As I sat on my computer at home some two weeks ago, I received the single most glorious text message of my lifetime: "Best news since Turnbow" the message said.
My little brother, knowing my baseball views better than anyone other than myself or my spouse, knew something that I could guess in an instant - Ned Yost had been fired.
Since the end of the 2006 season, I had been an advocate on many sports blogs and forum message boards giving my reasons for why Yost should no longer be the manager in Milwaukee. I e-mailed Doug Melvin and the Brewers' front office repeatedly (whether they actually got those notes, I'm not too sure). My thoughts were this: Ned Yost, as good of a motivator as he seemed to be in his first years as skipper, had lost the zest and had proved to be unable to make good, let alone acceptable, baseball decisions consistently.
I cannot count how many times Yost left in Derrick Turnblow. (Or is it Turnbow, I can't remember?) I cannot remember how often he went with "his guy" over the better baseball player - Chad Moeller, Victor Santos, Chris Magruder, Joe Dillon and Craig Counsell, just to mention a few. Yost always had better options, just chose not to use them.
Counsell is a great baseball player with a baseball mind and a veteran presence. But did he really deserve to start so often at age 62? I know Bill Hall wasn't anything great these past two years, but you had to believe he would hit the ball as much as Counsell, and he has a better glove.
And then this year, there was the dilemma that irritated me more than any - Jason Kendall. Kendall has been by far the best Brewers catcher in more than 15 seasons, but starting him for three straight weeks before allowing backup backstop Mike Rivera to get into the game was beyond me.
Rivera tore up the minors as much as a 30-something catcher could the past few seasons. This year, when he played, not only did he handle his pitchers well, but he hit - and hit well.
Even when rosters expanded, Rivera, Vinny Rottino and Angel Salome rarely got to see the field because Kendall was always right there. Kendall is in the latter part of his 30s, and squatting that much for that long cannot mean good things for his durability at the end of the season.
Because of this, and his terrible managing of the bullpen, I was dreaming of the day Yost would get the boot. People always said, "Who would replace him?"
The only ones that came to my mind were Ted Simmons and Frank Kremblas. My other prospects included Don Money, Bobby Valentine, Larry Bowa, Pete Rose, Gabe Kapler as player-manager, and the best yet - Mike Hargrove.
Other than the Brewers, the Indians are the only baseball team I will never ever ever ever root against. I love them deep into my soul - and Hargrove was a big reason.
Throughout the '90s, he took a crazy cast of Indians (from Albert Belle to Carlos Baerga to the best defensive shortstop in the game - Omar Vizquel - and the always entertaining Jose Mesa) and won division after division and reached two World Series.
However, Hargrove is most known for last year when he walked out on the Seattle Mariners in the midst of a winning season - saying he had lost the desire to manage.
Then, this July, Hargrove said in an interview that coaching college kids this year gave him a spark again, and he wanted to manage.
At this very time, Milwaukee was being swept out of its home ballpark by the Cubs - mentally ruining their chances of winning the division. Many people, including me, figured if there was a time to fire Yost, Aug. 1 would be it. But it didn't happen.
Milwaukee then got jump-started and had a fabulous August - an August I had dreaded because that gave all indications that Yost would remain manager through the season.
However, a terrible start to September got him the boot. Too little, too late, I thought. Dale Sveum, who I have not been a fan of, was picked to replace him. However, to my pleasure, Robin Yount joined the coaching staff again. And sure enough, after dropping two heartbreakers to Chicago at Wrigley, the Crew turned it around and made the playoffs.
I was the happiest man on the planet when the Indians were up on the Red Sox and nearly made the World Series last year. However, in my lifetime I have never witnessed Milwaukee in the playoffs.
This is my heaven. Should Milwaukee go on to beat Philadelphia and make the NCLS (or, gasp, continue winning), I may just retire as a sports fan for a year. I'm not kidding. In my lifetime, my three favorite teams in all of sports that I have followed (Brewers, Indians, Miami Dolphins) have never won a championship.
I watched my older brother bathe in happiness throughout the Yankees' fortunes. I watched my father and 90 percent of all my classmates and friends cheer when the Packers won the Super Bowl. I watched as Red Sox and White Sox fans watched their curses disappear.
And, yet, I had to watch Jose Mesa blow Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. I watched some young role player from Whitefish Bay cross home plate for the jump-start Florida Marlins in that 11th inning in Game 7.
Then again, maybe karma will be on my side this year - my favorite pitcher of the past eight years, CC, is on the roster, and that guy who hit the sacrifice fly to send it into extras and then scored the winning run in 1997 also is on the roster: Craig Counsell.
- Adam Krebs is sports editor of The Monroe Times. He can be reached at sports editor@themonroetimes.com.
My little brother, knowing my baseball views better than anyone other than myself or my spouse, knew something that I could guess in an instant - Ned Yost had been fired.
Since the end of the 2006 season, I had been an advocate on many sports blogs and forum message boards giving my reasons for why Yost should no longer be the manager in Milwaukee. I e-mailed Doug Melvin and the Brewers' front office repeatedly (whether they actually got those notes, I'm not too sure). My thoughts were this: Ned Yost, as good of a motivator as he seemed to be in his first years as skipper, had lost the zest and had proved to be unable to make good, let alone acceptable, baseball decisions consistently.
I cannot count how many times Yost left in Derrick Turnblow. (Or is it Turnbow, I can't remember?) I cannot remember how often he went with "his guy" over the better baseball player - Chad Moeller, Victor Santos, Chris Magruder, Joe Dillon and Craig Counsell, just to mention a few. Yost always had better options, just chose not to use them.
Counsell is a great baseball player with a baseball mind and a veteran presence. But did he really deserve to start so often at age 62? I know Bill Hall wasn't anything great these past two years, but you had to believe he would hit the ball as much as Counsell, and he has a better glove.
And then this year, there was the dilemma that irritated me more than any - Jason Kendall. Kendall has been by far the best Brewers catcher in more than 15 seasons, but starting him for three straight weeks before allowing backup backstop Mike Rivera to get into the game was beyond me.
Rivera tore up the minors as much as a 30-something catcher could the past few seasons. This year, when he played, not only did he handle his pitchers well, but he hit - and hit well.
Even when rosters expanded, Rivera, Vinny Rottino and Angel Salome rarely got to see the field because Kendall was always right there. Kendall is in the latter part of his 30s, and squatting that much for that long cannot mean good things for his durability at the end of the season.
Because of this, and his terrible managing of the bullpen, I was dreaming of the day Yost would get the boot. People always said, "Who would replace him?"
The only ones that came to my mind were Ted Simmons and Frank Kremblas. My other prospects included Don Money, Bobby Valentine, Larry Bowa, Pete Rose, Gabe Kapler as player-manager, and the best yet - Mike Hargrove.
Other than the Brewers, the Indians are the only baseball team I will never ever ever ever root against. I love them deep into my soul - and Hargrove was a big reason.
Throughout the '90s, he took a crazy cast of Indians (from Albert Belle to Carlos Baerga to the best defensive shortstop in the game - Omar Vizquel - and the always entertaining Jose Mesa) and won division after division and reached two World Series.
However, Hargrove is most known for last year when he walked out on the Seattle Mariners in the midst of a winning season - saying he had lost the desire to manage.
Then, this July, Hargrove said in an interview that coaching college kids this year gave him a spark again, and he wanted to manage.
At this very time, Milwaukee was being swept out of its home ballpark by the Cubs - mentally ruining their chances of winning the division. Many people, including me, figured if there was a time to fire Yost, Aug. 1 would be it. But it didn't happen.
Milwaukee then got jump-started and had a fabulous August - an August I had dreaded because that gave all indications that Yost would remain manager through the season.
However, a terrible start to September got him the boot. Too little, too late, I thought. Dale Sveum, who I have not been a fan of, was picked to replace him. However, to my pleasure, Robin Yount joined the coaching staff again. And sure enough, after dropping two heartbreakers to Chicago at Wrigley, the Crew turned it around and made the playoffs.
I was the happiest man on the planet when the Indians were up on the Red Sox and nearly made the World Series last year. However, in my lifetime I have never witnessed Milwaukee in the playoffs.
This is my heaven. Should Milwaukee go on to beat Philadelphia and make the NCLS (or, gasp, continue winning), I may just retire as a sports fan for a year. I'm not kidding. In my lifetime, my three favorite teams in all of sports that I have followed (Brewers, Indians, Miami Dolphins) have never won a championship.
I watched my older brother bathe in happiness throughout the Yankees' fortunes. I watched my father and 90 percent of all my classmates and friends cheer when the Packers won the Super Bowl. I watched as Red Sox and White Sox fans watched their curses disappear.
And, yet, I had to watch Jose Mesa blow Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. I watched some young role player from Whitefish Bay cross home plate for the jump-start Florida Marlins in that 11th inning in Game 7.
Then again, maybe karma will be on my side this year - my favorite pitcher of the past eight years, CC, is on the roster, and that guy who hit the sacrifice fly to send it into extras and then scored the winning run in 1997 also is on the roster: Craig Counsell.
- Adam Krebs is sports editor of The Monroe Times. He can be reached at sports editor@themonroetimes.com.
