This weekend, I took the opportunity to escape from Madison and go up north. Although I was staying with my family in a nice cottage on the lake where the weather was friendly and the bugs weren't biting, there is one thing that I could not escape from: the wonderful world of sports.
Instead of sitting out by the campfire and enjoying nature at its finest, I spent Friday evening sitting in front of the tiny television set in the cottage watching the Milwaukee Brewers squeeze out a win against the Chicago Cubs, giving themselves a one- game lead in the National League wildcard race over the New York Mets. I fell asleep with a smile on my face that night, keeping my fingers crossed that my Brewers weren't going to let me down for yet another year.
Saturday was not such a fortunate day for fans of Wisconsin teams. As for the Wisconsin football team, I'm pretty sure we all know how that story ended. For those of you who don't, let's just say the Badgers blew a 19-0 lead at the half and lost 25-27 to Michigan, one of our more popular Big Ten rivals. What hurt the most about this game was the Badgers gave up 20 of the Wolverines' 27 points in the fourth quarter alone.
Wisconsin was not the only team ranked in the top-10 in the nation to be the victim of an upset this weekend, as three of the top-five teams also lost, which would have given the Badgers a great chance of advancing in the rankings.
On top of that, the Brewers dropped their game Saturday to the Cubs after showing brief glimpses of hope near the end. The Mets, of course, won their game against the Florida Marlins and tied the Brewers with one game left in the regular season.
All I hoped for was that the next day would bring better results for Wisconsin sports, considering the Brewers could not afford another loss in the last game of the regular season, and neither could the Green Bay Packers.
I caught the beginning of both games before heading back to Madison, enough to see the Packers get off to a decent start and the Cubs to take a quick 1-0 lead over the Brewers in the second inning.
The drive back required a lot of switching between both games on the radio. The Packers eventually lost the little momentum they had and took the back seat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. By the sound of how that game was going, I am actually pleased that I did not have to watch that disaster unfold in front of my eyes. My imagination is much more optimistic.
At this point, I was actually a bit nervous when the Brewers game was turned back on, hoping the bad luck would not travel from one Wisconsin sports team to the other.
To my surprise, the Brewers did not give up any more runs to the Cubs. But the game was still 1-0, meaning Milwaukee did not do anything exciting with its bats, either. Eventually, Milwaukee's second baseman Ray Durham scored the first run for the Brewers in the seventh inning to tie things up. As awesome as that was, there were still two innings left in the game and a lot of room for Milwaukee to throw this one away.
In the bottom of the eighth, Milwaukee left fielder Ryan Braun stepped up to the plate for the Brewers with two outs on the board and a duck on the pond. Even with the massive amount of pressure on him, he crushed the first pitch over the fence, giving Milwaukee a 3-1 lead.
After the eighth inning retired, Brewers pitcher CC Sabathia pulled off the win and only allowed Chicago four singles on the game, giving him his seventh complete game with Milwaukee.
I waited anxiously to find out how the Mets did in their final game, knowing that if they won we would have to play them in a one-game tiebreaker to decide who earns a spot in the playoffs. My palms were sweaty and my heart was pumping blood a mile a minute as I listened cautiously to the radio announcer explain that the Mets lost to the Marlins and the Brewers were moving on to the playoffs.
The last time I was that excited was when the Packers won the Super Bowl over 10 years ago.
The truth is, I have never seen the Brewers make it into the playoffs. How could I? I am only 21 years old and the last time Milwaukee qualified was almost five years before I was born. That does not mean, however, that the Brewers' hunger for post-season action is any less than teams who have made it that far in the last two decades. Let's just hope the taste of the playoffs doesn't leave a sour one in Milwaukee's mouth, or those of its fans.
Maybe this is the perfect time for an underdog to prevail. I think Milwaukee has what it takes to claim the World Series title, just as long as they have fun with it and stay on their A-game.
If you believe the Brewers have what it takes to win the World Series this year, e-mail Crystal at crowns@wisc.edu.
