FanPost

An August Ticker Tape Parade


On Sunday, a swirl of rain dumped on Montreal. It didn't really change my activities. I watched the Brewer's game and once again, felt satisfied by the outcome. I haven't had any difficulty adjusting to that over the past 30 days, but I must admit it feels kind of strange. Sure, this was billed as the "going all in year" or whatever, but it still feels strange.      

Some Montreal Canadian hockey fans half-joke around here about spousal abuse rising when the Canadian's lose. It's hopefully an exaggeration to highlight  how important local sports teams truly are. They're right about that.        

When I woke up Monday morning, the outdoors looked and felt like a different city. The sun was out. The trees were greener than ever and so I walked to one of the few magazine shops around here that carries both Baseball America and Sports Illustrated. As I was walking along, I started thinking that I probably kept the first SI Brewers cover; the 1982 World Series one with Yount at SS, in the hopes that another one would happen one day. Apologies to Rob Deer, George Bamberger, Ryan Braun, and Rollie Fingers, but as far as I'm concerned, 1982 and 2011 have inspired the longest lasting excitement.

Well, that 2011 is here and I can't help feeling great which isn't always the easiest thing to do. The summer has suddenly come and gone, and, like everyone else, I could create a complaint list from  A-Z with no shortage of ideas.

I was wearing a heavy coat and the sun was hot, much hotter than earlier that same morning. I was sweating, but it didn't matter. I was walking on air, like it feels when you get a new pair of shoes. Yeh, it's not even September 1st and sure,  there is still one month of regular season games left and the Brewers have only clinched a .500 record and  the Diamondbacks (or Giants) will have to be dealt with and then the Phillies and maybe the Red Sox, but knowing what we know right now in this moment; a 10 and a half game lead on the Cardinals, the best home record in all of baseball, and a Brewer's team and an entire city having a heck of a lot of fun, I can't help but smile. All the hyperbole and rhetoric and cliché they say about a sports team lifting up one's spirit is true.

What gets me is how pervasive the feeling must be. I talk to friends and family in Milwaukee who were never big Brewers fans and that's all they talk about. In my head, I see that loner drunk guy racing around the corner to get to the liquor store before Axford time. I see families decked out in T-Plush, Gang-tag-script T-shirts, and I see familiar faces at the Brewers bar rail around town. I'm not there right now, so I can only relate it to Canadians hockey, but it sure feels like a parade down Wisconsin Avenue or at least it feels like one in my head.

I don't want to settle for a transient August high. I want this to continue. I want all the Melvin pieces to keep gelling, all the way to the World Series. All those draft picks going back to the early 2000's, all the trades, and game promotions, all the BA witticisms and Shroeder "My goodnesses," all the fan posts and comments, all the Jerry Garcia Tailgater Tips, all the T-Plush unification medicine, I want it all to continue, but if it doesn't, it will sort of be tolerable maybe because this has already been the best July and August of my life as far as I can remember.