It's been so long since the Milwaukee Brewers won a division title, that the last time they did -- back in 1982 -- was the same year that Cal Ripken, Jr. began his streak of 2,632 consecutive Major League Baseball games played. Yep, some of you weren't even born yet.
Between Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun on Friday night, nothing was going to stop the Brewers from taking home the National League Central title... except maybe the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Chicago Cubs. But those Cubbies did what they do best in September: play the spoiler.
Pictured above, you can see the suspense on their faces as they paused for over an hour after beating the Florida Marlins 4-1 to find out if they were playoff bound. Along with 44,584 fans in attendance, the players patiently waited, watching each and every play of their division rival's matchup on the jumbotron. With the final out, Miller Park erupted as the Brew Crew officially punched their ticket to the postseason.
Fielder kicked off the scoring with a solo shot in the second inning off Chris Volstad, before Braun hit the dramatic, go-ahead three-run blast in the eighth. Pointing his bat at owner Mark Attanasio and the fans in the stands, he rounded the bases with what is quite possibly the biggest smile we've ever seen on his face:
"I think for me, honestly, I live for that moment. You play the game to have the opportunity to play meaningful games down the stretch in September. I truly expected to come through in that situation."
Braun, who we find even more attractive since becoming a 30-30 player last week, went on to say that he expected to have a shiner after Nyjer Morgan elbowed him in the eye during the home plate celebration.. that would so be a Nyjer Morgan thing to do.
[Brew Crew Ball]
4 comments:
:(
GO BREWERS! I was not born yet when they played in the AL East and won the division title there, but I hear about it all the time from my dad. He was at Game 7 that year when they lost to the Cardinals, which explains his undying hatred for that team...
Oh my goodness that makes me feel old.
Back in 1982 all the teams were pretty much equal and every payroll was in the same stratisphere. Now you got the evil empires spending 2 to 3 times more than small market teams. So now the Brewers had their time in the sunshine and next time GO CREW'S kid will be able to say they weren't born last time brew crew was in playoffs. But with bud running the show it's just as much his fault as anybody else for not growing a set and stand up to mlbpa and insisting on a max & min salarycap.
Post a Comment