Like a good neighbor

Miller Park Press Box–Milwaukee

I am always amazed in Miller Park at just how gargantuan this stadium is. It really is an attraction as much as Wrigley Field in the sense that people come from all over the state to visit–it is a destination.

The crowd, half an hour before the game is to start, is sparse. In years past, such emptiness would have been attributable to poor attendance. But these days attendance at Brewers games is thriving, they’re just outside in the parking lot tailgating–a long standing Wisconsin tradition.

But people will come when the team is on the verge of making the postseason for the first time since their famed 1982 team. That’s a 26-year postseason drought, the longest among the four major sports–basketball, baseball, football and hockey. It’s been so long for the Brewers, they weren’t even in the National League then!

We might be across the line from the Brewers, but Cubs fans and can sympathize. Droughts are not unfamiliar.

I asked Iowa Cubs manager Pat Listach (below) about that drought. He was part of it. As a member of the Milwaukee Brewers from 1992-96, Listach knows a little about that postseason drought. He was the 1992 AL Rookie of the Year.

“Obviously it would be good for them,” Listach said. “It’s been a while. Perhaps it’s time they scratch that itch.”

In 1984, Bobby Dernier remembered that itch, too, although for the Cubs it was just a little longer. “I remember scratching that 39-year itch,” he said.

So today, the Brewers are on the cusp of doing just that. I might end up seeing my second clinch of the season. You know, the Brewers are like our neighbors. They live right next door, let us borrow their yard for a couple of games.

Aw heck, they scratch our backs, we can scratch theirs, right?

Well, not really, Daryle Ward just hit a two-run shot in the first off Ben Sheets.

–Mike Huang