All is not 'Lost,' Brewers

"Brewers" and "Lost." Separately and in the right contexts, they're two of my favorite words. Together, they're no good at all.

I had had the usual bad news for Tracy this morning when she woke up and asked, "Brewers lost?" in routine expectation. She's taking this even harder than I am.

In virtually any other season, a Milwaukee Brewers losing streak would be no surprise. But this year, fans of the long-embattled Brew Crew — particularly my wife, who is such a big fan that we have an old seat from Milwaukee County Stadium in our living room — really got their hopes up quickly. Twenty-five years after the Brewers' one and only World Series season (1982), the team had somehow secured the best record in Major League Baseball, at 24-10, as of May 9.

I have to admit that although my ridiculously long hiatus in blogging was mostly because of final exams at the tail end of my first year at Luther Seminary, it also had something to do with Brewers fever. Tracy and I hooked ourselves up with MLB.TV this season so that we can watch all the games on the Internet, and we were really tuned into all the excitement. I was proudly wearing around my Derrick Turnbow jersey to seminary like a real tomfool at least once a week.

Then the Brewers hit their slump. They've lost their last four series, and Turnbow — my favorite player, who came back from a meltdown last season that lost him his role as the closing pitcher — has been struggling as the set-up man. It has made for some of the unhappiest times in the week-shy-of-two-years that Tracy and I have been married. She has had the team in her blood since she was a kid (she threw out the first pitch at a game when she was 14), and I have developed some sort of psychological disorder whereby I somehow hold myself responsible when Turnbow loses a game (he sent me an unsolicited autographed photo last fall after I sent him a hang-in-there letter, and now I consider him a personal friend or something).

Tracy and I have been to two games at Miller Park in Milwaukee this year. One was a rare early-season loss against the Cubs that was quickly washed away by all the wins. The really painful one was last week Friday against the Minnesota Twins, my second-favorite team. I had been looking forward to that game throughout my struggle with finals, and the Brewers proceeded to get whupped. I took the photo above, which appears to depict the Twins' mascot, T.C. the Bear, taunting a dejected Bernie Brewer.

This sort of painful jabbing hasn't stopped — in the roughly 10 minutes that Tracy and I were listening to the Twins game at my grandma's house last night, the Twins' announcers spent about half that time talking about how badly the Brewers had fallen on their faces. The Brewers' loss against the Padres last night has them poised to drop their fifth straight series, at 28-20.

Whereas I've realized in my theological education this year that praying for a sports team is neither practical nor advisable, I have to admit that I've dabbled in it. I think, however, that what becomes of this season is going to be mostly up to the Brewers themselves, and I still have plenty of faith in their crazy-talented lineup. I'm sure Tracy and I will be on hand for at least one game when the Brewers come to the Metrodome in a few weeks, and we'll be cheering hard.

If nothing else, I have to remember that "Lost," my favorite TV show, survived similar struggles this season. It really seemed like it had run out of gas for a while, but it really came back strong and finished with a tremendous season finale on Wednesday. You hear that, Brewers? Take a lesson from "Lost." Uh, and win, I mean.