Brewers mania hits a fever pitch
MILWAUKEE -- Looking back on the 2007 season is still painful for the Milwaukee Brewers, especially with the Chicago Cubs in town for a key four-game series.
But last season's failure to snap what is currently a 26-year playoff drought has just made the hungry Brew Crew more determined than ever to prove it can compete with the best in baseball.
Monday night at Miller Park brought back memories of the glorious 1982 season when the Milwaukee Brewers won the American League pennant before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh and deciding game of the World Series.
Regardless of what happens over the next three days, pennant fever is back, albeit at Miller Park instead of the Brewers' old home, County Stadium.
"My reaction after the game was like 'Wow.' It was so much fun being in a game at the end of July with that much intensity, that much action, that much excitement and electricity," said Milwaukee manager Ned Yost, after the Brewers dropped the opener with the National League Central Division-leading Chicago Cubs 6-4 before a sellout crowd of 45,311.
"I was thinking in the sixth inning, this is so good for our players to go through something like this at the end of July and get them a sense of what it's like to play deep, deep into the season. I've been through a lot of playoff games and a lot of World Series games, and the intensity of the crowd matched it very, very much."
Sweet memories
Yost was a reserve catcher for the Brewers in 1982 and spent 12 seasons on the Atlanta Braves coaching staff, from 1991 to 2002. The Braves won their division in each season Yost was on the staff, with the exception of the strike-shortened 1994 season.
So the 53-year-old skipper knows what it is like to experience playoff fever.
Yost said he remembered County Stadium being packed at the end of the 1982 season, but the atmosphere was not as intense as the crowds have been during the last eight games at Miller Park, which have all been sellouts.
"In 1982, we had a 55,000-capacity stadium, and it was the year after the strike in 1981, which made a difference," he said. "It didn't start to get packed until the middle of 1982. Then at the end we were packed every night.
"Now, you can't wait until the day of the game to get a ticket. That's the way it should be."
Milwaukee left-handed pitcher CC Sabathia, who was obtained in a trade with Cleveland on July 7 and is 4-0 in his five starts with the Brewers, was impressed with the playoff-like intensity, too.
"The atmosphere was awesome. There were a lot of Cubs fans, but I think our fans outdid them," said Sabathia, who started for the Brewers on Monday, taking a no-decision, and has appeared in the playoffs twice during his career. "It was real loud, and they took every chance they could to make it loud and to pump us up."
Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin was also pleased with Monday's crowd.
"I have to remind myself that this is a Monday," Melvin said during the Brewers' pre-game batting practice. "A few years ago, we would draw 12 or 13,000 on Monday night, 15,000 on Tuesday and get big crowds of 18,000 on Thursday. I give a lot of credit to our fans. They've helped us get to this level."
Catching the Cubs
Milwaukee is attempting to turn the tide on the Cubs, who overcame an 8 1/2-game deficit last June to win the NL Central Division title by two games over the Brewers.
Ironically, Chicago's biggest lead this year was 8 1/2 games on June 16 before the Brewers caught fire after the All-Star break and pulled into a first-place tie on Saturday.
However, back-to-back losses to the Houston Astros and Cubs dropped the Brewers two games back in the standings heading into Tuesday night's game, which will showcase a pair of All-Star hurlers in Brewers right-hander Ben Sheets (10-3, 2.87 ERA), who was the NL All-Star starter this year, and Cubs right-hander Carlos Zambrano (11-4, 2.96).
Monday night, Chicago manager Lou Piniella, who has gone to the postseason 11 times during his big league career as a player and manager, appeared to be as eager as the fans in anticipation of the crucial four-game series.
"These are fun games to play in. You've got to enjoy these as a player. You certainly do as a fan," he said. "These games should bring out the best in them. That's what you go to spring training for. That's what you play 162 games for, to get in these situations. You have to have confidence in yourself and your team and go out and take it to the opposition."
Hot ticket in town
The Brewers hosted a franchise-record eighth straight sellout crowd at Miller Park on Monday. While Milwaukee drew a record 2,869,144 fans last season, by the end of the week the club will have pre-sold enough tickets to erase that mark.
Next up is the 3,000,000 barrier, which is within reach.
Brewers executive vice president Rick Schlesinger expects to draw nearly 176,000 fans for the series against the Cubs, who will also end the season in Milwaukee for a three-game series Sept. 26-28. All four games this week will be sellouts, but some standing-room-only tickets still remain available at Brewers.com.
The games, though, couldn't be any more exciting than the series opener, which wasn't decided until Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee doubled with one out in the ninth to score Alfonso Soriano with the tiebreaking run and finally put away the feisty Brewers.
Yost doesn't have to remind his players there will still be 53 games left to play in the regular season, including six more against the Cubs, following the end of the current four-game series and homestand.
"Perspective is a big thing to keep in these types of series," Yost said. "There's two months of baseball left. So we focus on one game at a time."
Brewers shortstop J.J. Hardy followed the party line, too.
"The atmosphere was great. It was loud the whole game. I think there were a few more Cubs fans than I would have liked," said Hardy, who hit his 15th home run of the season in the sixth inning. "The intensity was fun on the field. But we've got to take it like another game. We just have to got out and play tomorrow."
Having fun
Yost said the Brewers are playing like a confident, playoff-bound team should.
"Our guys are laughing. They're having fun. They're relaxed. They're ready to play," Yost said. "They're very, very excited to be here but not in an open-eyed, excited way. They're excited for the opportunity to compete for first place."
Although the Brewers fell short of the playoffs a year ago -- they were eliminated on the third-to-last day of the season and finished two games behind the Cubs in the NL Central -- Yost believes that the experience was invaluable to his club.
"It helps greatly to be able to go through it for the first time. A lot of these guys had never gone through the pressure of going through a pennant race or the pressure of expectation," he said. "There are a lot of other things you have to deal with and learn how to compete through, and our guys have done that. They learned their lessons very well."
Darren Hauck/Associated Press
The Milwaukee Brewers' J.J. Hardy watches his home run against the Chicago Cubs in the sixth inning on Monday.
