Worst night in Brewers' history?

[SeriesFinale]

Losing both ends of a doubleheader to fall into a tie for the wildcard is the worst day in Brewer history? I am as upset as anyone about blowing a very comfortable lead in the wildcard race but let's get a little perspective.

Well, it's kind of why I asked what else is up there

[owbc]

I was thinking about this question, and I decided the answer is no, but in my time being a fan (since 1996), it's the 2nd worst.

 

The only day that was worse was the Big Blue crane collapse. I was only 13 at the time, but I remember exactly where I was when I found out the news, I remember the shock when I turned on the TV and saw what had happened--I was glued to the TV for hours in shock. There was, of course, the anger over 3 people being killed over what clearly was a bad decision. However, there was also the long-lasting, sinking feeling of seeing Miller Park and all it represented full of a mass of twisted steel. In a moment, all the dreams Opening Day 2000 were over, the start of the new future was delayed, and the Brewers were doomed to play another season at County Stadium. I went to the last game of 1999 for about an hour--there was a pouring rain and only about 1000 people there out of an announced crowd of 55,000--which perfectly fit the mood of the entire disaster.

 

Other low ranking moments include the Jenkins ankle injury, the 2002 All-Star game ending (more of a Milwaukee thing than Brewers), the Pirates "sweep suits" series of 2001, the 100th loss of the 2002 season, Soriano's walk-off HR from 2007, or my earliest bad memory--the Greg Vaughn trade.

 

Being an eternal optimist, I'll also note some of best moments from my memory: the opening of Miller Park, the night the new stadium was approved, the 1998 10-game winning streak, Jeromy Burnitz winning the first interleague game at County Stadium 1-0 on a walk-off HR, Bill Hall's heroics in 2004, Ben Sheets' 18-K game, the day the CC Sabathia trade was completed, TGJ's walk-off to doom the Padres, etc...

 

Edit: Correction, the winning streak was in 1997 and it was only 9 games.

[bucks2281]

Being an eternal optimist, I'll also note some of best moments from my memory: the opening of Miller Park, the night the new stadium was approved, the 1998 10-game winning streak, Jeromy Burnitz winning the first interleague game at County Stadium 1-0 on a walk-off HR, Bill Hall's heroics in 2004, Ben Sheets' 18-K game, the day the CC Sabathia trade was completed, TGJ's walk-off to doom the Padres, etc...

 

I wish we could talk about playoff memories. I have some cherished memories from the past few seasons, but I'm just heartbroken tonight. I really wanted to see some playoff memories made in 2008.

[RockCoCougars]

I'm going to say the night in December 1992 when ESPN broke the story around midnight that Molitor had agreed with the Jays was worse- this was close though, even though the sinking feeling started on Thursday night.

[InsomniacInkRoss]

I was on the way home from watching the guy I hate the most, on the team I hate the most, pitch a no-hitter in my stadium, to start this exact thread

 

i will echo brewcrewkid14 and say, ask me in two weeks, but as it stands right now it certainly looks like it will be

 

*edit* Hey, I made mlb.com again!, or at least "Russ" did:

At least one Brewers fan embraced it, sort of. Russ Salchow watched the Milwaukee-Philadelphia game on a concession-area television until he noticed Zambrano's no-no through five innings and turned his attention to the field. On a day his Brewers got swept in a doubleheader to fall into a tie with the Phillies in the National League Wild Card race, Salchow was forced to watch a rival ace make history at the Brewers' home base.

"I'm going to go a little extreme here, this could be an all-time low as a Brewers fan," Salchow said.

 

Full article here

 

[GJenkinsFutureAllStar]

I was at the afternoon game yesterday in Philly and it was even worse being there for it. I was openly rooting for the Brewers (not booing the Phillies, but cheering when the Brew Crew did something), so when Ryan Howard hit that two run shot, the people around me good-naturedly let me have it. My wife wore her Brewers shirt and several people would make funny little comments, like the usher at the escalator who tried to tell us it was closed.

 

I will say Phillies fan love to boo, and sometimes boo at the stupidest stuff. I never understand why people boo a pickoff attempt. I can see if the pitcher keeps throwing over, but one attempt?

 

Anyway, when I learned about the sweep this morning, plus Zambrano throwing a no-no in Miller Park, I was pretty well disgusted, but what can you do? Let's just hope they realize their playoff chances are slipping away and the team starts to play some better ball.

[Bruce Ciskie]

I'd make some grand statement about "giving up" on the team, or about how my worst fears have been realized, or about how I can't believe this is happening...

 

but none of it would be sincere.

 

The reality is that I pretty much stopped watching, both by choice and because of real-life intervention, right around the start of September. I haven't been around to see Chris Young or Brandon Phillips or Eric Gagne or Salomon Torres or The Sweep. I chuckled when I heard Zambrano had a no-hitter in the fifth inning last night, if only because it meant whoever let those obnoxious blowhards in "my" stadium were going to pay for it in karma, just like we all did with that four-game sweep.

 

So I say the only thing I can say to protect myself from another amazing disappointment.

 

Go Packers.

 

As upset as I was with the NFC Championship Game last January, my honest feeling is that the Packers don't let me down like the Brewers do. It's one thing to pick a really bad day to just not get the job done, but it's a completely different animal to melt down as historically as the Brewers are right now, one year after melting down less emphatically but in a similarly-damaging manner.

 

I've asked and even at times begged for a coaching change, and I get Dale Sveum off the bench and into a position where he can actually make a real impact on a game with bad decisions. Shockingly, that exact scenario plays itself out every now and then.

 

Just the change I wanted.

 

Meanwhile, the hitters continue to make the same bad swings at the same bad pitches that they were making last year. The manager continues to make unconscionable moves and defend them with a three-year-old's logic. The players are pressing, probably playing hurt, and simply not getting the job done.

 

It's a meltdown of epic proportions, and I guess I'm a bad fan, because I'm more than willing to turn away. In fact, I already have.

 

I certainly am used to a sports fan's suffering. I've been a Brewer fan since the early 1980s, when I didn't even have the means to follow the team on a daily basis. But the last two years have stung. Hard. It's bad enough that we're not as good as the stupid Cubs, but to have it be so crystal clear that we're at least in part being held back by the manager and his largely incompetent staff just hurts even more. We make the big trade, and the pitcher we got hasn't lost, and yet we can't win anymore. How the hell does that work? The home-grown pitcher in a contract year who's always hurt has been healthy and can't pitch. The bullpen we threw money at still sucks. Our best hitter is either hurt or slumping terribly, and our other best hitter is just another fat guy now.

 

Meanwhile, my two favorite seasons - football and hockey - have either started or are about to. Hard to compete with that.

[moofnelson]

The World Series loss still stings and will continue to sting until the Brewers win a World Series. I don't see that happening soon. Maybe it will never happen in my lifetime. My only regret is that my 11-year-old son now loves the Brewers. Some day I will have to apologize to him for turning him on to this loser franchise.

[truecrew]

At least the No No was not against us! Still funny the best thing to happen at Miller Park this year is from a Cub and our team was watching on TV!

[cnycerveceros]

While I always appreciate rluz's objectivity about the game, speaking about being a fan, last night was very difficult. Being a fan is very much about emotions and symbolism. Watching the Brewers this weekend was simply depressing, then seeing Zambrano throw a no hitter in MP with all those Cub fans jumping up and down was just a kick in the gut. So, it's true, the Brewers only lost 2 games and still have a fighting chance with 12 games to go, which is more than we've come to expect over the last 16 years, but the emotions of yesterday were about as bad as it gets.

[RightFieldCoder]

What I love is on Saturday when Fox pointed out that the Brewers haven't made the playoffs in 26 years, and the next closest team in any of the four major sports is the Arizona Cardinals at 9. What a pathetic franchise. I'm starting to entertain thoughts of contracting the Brewers.

 

This is the time of the year for me to turn my attention to the Cowboys.

[windiv07]

I pretty much lost all enthisiasm for Brewers playoff hopes (ever) in August of 2007 when the same thing happened 6 weeks earlier. For me this 2008 collapse is the second worst thing that has happened to the Brewers in recent history. I will say that it is indeed worse than the 4 similar collapses in the last 7 years (which makes this all so predictable). At some point, management must be called to question by the front office yet...it is as if nobody wants to question any in game situation and rather, we are quoted stat after stat that have no relevance to the outcome of a specific game that was lost by a particularly boneheaded move by the manager at a pivotal moment (the list grows almost daily). Either that or the 'blame the players' mantra is offered along with the diversionary innuendo 'why do you hate Ned?'. To me the worst day in Brewers' recent history was near the endof the 2007 season when, after two consecutive late season collapses (similar to this year) Doug Melvin expressed his undying long-term commitment to Ned Yost as manager on the basis of the aforementioned rationale. Yost will not win Milwaukee a pennant...history has proven this time and again. And no doubt we will soon hear the same speech from Doug Melvin very very soon.

 

A cursory analysis of what changed (the payroll and the player talent level went up significantly) and what remained the same (Ned and his coaching staff along with a copious number of late season losses to eliminated opponents against AAA prospect pitchers juxta-posed against our own complete lack of success with AAA call-ups) give us all we need to know about what needs to be changed in this formula to get better results (gag) next year. I only wish this lesson were learned last year.

[naivin]

Yeah, I give a rip about the no hitter. We aren't going to catch the Cubs, and never were going to catch the Cubs, so what they do doesn't much matter. If anything they added a small silver lining by beating the Astros. They just finished an abysmal couple of weeks, but currently being tied for the WC, it is truly nothing a handful of wins can't take care of. I am not predicting that necessarily, but obviously its possible. In some respects a trip to Wrigley might be just the thing for this team.

 

I can think of two nights in 1982 that rank ahead of this one.

[davego]

After reading this thread, I see that agony is the mother of inspired writing. Some pearls here. 1982 was bad, but hard to not have appreciation for that journey. "This" (if it comes to pass) is near tragic. To me, it feels like 2007 and 2008 has been one long and bitter season...soon comes the winter of our discontent.

[Fatter than Joey]

I'm going to say the night in December 1992 when ESPN broke the story around midnight that Molitor had agreed with the Jays was worse-

 

This was it for me. Molitor and I broke in with the Brewers about at the same time, he was the first hot-shot rookie to take the team by storm for me, and when he left, that link to my first Brewer experiences were compromised.

[joepepsi]

I'm just really happy our .248 hitting catcher was able to play both games yesterday. That kind of grittiness is what's going to bring the Brewers a Championship this year.

[Invader3K]

Losing both ends of a doubleheader to fall into a tie for the wildcard is the worst day in Brewer history? I am as upset as anyone about blowing a very comfortable lead in the wildcard race but let's get a little perspective.

Yes, but do you have any reasonable expectation that they won't continue to nosedive at this point? I mean, they look like they can't even win a game anymore, let alone do well in their coming series against the Cubs.. Comments like the one you made are the same stuff we heard last year when the team was tail spinning out of their huge first place lead.

[Fatter than Joey]

Never bet on the Tidy-Bowl man to win a race. -- Some boat-race gambler.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

The 1983 collapse was bad. The 12 game losing streak in 1987 was rough after the big start. They lost some crucial games down the stretch in 1992. Losing Molitor and the trade of Gorman were pretty bad days...they were each the end of an era and brought on a new period of hopelessness.

 

Was yesterday the worst? It's gotta be in the top ten, but it's just one day in a series of one of the worst periods in franchise history. If they miss the playoffs, it will be top 3 and like '83 or '92...probably the end of an era. This team will not be as good next year as they are this year. Watching the inevitable departure of Sheets and CC will be some bad days.

 

Who knows...maybe the next two weeks will be some of the most magical in team history. I doubt it, but I sure am hoping.

[giffted1]

I wasn't born at the time, but I'd imagine that losing game seven of the world series was a lot worse than falling into a tie for the wildcard.

[Fatter than Joey]

I wasn't born at the time, but I'd imagine that losing game seven of the world series was a lot worse than falling into a tie for the wildcard.

 

I don't think so. No shame in being the AL champs. It was disappointing -- but not as bad as this IMO -- having lived through both.

[pitchleague]

What I love is on Saturday when Fox pointed out that the Brewers haven't made the playoffs in 26 years, and the next closest team in any of the four major sports is the Arizona Cardinals at 9. What a pathetic franchise. I'm starting to entertain thoughts of contracting the Brewers.

The only thing is that graphic was technically incorrect. The Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals "franchise" hasn't been to the post-season since 1981, which is 27 years. I'm sure FOX didn't count them, though, since they moved to a different city.

[truecrew]

And this is the year the team is "Going for it" Yea going for being this years version of the Mets! They will lose CC and Sheets come seasons end. Looks like back to the drawing board.

[Fatter than Joey]

The Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals "franchise" hasn't been to the post-season since 1981, which is 27 years. I'm sure FOX didn't count them, though, since they moved to a different city.

 

The 1994 Expos "won" the NL East in 1994, and had the best record in the NL by far (74-40) -- I realize that isn't "post-season" -- but they had the best record in their division.

[DougJones43]

Losing both ends of a doubleheader to fall into a tie for the wildcard is the worst day in Brewer history? I am as upset as anyone about blowing a very comfortable lead in the wildcard race but let's get a little perspective.

According to BP, by losing both games of the double-header, the Brewers managed to plummet 19% in their odds to make the postseason. Losing that kind of ground in one day is a pretty tough pill to swallow.

 

One week ago, the Brewers had about an 87.5% chance to make the playoffs. Now, it's 48.7%.