As the Evil Emperor put it in Return of the Jedi, it was as I've forseen it. A terrible season when the pitching regressed to the mean in the second half and the hitting regressed even further. I always hated people who were down on their team and then couldn't restrain themselves from saying, "I told you they suck." I've become one of those annoying people.
So I'll eat some crow at the same time and admit I was wrong about the team being up for sale. Of course, I could point out how long negotiations have taken, that the sale is not final, that the dollar amount would have made even the most reluctant owner sell, and that it took two million cranks on the turnstile to put the Brewers debt level at a point where Bud and Co. will see a profit after they sell. Add the "perfect storm" of the sale of the Expos and Bud getting asked to hang around a while longer as commissioner and you could make the case Bud wasn't ready to sell but all these factors made it too good of a deal not to sell. But I'm not that paranoid and I don't wear a tinfoil hat so I'll take Bud at his word. After all, I've believed every other line of BS out of his mouth for 12 years.
They sucked, I'm a disgruntled fan, and we'll see what the new owners do.
At least I learned my lesson and only went to one game this last year instead of the usual 15-20. While I missed going with my friend and sitting in the stands and drinking beer and eating risky stadium food and debating the wildly varied service quality from Sports Service, I did not miss writing the check, dealing with the season ticket office (which used to be accessable to the fans) and sitting every sunday afternoon in the summer watching home run after home run sail over the left field fence for the other team while Brewer managers screw up year after year. We got to the point where we didn't even have to look up. From the sound of the bat hitting the ball we knew what was happening and it was just a matter of distance over the fence.
I did not watch them on TV after the first month.
I did not follow them in the paper.
I did not follow them on the radio, except when they were in town and I was on I-94 and I need to know if the game was letting out or not.
I was free to be a non-fan this year. I spared myself the agony and I'm better for it. I used to find people who would say these things to me to be totally obnoxious. Now they're still obnoxious and I'm one of them.
