In a bizarre twist of journalistic excellence, Rob has elected to interview himself in the final Sunday Cycle of the 2018 season. For the sake of clarity, we will refer to the interviewer as Rob, and the interviewee as Bob.
Rob: Well, Bob, let’s start with the question on everyone’s minds… how are you feeling?
Bob: Sad. I’m really sad. To have the high of Friday night’s Game 6 victory come crashing down less than 24 hours later… I gotta be honest… it sucks. It absolutely sucks. It’s going to suck for a long time. This one stings.
Rob (offering tissue): Let’s take a step back for a moment. You boldly guaranteed a postseason berth for the 2018 Milwaukee Brewers before the very first pitch was thrown. What made you so confident?
Bob: Honestly, I felt like I was just following the team’s lead. It started at Brewers On Deck, after the Cain and Yelich deals went down. It seemed like everyone, including players, coaches, and even David Stearns and Mark Attanasio were united in their expectation for this team to win now. As long as I’ve been a Brewers fan, I can’t remember a team that was more bold in their belief that they had what it took to play into October. That was special.
Rob: It’s a long season… was there ever any doubt?
Bob: I’m not proud of it, but I flinched in early August when the Brewers lack of starting pitching really seemed to hurt them, and the bats went ice cold. While I never wavered in my postseason prediction for the Crew, I was certainly concerned.
Rob: We saw a different Brewers team this September: they went 19-7, and won 7 straight to force game 163. You’ve been a critic of the Brewers in the past for not peaking at the right time – what was it like to watch them play their best baseball at the tail end of the season?
Bob: It was a run that I’ll never forget, that’s for sure. This was my fifth season writing the Sunday Cycle. In two of those seasons, 2014 and 2017, I watched talented teams fail to get it done during the month of September. When that happens on multiple occasions in such a short amount of time, it starts to become a story line that fans talk about, even if the teams are almost entirely different.
For a stretch of nearly two weeks, the Brewers did almost everything right, and they were catching all sorts of breaks. Because of that, other teams started pressing and making mistakes. It was amazing to be on the other side of that of a fan, because we’ve seen many a Brewers team press against teams down the stretch and beat themselves. Not the case with this team – September was awesome.
Rob: When you look back on this season, how significant will the NL Central title be, given how everything eventually ended?
Bob: Very significant. In fact, it’s one of the few things getting me through these somber first days without baseball. The Brewers beat the Cubs at Wrigley field in game 163 to win the NL Central. That’s a banner that they’ll get to hang in Miller Park forever. Despite what Cole Hamels thinks, the Brewers / Cubs rivalry is as heated as it has ever been, and the Brewers won the battle of 2018. I’ll wear my 2018 postseason Brewers gear with pride for years to come because it represents just the second division title the Crew has won in my lifetime. It’s a tremendous accomplishment, and it should not go overlooked.
Rob: Take me through the playoffs. What did you do, what was it like?
Bob: Sure. I was all over the place, which was fun.
I attended two games, both wins: NLDS Game 2, and NLCS game 1. I’ve been to a lot of big sporting events in my lifetime, but playoff baseball at Miller Park will always rank above them all. When the air is cold, the roof is closed, and 48,000 people are attentively hanging on every pitch, that’s the stuff dreams are made of. As long as I live, I will hope and anxiously look forward to another opportunity to be a part of a playoff crowd at Miller Park.
One of the best parts of October baseball is watching all of the people around me rally around something that they spend most of the year passively caring about. Some people hate the “bandwagon” fans that only come around in the playoffs – not me. I love it. I watched every game except for the late NLCS Game 4 with different groups of friends. Sometimes we went out, sometimes we stayed in. Regardless, we got to spend 3-4 hours together hanging on every pitch and celebrating a lot of Brewers wins.
Rob: Obviously, things didn’t end quite the way Brewers fans had hoped.
Bob: Yes.
Rob: I know you hate to do this, but play armchair manager with me for a minute. Is there anything you would have liked to see Craig Counsell do differently in the NLCS?
Bob: Craig Counsell is an incredible manager, and the Brewers are so fortunate to have him. The fact that he’s a hometown kid from Milwaukee who grew up cheering for the Brewers just adds to how perfect he is for this role. I honestly hope he’s still managing this team ten years from now.
There are two things I would have done differently. I would have liked to have seen Keon Broxton on the NLCS roster instead of Jonathan Schoop, and I would have started Travis Shaw every game. That said, there were honestly probably four or five occasions when I questioned Counsell’s pitching moves or roster decisions only to watch them play out perfectly, so it’s fair to say CC is better at his job than I would be.
Rob: Take me through game seven.
Bob: Adam McCalvy tweeted out some NLCS stats that will blow your mind:
Brewers: 24 runs scored, .678 OPS, 3.15 ERA, 82 Ks, 10 for 56 with RISP.
Dodgers: 23 runs scored, .633 OPS, 3.18 ERA, 79 Ks, 11 for 56 with RISP.
This series was so close, these teams were so evenly matched. Ultimately what it came down to was timely hitting by LA. The Dodgers got the big hit to go ahead one run, and when the Brewers failed to tie the game back up, Puig put the series away with his three run shot off of Jeremy Jeffress.
I’ll say this much – I think the Brewers fans really sent a special message to this team, and to baseball in general. Despite it looking grim, the fans stayed in their seats and kept cheering. That’s a staunch contrast to the Dodger’s fans who, in my opinion, acted like a fan base that has been spoiled by too many postseason appearances. You didn’t hear any Brewers fans commenting on the lack of energy at Miller Park, did you?
Rob: No, I didn’t.
Bob: Didn’t think so, Bob.
Rob: I thought I was Rob?
Bob: Woah…
Rob: So, I’ll ask again, how are you feeling?
Bob: I think the toughest thing about how it all ended was how agonizingly close the Brewers were to their first World Series in my lifetime. They should have won Game 2, and they were one big hit away from winning Game 4. Game 7 really didn’t need to happen, and yet they were still alive, playing in front of a home crowd, one win away.
That kills me. That will hurt until Opening Day next year, and probably longer. I honestly gave the Brewers, and any other NL team, very little shot to beat the Red Sox in the World Series. I just wanted to see them go. And now, the wait continues.
Rob: Do you take any solace in the fact that almost all of the Brewers core players will be returning in 2019?
Bob: There’s reason to believe on paper that next year’s Brewers team will be even better, especially when you look at all of the guys competing for spots in the starting rotation: Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, Zach Davies, Chase Anderson, Jhoulys Chacin, and Jimmy Nelson. You’ve got the reining NL MVP and his counterpart Lorenzo Cain both under contract for years to come. Travis Shaw, Orlando Arcia, Jesus Aguilar, Josh Hader, Corey Knebel will all be back. If we’ve learned anything from David Stearn’s time in Milwaukee, he’s not going to sit still – he’ll make a couple of moves to try to make this team even better. And while many are concerned about our increasing payroll, I’m not for two reasons: 1. Attanasio banked money for years as the lowest payroll in baseball, and 2. He sold a lot of tickets, tee shirts, and hats over the past month. He wants to win more than anyone.
Like many, I’m optimistic, for sure, but also have a profound respect for just how difficult it is to get back to this stage. Think of everything that went right for the Brewers over the last month. The Brewers could be perfect on paper and still miss the playoffs. They would win the division and run into the wrong team at the wrong time in the NLDS. There’s just so much that has to go right, success isn’t guaranteed, and that worries me. I don’t want to wait another 7 years to go to a playoff game at Miller Park.
Rob: Are you okay?
Bob: I don’t know how to answer that question. I’ll be fine, it’s just sports, but man this hurts.
Rob: What are you going to do now that your not spending 20ish hours a week watching and writing about baseball?
Bob: I plan on coming to Spring Training next year in the best shape of my life.
Rob: I’ll end with the question on everyone’s minds… will there be a 6th season of the Sunday Cycle?
Bob: I know this isn’t the answer everyone wants to hear, but it’s the honest truth: I’m going to take a couple of months away from baseball, spend some quality time with my wife and dog, and reassess as we get closer to Opening Day.
I love the Sunday Cycle – it’s opened up a lot of doors for me. I was promoted to Sr. Writer, I was a credentialed member of the Miller Park press for a game, and I’ve got a genuine beat that goes beyond that of a normal fan. That said, it’s also a tremendous time commitment, and sometimes you have to resort to things like fake interviewing yourself to generate solid content.
So I really don’t know. I said I wanted to see this column through to its first playoff run, and this year I was able to do just that. Whether or not I’ve got more to prove, I’m not sure. You’ll be the first to know when I make my decision.
Rob: Anything else you’d like to say to the readers?
Bob: Two things: 1. Thanks, as always, for reading my weekly rants. 2. Follow me on Twitter.