Baseball Hats Everywhere

Before I write anything, I want to convey my most sincere and heartfelt condolences towards Ben and his 2007 Milwaukee Brewers. I remember a distinct moment this past April that made me wary of this team and justifiably so. I was listening to backloaded ESPN baseball podcasts on my I-Pod enroute to Spring Training in Mesa. It was early morning on the Blue Line heading up to O'Hare for a 7am flight and (the usually prophetic) Peter Gammon’s was running down his MLB standings predictions. The sun was just rising over the lake and I had made up my mind that if the Cubs were going to win, it would have to be this year. Gammons reached the NL Central and without any question or doubt, he fingered the Brewers to finish the year in first. He was met with incredulity and cynicism by the rest of the panel, but he categorically rebuffed them and restated his original assertion adding, "It's all there to make a run. Pitching, young power hitting, speed..."

Ever since that moment, I've been worried about them although I would never actually admit that to Ben (and for the record, this doesn't qualify as an omission of said worry for any organization named the Brewers, seeing as minor aspects of these posts are fictionalized to add density and richness to the characters being portrayed, thank you very much). There is no reason why a team should spend over 3/4 of the season in first place only to lose it in the last month, on the last weekend. It's unfair to the fans and their psyches. I've been around Brewers fans for years and the only thing that tied them together (besides hating the Cubs and Robin Yount jerseys) was that they weren't overly optimistic. Brewers fans were always pragmatists while the Cubs fans tended to be more fatalistic.

This year though? The Brewers fans kicked down the door in the first two months of the season. They provided a loud (rowdy even) presence at Wrigley and left early with wins (an inordinate amount of wins even). The growing feeling was that of all the Milwaukee surges of recent years, this looked the least flukey. To make a long story short, I feel for the kid. You have to. Such good fans don't deserve to witness something that excruciating over a 4 month span. It's bad ju-ju no matter how you cut it. Go Packers.

Ok, now I'm gunna zig back this-ah way...


September 28, 2003 - The Chicago Cubs clinch the NL Central. It happens during the second quarter of a Virginia football game during my 4th year. My Dad and I meet at halftime and do that awkward, giddy embrace reserved for the genuinely ecstatic or mental deranged. I leave the game in the third quarter to read internet reactions and muse over potential foes. For the next three weeks, my Cubs hat only leaves my head for showers and sleep. Mark Prior is arguably the best pitcher still playing. I'm running on pure emotion, malt liquor and the intoxication that is October baseball. Classes are an interesting diversion from my true purpose... hanging on every pitch.

:::In between, some stuff happens:::

September 28, 2007- The Chicago Cubs clinch the NL Central a little after 10PM CST. Here's how I remember it...

There were three fanbases at Cincy's Great American Ballpark: Cubs, Reds and Brewers fans.... I'm switching between Cubs/Reds and Brewers/Padres.... Bronson Arroyo's leg kick is why I can't take him seriously as a solid #2 starting pitcher.... This time of year really lets you appreciate how delicate the dance is between the "standings flags" above the Wrigley scoreboard....


I love the old school uni's that the Brewers dusted off for this "Throwback Night" in Milwaukee. A very solid move in my opinion. However, I wasn't too sure what to make of the towel waving in the stands (this goes for you too Philly). I'm down with towel waving at NBA playoff games and college football games for some reason, but not at MLB pennant implicating regular season games. I can't explain it really. I think the Homer Hankies for the Minnesota Twins playoff run in 1991 were fine because they "looked cool". Because they were hankies being waved, it was more like pulsing cloth rather than 40,000 people mindlessly twirling bar rags. But really, I was just a ten year old boy then, so what do I know. Moving on.

This is a time of year when strange things happen. I love it because scoreboard watching is immensely enjoyable, magic numbers are constantly in your mind and things can swing wildly in a matter of days (see The Mets).... Why are people still running on Alfonso Soriano's arm? He just notched his 20th outfield assist with ease and I can't remember where I put my beer. I love baseball.... The concept of A-Rod on the Northside next year is distracting. I don't want to be thinking about such things right now. It's like the 20 minutes that Kobe was talking about coming to Chicago this summer. I'm going to go blind thinking about stuff like that.... The Cubbies are up 4-0 during the 7th inning stretch. It looks to be 50/50 Cubs/Reds fans. "Root, root-root for the CUBBIES," is plainly heard and you feel good as a fan, like maybe some of this worry and joy and fanaticism in some way contributes to your team's success. Meanwhile, Milwaukee is tied with San Diego in the 5th inning. It's white knuckle time.

Jacomo Jones doubled to deep left, plating Ramirez and DeRosa in the 8th. The Cubs now lead by six runs in the 9th and the Padres just took the lead 4-3 in the 6th inning. At this point, I walked outside in the humid Friday night air and headed to the store for a sixpack of Old Style. I took it to my roof with my radio and listened to the rest of it under the pale of night and the dim flickering of television screens across the neighborhood. Immediately after Trevor Hoffman's three strikeout 9th inning save, hollers erupted throughout Wrigleyville. Cubs hats hovered on distant balconies smoking cigarettes and toasting beers, cars honked and people swayed. A bottle rocket flared out somewhere near Southport. It was only 10pm on a Friday night in Wrigleyville. The earth was moving and things were happening. The people were out and the Cubs were going to represent the NL Central in October.

I unpluged my radio, collected my empties and sauntered down the stairs in complete gratification. I turned off my phone, cranked the A/C, curled myself into bed and slept like a baby for the first time in weeks. I'm home.