed them to prevail. Now it’s on to a matchup with the rising Michigan State Spartans. This game should never be taken for granted. Wisconsin seems to struggle mightily against the Spartans, especially when it appears to be a lopsided matchup in their favor. 2004 anyone? Still, you have to believe that since each victory has come with a struggle, the Badgers are preparing for each game without arrogance.

Next week should prove to be one for the ages, as Favre looks to become the all-time career touchdown leader. More importantly, the Packers look to move to 4-0, something they didn’t even do in either of their two Super Bowl seasons in the 90’s. Football rules supreme in Wisconsin, and if the first month of the season is any indication, things are going to be very interesting indeed!

Now you can see why I am pessimistic and negative so often on this site.  Every time I try that optimism thing, the Brewers prove me wrong.  1 run will not win you any games, yet that is exactly what they got tonight in Atlanta.  That is truly pathetic.  Now they trail the Cubs by 1 1/2 games and one in the loss column.   Someday I will understand how it possible for a team getting 7 runs a game for the last two weeks can have every single one of their bats go silent in one night; and against 5 different pitchers no less!  Two nights in a row, the starting pitching has done more than enough to win (amazing!), and the team finds a way to lose.  Simply astounding.

In this blog, I have been pretty forthcoming about my feelings on the Brewers play from June through August. However, I will put that aside temporarily and focus on the month of September. All of a sudden, the Brewers have picked up the pace, and are 11-5 this month. After tonight’s lopsided victory over Houston, the Brewers pulled back into a first place tie, even leading by a game in the loss column. I guess you might say that it is better late than never. After seeing what is happening in the NL and AL East, the Brewers’ collapse may not yet be the most monumental of the season.

In any case, the Brewers still have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, it may have to be done without their “ace” pitcher (again). Ben “Higuera” Sheets (or tissue paper if you prefer) suffered a hamstring injury and had to be escorted off the field. Not exactly confidence-inspiring. At least the bats seem to have picked up again. Especially encouraging has been the turnaround of Rickie Weeks. From a demotion to AAA to his current tear, it has been a roller-coaster season for the second baseman. Hopefully he will continue to hit like this into October.

I guess we Brewer fans should just be excited to be relevant at this point in the season. Looking back over the last few months, it is still extremely frustrating to know .500 ball would have basically clinched the division already, but a pennant race is a pennant race. Plus, with the Packers at 2-0, and already generating a nice buzz, the Badgers at 3-0 and ranked in the top 10, the Brewers are still garnering much attention in the Wisconsin sporting world, a feat unto itself. This is uncharted territory for this baseball club, as the last time the Brewers were in this position, the Favre era was in its infancy.

12 games to go. 7 at home. The Cubs have 10 games left all against teams below .500. There is no room for error. The Brewers will need to continue to play at the level they have demonstrated this month, perhaps even a bit better if they want to end the league’s second longest playoff drought.

The 2006 edition of the Wisconsin Badgers Football team was 11-1 before their bowl game, and was barred from the BCS bowl bonanza because of two things. One, a bullshit rule about the number of teams per conference allowed into the BCS, and two, the fact that they began the season unranked. Fast forward to 2007. The Badgers are 3-0, and after a rough first half yesterday, ended up dismantling The Citadel handily in the second. Still, they fell 3 spots in the AP poll today. The Badgers just can’t win. If this had been Ohio State or Florida struggling with a “lesser” opponent, they surely would not have dropped as significantly as Wisconsin did. It is all about perceived “elite-ness” (yeah…I just coined a new term) in college sports. I find it ridiculous that a top ten team that wins by a two touchdown margin can drop, no matter the opponent. You may think this doesn’t matter right now, but it might. We have seen that when there are several teams in a logjam at the top, it is the polls that contribute most to the mystical BCS formula that determines who plays in the big game. Losing ground with a victory just doesn’t make sense. Then again, neither does not having a playoff.

You couldn’t ask for a better weekend, really. I will excuse the Brewer loss on Friday (although not Monday’s drubbing in Pittsburgh as it was not part of the weekend), and Steve Stricker gave it his best. Yet we saw the Brewers move back into first place with a pair of excellent wins in Cincinnati, and the Packers and Badgers eke out victories that define the phrase “A win’s a win”.

Wisconsin travelled to Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, site of the infamous Blackout Bowl, and looked like they may suffer a Michigan-like defeat. Unlike their Big Ten brethren, however, they were able to pull out the win with a huge 29 yard TD run by Tyler Donovan. It was a very strange game. Looking at the score, you would think the defense played a great game; but watching it did not support that claim. I felt like UNLV moved the ball fairly well on the Badgers throughout most of the game. They simply couldn’t capitalize on it. On the other side, Wisconsin’s offense definitely suffered without Paul Hubbard. Now that he will be out for an extended period of time, someone had better step up and fill the void. With one game left to tune up for the Big Ten season, they better do it soon too.

The Packers continued the weekend of football close calls with a nailbiter-victory over the Eagles on Sunday. I must say, with the number of losses at the hands of the Eagles over the past few years, and the way we lost a couple of them, I was ecstatic with the win, regardless of aesthetics. The Eagles put the gift-wrapped opportunity in the Packers’ hands, and they seized it. So, even though the offense was putrid (all stemming from a very poor performance by the offensive line), they found out they have a real kicker who could put the game away when called upon. Getting this key conference victory may prove to be quite handy down the road as well.

All in all, it was great to look back on the Wisconsin sporting scene Sunday night.  It may not be like this again this fall, so savor it all week.

When the first Fifth Quarter of the season began yesterday, it was clear that coach Bret Bielema made the right choice.  Tyler Donovan was outstanding in his first start as the full time Badgers QB.  His passes looked sharp and accurate.  His decision making was great.  He led the offense to 42 points, which is excellent.  All in all, a magnificent beginning to his senior season.  We got a glimpse of his potential in two games last season, which alleviated some of the lingering doubt about losing Stocco this year.  If he can continue to perform like this, we will have nothing to worry about at that position.

There are definitely things for the team to work on.  Special teams had some problems (a 1 yard punt??), and the defense took a while to get going, but I’ll bet after yesterday everyone can think of a few worse ways to come out of the gate.

By the way, can we add a line to our recruiting materials when going after kids to the East?  It might read something like this:  “Here at Wisconsin, we actually beat our Division I-AA opponents.”