PROFESSIONAL SPORTS IS A YOUNG PERSON'S GAME.

The Milwaukee Brewers last night secured their fourth straight division championship.  "Yelich, Woodruff relish standing as last ones left from 2018 division champs."  That's Christian Yelich, 2018 Most Valuable Player, and Brandon Woodruff, the last pitcher not named Shohei Ohtani to hit a home run in a playoff game.

The Chicago Cubs will likely be a playoff team, although for the third straight season since they recruited Craig Counsell away from the Brewers, their coaching staff and their big payroll has not won the division.  There has been a Central Division for years, with good Cardinals or Reds teams being all over the record books, and yet, neither of those teams put together four straight division wins.

There's still a lot of playoff baseball coming, and we'll see how well the Brewers, with a roster of relative newcomers, fare.  There is Sprecher chilling.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.

Venezuela might be better known for exporting baseball players than exporting oil.  Recently, Eugenio Suarez, of the Cincinnati Reds, passed his citizenship test.

His team changed his walk-up music the day he returned to the lineup.

🔥 THIS is how you become an American.

Cincinnati Reds slugger Eugenio Suárez fled Venezuela, missed two games to take the citizenship test, passed, and came back to the ballpark as a U.S. citizen.

His teammates changed his walk-up song to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”…

— Louis Montoya (@montoyalouis1) September 6, 2026

Tomi Lahren spent way too much time carping about Colin Kaepernick rather than the music and the home runs.

TIME TO THINK OF A SUBWAY SERIES?

Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park, or whatever the White Sox got thirty pieces of silver for its current name, are both on the HoDar, which transits one of two short stretches of subway in Chicago.

But Chicago has gone from Mission Territory to birthplace of a Pope in under two centuries.

A century ago, George Cardinal Mundelein made the case for Chicago as home to the XXVIII International Eucharistic Congress, complete with a consecration of Soldier Field long before the Packers punched a ticket to the Super Bowl there.

The Archdiocese of Chicago scheduled a special Papal Installation Mass on the White Sox infield in 2025.

Now, the White Sox are going from worst to first, and Chicagoan Rick Moran is being cheeky.  "Chicago Native Pope Leo Is Being (Sort of) Credited With the Sudden Resurgence of the White Sox."

Then, the U.S. pope, a Chicago native and White Sox fan, arrived. White Sox fans finally had something to cheer about. While 2025 was a lost season, Leo-mania began to grow, and with it, the fortunes of the hapless White Sox began to improve.

After the 2026 season started 6-13, fans and the media believed another losing season was on the way. Then, a miracle. Or so it seemed. The second-youngest team in baseball began to knock the cover off the ball. Leading the way in the home run department was a Japanese import, Munetaka Murakami.

God Helps Thofe who Help Themfelves.

White Sox management have been attempting, subject to the constraints of protocol, to obtain some sort of papal blessing.

The White Sox have adopted Pope Leo as a kind of mascot. They wanted to have a bobblehead night with the pope dressed in his white cassock holding a White Sox bat. The Vatican politely declined. But the marketing geniuses at Rate Field were only getting warmed up.

“We’ve had sitting mayors of Chicago, we’ve had governors of Illinois that have been avid White Sox fans, we had a president of the United States in Barack Obama,” said Brooks Boyer, an observant Catholic who is the team’s chief marketing officer. “I didn’t expect anything bigger than the mayor when I started this job, but we’ve kind of climbed the ladder. What’s next? I mean, I feel like we’re one step away from God.”

Well, no, the hot line to God is in Green Bay, only a quarter to use the red 'phone on the General Manager's desk.

But White Sox management are not proposing the sort of deal that Cardinal Mundelein offered to his colleague Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who became Pius XII: during the War he offered the campus of St. Mary of the Lake as a refuge to the Vatican.  The Holy See, with plenty of experience doing business in Rome despite assorted Vandals, Visigoths, Huns, and heretics, stayed home.

CERVECEROS.

Baseball provides young men with opportunities, both to excel and to show leadership.  "Three months ago, Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras and outfielder Jackson Chourio donned Team Venezuela jerseys in the World Baseball Classic, leading their home country to a win over teammate Brice Turang and Team USA."

Two major earthquakes provided a leadership opportunity.

Venezuelan Milwaukee Brewers All-Star catcher William Contreras, outfielder Jackson Chourio and coach Nestor Corredor have joined forces with Forward Latino, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish to launch the "United for Venezuela" Emergency Relief Effort.

Two catastrophic earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. The death toll has risen to at least 1,430 people, with thousands more injured and missing, and countless families displaced.

The linked article alludes to "frustration" in Venezuela, perhaps aggravated by twenty years of Chavista khrushchobas.

When late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez built this coastal housing development bearing his name as part of his socialist revolution, residents found a fresh start after deadly floods had decimated the area more than a decade earlier.

But after two back‑to‑back earthquakes flattened parts of the ​1,100-unit complex on Wednesday, engineers are urging the Venezuelan government to swiftly audit similar public housing that is still standing.

Let's leave the recriminations to others.  Today we hail Milwaukee area residents stepping up.

On June 29, all three were on the same team, in more ways than one.

The trio, joined by teammates Christian Yelich, Brice Turang, Sal Frelick, Abner Uribe, and Jared Koenig, helped pack boxes of supplies bound for Venezuela as the nation continues to reel following two separate magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that leveled buildings across the South American nation last week. As of June 29 the death toll in Venezuela was estimated to be 1,719, according to Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez.

“We feel the love, the willingness to help out, and we appreciate it,” Chourio told reporters through interpretation by coach Nestor Corredor ahead of the Brewers’ game at American Family Field against the Cincinnati Reds.

The appearance by members of the team for day one of the relief effort held in conjunction with Forward Latino drew a large response from Brewers fans and members of the community on its first day. The group’s national president Darryl Morin told WTMJ they had received phone calls from all across Wisconsin and neighboring Illinois asking how they could help.

“When ​the players reached out and said ‘we want to be a part of this, we want to help raise awareness’, we were overwhelmed,” said Morin. ”Just having them associated with this, I mean cars are literally lined up across the block waiting to make their donations.”

It might be that donors made a little extra effort to bring food and tools for an opportunity to shake hands or high-five some of their favorite players.  The players, one radio report noted, were busy filling boxes and taping them shut.

Blessed Sacrament parishioners are continuing the donation drive into next week.  Conditions must be dire in the earthquake zones as among the items being accepted are canned goods, cases of bottled water, and garden tools, all of which are expensive to ship by air freight.

STOP CLUTTERING OUR UNIFORMS.

"Minor league baseball team cancels Pride Night game after players refuse to wear rainbows."  We're not talking about the players objecting to some sponsor's logo.  "Fewer than nine players on the 28-man roster were willing to uniforms that featured a rainbow design on their sleeves, a team official said."

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS.

It was a slow Tuesday night for a waitress named Lily Thompson.

Oпly a haпdfυl of cυstomers filled the diпiпg room, aпd the staff moved qυietly throυgh their roυtiпes. Aroυпd 7 p.m., a tall yoυпg maп weariпg a Milwaυkee Brewers hoodie aпd baseball cap qυietly walked throυgh the froпt door aпd politely asked for a table пear the corпer wiпdow.

Most people iпside the restaυraпt barely пoticed him.

The young man noticed that Ms Thompson looked tired.

At oпe poiпt, he пoticed the exhaυstioп iп her expressioп aпd geпtly asked how her eveпiпg was goiпg.

At first, Lily simply smiled aпd said she was “haпgiпg iп there.”

Bυt somethiпg aboυt his kiпdпess made her opeп υp.

She briefly meпtioпed her mother’s illпess, the pressυre of sυpportiпg her yoυпger brother, aпd her dream of becomiпg a пυrse someday if she coυld ever afford school.

Jacob listeпed carefυlly withoυt iпterrυptiпg.

That's Jacob Misiorowski, who you might have heard of.

He left a large tip and a note of encouragement on the check.  “Keep pυshiпg forward. Hard work aпd heart always matter.”

She still is, at the restaurant, as is he, on the mound.

Many of the young men who play professional baseball have hardscrabble backgrounds, and the grind of coming up through the minor leagues is its own kind of grind.

BIG PAYROLLS, NO GUARANTEES.

The Chicago Cubs are off to an interesting opening third of their season, two ten game winning streaks, and a losing streak at ten games and counting.  "Cubs Players Forced to Swallow Bitter Pill as Craig Counsell Makes Unwanted Record."

So it often is with the so-called large market teams, there's no salary cap in major league baseball which offers owners of such teams the opportunity to hire premium players at premium prices.  But they have to perform.

[F]or a few MLB insiders, the Cubs players are to blame and not Counsell.

“I’m not really sure it’s his fault…This has to do with some of the players not living up to the contracts that were signed,” 104.3 The Score’s Mike Mulligan said in a podcast.

The Cubs entered this week hoping to end their losing streak. However, after taking the beatings from the Astros, the Cubs started the week by losing to the Pirates. Their Monday loss against the Pirates is their ninth straight loss. “We’ve gotta play better, we gotta swing the bats better, we gotta pitch better, we need more guys contributing to good stuff,” Counsell said on Monday afternoon. “And as a coaching staff, we gotta figure out a way to get the players there. Offensively, we are equipped to be way more consistent than this and way better than this. We need to show it.”

Against the Astros, the Cubs’ pitching staff allowed 15 runs in three games. On Monday, the pitching improved, giving up just 2 runs, but the offense faltered.

So it sometimes goes in the regular season, the Brewers won all six regular season games with Los Angeles's Dodgers (if they were the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, are they the Roger Rabbit Dodgers in Los Angeles?) and you-know-who made short work of the Brewers en route to another World Series.

The Brewers are in the middle of a gantlet of strong teams that has included sweeps of the Yankees, Cubs, and Cardinals, and they're off to Houston next.  We are, however, only a third of the way into the season.

TAKING LEAVE OF THE MID-AMERICAN IN STYLE.

Northern Illinois University's baseball team won the Mid-American conference tournament in the sweetest possible way, defeating Toledo in their final appearance in that tournament.

The Huskies won their program-record 35th game on the season to make the occasion even more special. This is NIU's first MAC baseball title, sending the Huskies to the NCAA Regionals next week. In four games at the MAC Tournament this week, NIU outscored its opponents 32-9 and trailed only once. The Huskies' pitching staff had a 1.80 earned run average and held teams to a .193 batting average.

That earned Northern Illinois the sole Mid-American bid to the national tournament, which begins with a double elimination regional round reducing a field of 64 to eight teams that play best two out of three on the home fields of the top four seeds to qualify for the double-elimination College World Series in Omaha.

IF ONLY THERE WAS A QUICKER WAY HOME.

The Green Bay Packers just put up two touchdowns on the Bears.  Oh, sorry, the Major League Baseball season opened in Milwaukee, with the Brewers allowing the White Sox a home run in the first and a home run in the ninth and otherwise battering Pale Hose pitching, 14-2.  And as I type, the Milwaukee traffic reporters are talking about all those people trying to get home.  Oh, did I mention that Interstate 94 is being widened in the vicinity of the Stadium.  Construction delays they'll never get back.  Wait, isn't that a line from "Take Me Out to the Ball Game?"

Now, look closely at this partially-colorized photograph, showing Milwaukee County Stadium, which the county built with the hopes of attracting a Major League Baseball team.

I forget the timing of the construction of Milwaukee County Stadium: it was there a few years before the Braves decamped from Boston, and this event took place before the outfield bleachers were built.  Focus, dear reader, on the embankment in black and white back behind the third-base grandstand and parking lot.  Two electrified tracks last operated by The Milwaukee Rapid Transit and Speedrail Corporation, and the substantial girder and truss bridge carrying trains over the Menominee River and The Milwaukee Road's main line.  And Speedrail had hoped to hang on long enough to be able to cash in on ball game traffic, as well as on passengers headed for the new Milwaukee County Zoo, a-building not far from where the electric cars ran.

That was not to be.

The photographer did not yet know that this photo, taken Labor Day of 1950 in downtown Hales Corners, was of the last run of duplex streetcar 39-40, which was wrecked in a fatal collision on a return working with the special train.

That was the end of Speedrail, although some of the right-of-way was available for streetcar service to the stadium.

That curved retaining wall on the southeast corner of Calvary Cemetery is still there, over seventy years on.  I have noted before that no Milwaukee team has won a World Series since the streetcar to the stadium went out of service.  I'm not sure whether the expansion of the expressway, which runs just to the left of the photo, will encroach on any of the trees or of those electric transmission towers, which are still in place with no streetcars or interurbans to run under them.

But I want to end this post on a cheerful note.  There have been too many gloomy posts of late.

A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FOR SOME MILWAUKEE BREWERS.

Over the past nearly twenty years, the Milwaukee Brewers have been within striking distance of the playoffs, or in the playoffs, sometimes posting the best regular season record, and once or twice coming within a few outs of playing in a World Series.  But the last time a Milwaukee team won a World Series you could take a streetcar to County Stadium.

I confess to paying little attention to the country of origin of baseball players.  Sometimes sport transcends politics: despite the ongoing slanging matches between Venezuelan Marxists and Stateside conservatives, a fair number of Venezuelan players sign major league contracts, and three of the Milwaukee Brewers suited up for the Venezuelan nine that just won the World Baseball Classic.  "Venezuela is a big source of Major League Baseball players, and much of its roster was made up of MLB-affiliated athletes, so it was hard not to cheer on your favorite players no matter which side they were on."

The Major League season, United States style, begins next week Wednesday or Thursday, and for once in a long time the Brewers will open the season at home.  I've never understood the logic of not scheduling most of the early home games for northerly teams in stadia with domes or retractable roofs.

I DON'T GIVE A DARN.

"The Los Angeles Dodgers Are America’s Team," according to Peter Savodnik in The [Not Detroit] Free Press.  He continues, "You might find the Dodgers hard to root for in the World Series. Here’s why you should do it anyway."

Why?  Because.

It’s been a doozy of a year for La La Land. The fires, the ongoing Hollywood contraction, our hapless, hopeless mayor (and the dearth of any serious challengers in 2026).

That’s to say nothing of the graffiti and the housing market and the homeless. We’re told by the powers that be that things are getting better, but literally no one here thinks things are getting better.

Who's on first? "There was probably no better seat to observe industrial decline than that of a tenure-tracker at Wayne State."  But during that hitch, the Detroit Tigers caught fire in 1984, winning 104 games in the regular season, ultimately winning the World Series, after which the fans set the neighborhood on fire.

Make of it what you will that Kirk Gibson, Michigan State athlete, who hit a home run to seal the deal at Tiger Stadium a few years later hit a home run to seal another World Series deal with ... the Brooklyn Trolley Los Angeles Dodgers.

BASEBALL'S HARD-KNOCK LIVES REDEEMED.

Milwaukee sports reporter Bob Nightengale sits down with Milwaukee Brewer manager Pat Murphy.

Pat Murphy arrives to his Milwaukee Brewers office with a large mug of coffee, notebook in his hand, and a soul to bare.

He warmly welcomes you, proudly talks about the personal photographs and pictures in his office, and if you truly want to know about the 66-year-old former boxer with three failed legal marriages, kids ranging from 39 to 6, the son of an alcoholic father who nearly spiraled down the same path, well, pull up a chair and listen.

The life stories of baseball's greats often include that hardscrabble existence.  The Scholastic Book Service Babe Ruth Story paperback opens "I was a bad kid.  I say that without pride."  Fifty years ago, the Brewers drafted Darrell Porter, who ultimately won a World Series with the Cardinals in 1982, and there are echoes of his story in Mr Murphy's recollections.

He didn’t have a single drink, or even a sip of the Korbel Brut champagne or Budweiser that were wildly sprayed in their clubhouse, avoiding all of the temptations of alcohol.

“When I used to drink," Murphy says, “I wanted to either fight or (expletive).

“Both of them lead to bad things."

Murphy doesn’t laugh. Doesn’t even smile. But facts are facts.

“Drinking is everywhere in this game," Murphy says during his wide-ranging 90-minute interview with USA TODAY Sports. “But I can’t. I watched the disease kill my dad. I watched it kill (former Oakland Athletics All-Star pitcher) Bobby Welch. It’s just too personal.

“I don’t care if people drink and laugh at me for awhile, but I can go out and hang with you and you’ll think I’m drinking."

There's much more in the article, dear reader.  I'll leave you with this.

Murphy, who grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and fought, drank and played sports having no idea what he was going to do with his life, still has trouble believing he’s the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers.

He couldn’t even manage his personal life, so how in the world was he going to lead a major-league team?

Scroll over, read the rest, reflect on your blessings, or contemplate what there might be in baseball that often brings out the excellence in people who might otherwise be down and out.  And sometimes the perspective to recognize that when a mentor takes an offer from a competing team, it's business.

THE ETERNALLY FRUSTRATING YET FASCINATING GAME OF BASEBALL.

During the regular season, the Milwaukee Brewers won all six games they played facing the Brooklyn Trolley, now Los Angeles, Dodgers.  Those wins bracketed the All-Star break, part of a long winning streak that put the Crew atop the division without paying off in hamburgers.  The hamburgers came later.

Five of those six games were close, sometimes determined by the relief pitchers.  In the first, though, the Crew chased starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto in 2/3 of an inning, which might have been how one awakens a sleeping giant and fills him with a terrible resolve.  The other five Dodgers who took losses: Clayton Kershaw, Kirby Yates, Tyler Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan, and Lou Trivino, who finished the season with the Phillies.

THOSE WHO NOW WILL BLESS THE POOR.

Before the first pitch was thrown in the Hiawatha series, the Catholic prelates of Milwaukee and Chicago had a collegial wager.  "Archbishop Jeffery Grob of Milwaukee and Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, made a bet – the losing city would send the winning city a staple item of their hometown."

It was the archdiocese of the losing city that had to settle up, shipping food to the other city.  "It started as a friendly bet between Chicago and Milwaukee’s archbishops and ended with deep-dish pizza served to dozens of people right here in Milwaukee. A final taste of victory over the Cubs before the Brewers move on to the Dodgers."  Milwaukee's archbishop, though, sent the bratwurst to a Chicago pantry.  "Although the Brewers may have beat the Chicago Cubs, Archbishop Grob says he will still deliver 100 brats donated by Bunzel’s to Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood."

The prelates of Milwaukee and Los Angeles are negotiating the terms of a similar bet.

THE HIAWATHA DIVISION SERIES.

The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs are playing for the right to play in the National League's championship series, which for the moment still means representing the National League.  On Wednesday, the Brewers worked with Amtrak and the state operators of the Hiawatha to decorate train 332.  "The 8:05 a.m. departure train on Wednesday will be transformed into the themed Brewers Express, complete with the famous Racing Sausages, the Brewers 4-1 Force, and other members of the Brew Crew who will send off fans headed to this afternoon’s crucial game."

The stock of 332 turns as the 11.08 Borealis from Chicago to the Cities.  The game itself started at 4 pm, and no special return working was laid on.

Fans had to figure out their own transportation from Union Station to Wrigley Field.  Get to the L in the State Street subway and board a train signed for Howard.  Or, for that North Shore Line experience, get on a Ravenswood train at Washington and Wells and ride around the Loop.

Once upon a time, there was a North Shore Line experience on game day.

To the end, the North Shore Line's timetable noted that trains would set down southbound and pick up northbound at Addison on the days the Cubs or Bears played.  The five Electroliners each way (this is the 801-802 set northbound) featured a tavern-lounge section with beer and sandwiches.

THE FRUSTRATING FASCINATION THAT IS BASEBALL.

As March gave way to April, we noted, "It's a long season, you don't give up on it after a week."  Nor do you count coup until the final out is recorded.  Consider, two weeks ago, the Mets hosting the Padres in New York.

I should say that what happened before the game between the Mets and Padres was too sweet to ignore.

A performance of the national anthem is the norm before most professional sporting events, but the person who performed last night's rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" wasn't just any old musician. She is the wife of Mets' shortstop Francisco Lindor.

Katia Reguero Lindor played a beautiful version of the song on her violin, but what made it even more special was the way her husband and their three young children — Kalina, Amapola, and Koa — reacted. Francisco, who was holding baby Koa and standing next to their two daughters, couldn't hide his pride for his wife. He smiled, got emotional, and jumped up and down while she performed. It was just such a pure and wholesome moment — a nice change of pace from the news in recent weeks.

Here is the performance.

Francisco Lindor's wife Katia played the national anthem on the violin ahead of tonight's Mets game! pic.twitter.com/rIKuEGiIhn

— MLB (@MLB) September 16, 2025

The Mets and Padres were jockeying for wild card seedings behind the Phillies and Dodgers.  The Mets won that game.  You can't give up on the season with a week or two to go, either.

On June 12th👇

Mets had the best record in baseball at 45-24.

Brewers were 37-33 and 8.5 games behind the Mets.

Since then👇

Mets went 38-55 and missed the playoffs.

Brewers went 60-32 and earned the best record in baseball.

Incredible. pic.twitter.com/F7Ij4Rvrys

— Hunter Baumgardt (@hunterbonair) September 29, 2025

Sometime in May, one of the sports pundits who create power rankings, not because he knows anything, but because sports fans expect such things, suggested that the Cubs had finally shaken off the Brewers, who were playing somewhere near .500 baseball at the time and five or six games behind the Cubs.  Then came those three winning streaks, eight, eleven, fourteen games.  Yes, the Brewers did win a club-best 97 games this year, clinching the playoffs, the division, a bye, and the top seed without invoking any of the tie-breakers that they held.  The division clinch came on a day both they and the Cubs lost, and the top seed clinch came on a day both they and the Phillies lost.

On the final day of the season, the Brewers won that 97th game, which meant the Reds had to get some help from the Miami Marlins, who took the Saturday and Sunday games from the Mets.

It is the custom in Major League Baseball to offer visiting teams a suitable background for a photo shoot in the event of one of those clinches taking place.  Milwaukee's stadium staff were up to the occasion.

Now come the playoffs, and identifying a favorite is a fool's errand.  The Brewers await the winner of the wild card Cubs and Padres, who will play in Chicago, while the Phillies will play the winner of the Dodgers, who had the fewest wins among the division champions and who will host the Reds.  In the former junior circuit (with realignments and interleague play, is there such a thing as the National or American League any more?) the Blue Jays are the top seed, awaiting the winner of the wild card Red Sox at the Yankees, the Yankees losing a tie-breaker to the Blue Jays, and the Mariners will play the winner of Cleveland, a division winner with one fewer win than the Red Sox, hosting the Tigers, with one fewer win than the Indians Guardians.  First pitch will be at noon (Central) Tuesday, in Cleveland.

PRIVILEGE CHECKING AT MILWAUKEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE.

The Milwaukee Brewers have ways of keeping players from getting too full of themselves.

Those in the Brewers organization insist there is no classified formula for their success, but the answer might be best summed up in an internal game the organization plays called the "Check Game."

"It started in the coach's room," Brewers manager Pat Murphy told ESPN recently. "To remind us, it's not about us. It's about the team. Anyone is fair game."

The rules of the Check Game are simple. If you talk about your own accolades, you get a check. If you try to defend yourself, that's a check. If you pass on blame to someone else, that might be a check as well.

"And if you bitch about a check, you get a bigger check," Murphy said with a smile.

"[General manager] Matt Arnold was a two-time defending champion. If he said something about a player like, 'We drafted him in Tampa,' that was a check."

It's not privilege shaming.  It's a tradition a generational player might not buy into.  It works as a team-building activity.

The point of the game exemplifies the concerted effort across the organization to align the different departments, so every voice is heard and valued -- and the game makes it clear to everyone that making the team better is more important than who gets the credit.

"The Check Game is a really important game inside the clubhouse and the culture and the ecosystem of the team," Brewers play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson said. "It's a little bit of a borderline shaming game, so if you're in it for yourself, you're going to get a check and you're going to be on that board.

"No one wants to be on that board."

The way baseball works, it might be the bottom of the order that has to start the rally and bring the top of the order up to bat, and thinking of yourself as that Little League kid remembering to protect the plate with two strikes and make the pitcher pitch to you gets you on base more effectively than trying to be what you're not.

The Brewers can go toe-to-toe with the $300 million powerhouses at the top of the National League standings because instead of trying to compete dollar for dollar, they've created the kind of unique environment that the Check Game fosters. It's a vibe that feels more like the atmosphere in a college locker room than what you would expect in a professional clubhouse.

As you make your way through American Family Field on game day, you come to understand that notion when you hear the team's manager, known simply as Murph throughout Milwaukee, refer to his first- and second-year players as "freshmen" and "sophomores."

Murphy, 66, coached 22 years at the collegiate ranks, first at Notre Dame and then Arizona State, and old habits die hard.

"We joke around with each other and say that it's Milwaukee Community College just because that's how we play the game and that's the kind of guys we have," Christian Yelich said. "And Murph's the manager and there's a lot more talks about fundamentals and baserunning and little details of a game that you might hear in college."

Murphy waves off any talk that his team performs fundamentals better than most. He even gets text messages about his club's ability to do the little things from friends -- but he won't take the bait and risk receiving a check in the game he helped cultivate.

"I don't think we have a secret sauce, and I don't think we do things that much better than anyone else," he said. "We've got a great group that competes. We're under construction. We're not setting limits on what we can do. How do we get better today? That's the emphasis. That will always be the emphasis."

So this season has gone.  "After making history at Yankee Stadium for a number of the wrong reasons, the Milwaukee Brewers won their home opening series."  You don't give up on the season after a week, you steal a lot of bases on Easter Sunday, you cash in on the George Webb promotion, and you better not let up once you're the first team into the playoffs.  Maybe mentioning the playoffs too loudly gets you a check.

HOW DO YOU SCOUT BLOCKING AND TACKLING?

So ran the lament during the Lombardi era in Green Bay.

There are fundamentals in baseball as well.

People in baseball keep warning me: Don’t get carried away with the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Brewers’ batted-ball luck is insane, they say. Their 53-17 record since May 24 might be a classic case of peaking early. Come the postseason, they could be headed for another quick flameout.

All true. But even though the Brewers’ 14-game winning streak ended Sunday with a 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds in 10 innings, their record is best in the majors by six games. The team that opened the season with the sport’s eighth lowest payroll is putting the competition to shame.

There’s a lesson here, if anyone in baseball cares to heed it. The lesson is in every ball the Brewers put in play and every runner they advance, every cutoff man they hit and every extra base they take. The Brewers are not perfect – Sunday’s loss included a critical error to open the ninth by Brice Turang at shortstop and two botched bunts in the late innings. But they at least try to play the game properly at a time when most teams place too little emphasis on fundamentals and too much on the next big analytical thing.

Baseball is a different sort of game, in that you can't put the ball in Bart Starr's or Giannis's hands in a tight situation, and beginning players ought be coached in Little League (and here is where the helicopter parents really ought chill) in the ways each player can keep the line moving, or stop the other team's line from moving.

Can someone please explain why clubs fixate on enhancing pitchers’ fastball velocities and hitters’ exit velocities but fail to properly instruct players on running the bases and hitting the cutoff man? Why can’t organizations focus on both?

The Brewers are an outlier, exploiting a new market inefficiency – knowing how to play baseball. They obsess over little things, in part, because they generally do not pay for superstars who do big things. Most Brewers make too little money and possess too little service time to defy their detail-oriented leader, manager Pat Murphy. And the team’s highest-paid player, left fielder Christian Yelich, practices what Murphy preaches, inspiring his teammates to do the same.

The advantage in the playoffs might be with the big payrolls, and yet if you take care of the base running and the position of fielders on each ball put in play, the World Series might take care of itself.

The Brewers entered Sunday tied for fifth in sacrifice bunts and sixth in sacrifice flies, and also were second in stolen bases. They scrap. They drive opponents to distraction. They beat teams in any number of ways.

“I think we need to take a page out of the Brewers’ book,” Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Bryan Reynolds said Wednesday. “They just do everything right. They base run, they take the extra base, they put the ball in play, swing at strikes. I think we could benefit a lot from trying to have the same kind of game style.”

It’s not just the small-market teams that could benefit, it’s every team. Here’s to the little things that make baseball beautiful. Here’s to baseball’s version of David using slingshots on the sport’s Goliaths. Here’s to the Brewers, however long they continue the fun.

Indeed.

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

Long-time Milwaukee Brewer announcer Bob Uecker, who departed this life in January, had a self-deprecating way of describing his career as a Major League catcher.  The story around Milwaukee these days is about the Heavenly Host hearing all about how well the Brewers have been playing since he left.

One of the few Brewers who knew last year how ill Mr Uecker was was outfielder and designated hitter Christian Yelich, who had a Bob Uecker bat made up for the 2024 Players Weekend.  (There are rules governing the use of special bats.)  Because of an injury, he could not use that bat last season.  Instead, he used the bat Friday evening in Cincinnati, when it looked like the winning streak would end at twelve games with the hamburgers secured.

Four marks for four hits that Brewers fans will never forget. Christian Yelich on the comeback, the bat, and what Bob Uecker meant to him. pic.twitter.com/oLDl1m06Or

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) August 16, 2025

Yes, the Crew rallied from seven down to win the game.

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich went sicko mode on Friday night against the Cincinnati Reds, perhaps in part because of his bat.

Of course, that’s a necessary piece of equipment for any baseball player. You don’t do anything without a bat in your hand. But Yelich’s bat had an abnormal, yet special, twist from the normal Louisville Slugger you tend to see.

It’s Player’s Weekend in the MLB, which means that anyone who wants to make a bat with a special design can. Yelich chose to honor the late, legendary Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker with his, after he passed in January 2025.

There must have been some magic in that special bat he found, because when he put it in his hands the team rallied 'round.

Evidently, that twig brought him some good luck. Yelich would go 4-5 on the night with two home runs and a double in a 10-8 win for the Brew Crew.

The Reds did end the Brewer winning streak at fourteen on Sunday and the Cubs still have a few things to say about the outcome of the division race.  The hamburgers are being served up in Milwaukee this afternoon.

A MILWAUKEE PROMOTION TO COME.

Years ago, George Webb predicted that the (minor league) Milwaukee Brewers would win twelve straight games, and he promised to give away hamburgers.  Those Brewers never took him up on it.  Nor did the Milwaukee Braves, although they did win a World Series (and drop another one after winning the first three games.)

The current Milwaukee Brewers, though?  They opened the 1987 season with thirteen straight wins, in the American League at the time.  They closed out the 2018 season with twelve straight wins between the end of the regular season, a Game 163, and a sweep of the Colorado Rockies.  This year, Brewer fans were on Hamburger Watch a few weeks ago, when the team came out of the All-Star break with a pair of sweeps and subsequently notched eleven straight wins.  Seattle's current American League team frustrated Seattle's former American League team, now the National League Brewers, that time.

This year's Brewers?  Relentless.

Free burgers await.  "Milwaukee Brewers 12th straight win puts team one victory away from franchise history and revives iconic George Webb's historic burger giveaway."  The company will be announcing additional details for their promotion.  Meanwhile, there is meaningful baseball to come.