Vol. II, No. 110 From Our Region to Yours
Sports

World Series Features Two Teams That Have Never Won It, Leaving Nation Unsure Who It Is Supposed To Be Tired Of

The Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers open the World Series tonight in Milwaukee, the first Series since 1980 where neither franchise has a title. Our columnist of 31 years has picked a side and a grudge.

By 2 min read

American Family Field in Milwaukee under a bright blue sky with white clouds, its arched roof framed by red and green autumn trees beyond a wide, empty parking lot.
American Family Field in Milwaukee, where tonight the parking lot will be full of people who have never seen their team win one, which is the best kind of parking lot. Photo: DiscoA340 / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

THE PRESS BOX, IN SPIRIT — Thirty-one years I have been doing this, and I have never seen America this confused about who to be annoyed with.

The Tampa Bay Rays visit the Milwaukee Brewers tonight at American Family Field for Game 1 of the World Series. First pitch is 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox. Neither franchise has ever won a title. The last time that happened in a World Series was 1980, when the Phillies and the Royals had to sort it out, and I was in a high school parking lot with a transistor radio and opinions.

Usually this time of year the country has a plan. You pick the team with the payroll and you resent them. You pick the team that won three years ago and you are tired of them. This year there is nobody to be tired of. People are calling sports radio just to ask how they are supposed to feel. I tell them. That is the job.

Milwaukee starts Jacob Misiorowski, who is 24 years old and threw a 105.5 mph pitch to the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong back on June 27. He led the majors with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts. The record for the fastest pitch by a World Series starter is 101.1 mph. That record should be nervous tonight. Pete Crow-Armstrong should be grateful he is watching from home.

There is one thing. In the postseason, Misiorowski has not finished five innings in either of his starts, because his pitch counts climb like the price of a stadium hot dog. Tampa Bay has a patient lineup. A patient lineup against a kid who throws 105 is either a disaster or the greatest at-bat of your life, and you won’t know which until it’s over.

The sportsbooks have Milwaukee at minus-188 for Game 1. I have seen the books be wrong. I saw it in 1997, the same year I saw a referee look directly at a foul and decide it was weather. Different sport. Same wound.

Somebody wins a first championship this year. Somebody’s grandfather finally gets to see it. That is the good part.

Brewers in six, and the radar gun files for overtime.

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