Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Seek Counsell-ing

Well, we aren't even to the All-Star break yet, but two things are certain: The Orioles will not be anywhere near the World Series, and I know who will win the World Series...

You may be asking how I know who will win the World Series. You've obviously forgotten whose blog you're reading. Kurt Nose Best. Hello. It's in the title. I nose best, and I nose that this year's World Series Champion will come from the National League. The National League Central, more specifically, for the second year in a row. Furthermore, I know why this team will win the World Series, and I have evidence to prove that my prediction will come true.

Without further ado, I give you this years World Series Champions.... The Milwaukee Brewers. I know, you're all thinking I've fallen off my rocker. How could a team that has only 11 winning seasons in 38 seasons be on pace to win it all? How could a team that has a lifetime .471 winning percentage win the big one? What evidence could I possibly have to support this outrageous claim? My evidence is two-fold. One is the city factor, the other a glaring x-factor.

First, the city. Milwaukee. Home of the Brewers, the NBA's Bucks, and not much else. They brew beer (hence the name), eat brats, and enjoy losing. Or so we thought. Prior to the Brew Crew, the city was home to the Milwaukee Braves (now Atlanta), and one Henry "Hank" Aaron. They were proud, they were winners, and at one time, they even went all the way. The year was 1957 (wow, that is a looooooooong time ago), and the Milwaukee Braves were less than ten years away from relocating to Atlanta. It just so happened that they won the World Series in 1957. That was 50 years ago.

Fast forward to 1982. The Braves have been in Atlanta for 16 years, and are long forgotten in Milwaukee. The city has the Brewers, and it looks as though 25 years after winning the World Series, the city will once again be the pinnacle of the baseball world. The Brewers actually made it to the World Series in 1982, but alas, the tradition of the Braves was not enough, and the Brewers fell. That was 25 years ago.

So here we are in 2007. The team and the city have been miserable for the better part of 25 years. But the city is cyclical. They won the championship in 1957, lost it 25 years later, and therefore are primed to win another world championship in 2007. It's been 25 years since Milwaukee's last appearance in the show, and 50 since a win. Ipso facto, the signs point toward Milwaukee making another quarter-century showing in the World Series, and a half-century win is on the docket this year. The evidence is all right there. The city goes dancing every 25 years, and it's up to this year's Brew Crew to make sure the city has a party every 50 years.

As if the cyclical nature of the city's baseball history is not enough to convince someone that the Brewers are going to hoist the hardware this year, the team went ahead and added the ultimate insurance. They signed a player so dynamic, so versatile, and so clutch that he already boasts two World Series rings of his own. He stands at a tall 6' 0". He weighs in at a lean 175 pounds. Give it up for utility man extraordinaire, Craig Counsell.

That's right, Craig Counsell, journeyman utility infielder, is here to help Bernie Brewer slide down his slide with a ring on his finger. Again, let's look at the evidence. Counsell already has two world championships, delivering for Florida in 1997 and Arizona in 2001. Both of those teams celebrated their first World Series wins thanks largely in part to Craig Counsell. Milwaukee as a city already has one World Series, but the Brewers as a franchise are in search of their first title. Enter Counsell, who already has experience in that field.

Furthermore, let's compare the Marlins and the Diamondbacks the year that Counsell led them to the promised land. Both teams finished with a 92-70 record, good for a .567 winning percentage and a wild card berth. Both teams were huge underdogs in the playoffs, and had the deck stacked against them in the Fall Classic (Florida played a heavily favored Indians team, the D-backs KO'd the Yankees). Both teams needed Counsell's heroics during the series, then jettisoned him soon after.

Compare those two teams with the Brew Crew. Right now, they sit 34-30 (.531), meaning they need 58 more wins for the rest of the season to reach Counsell's magical 92-70 plateau. That is certainly doable, and practically done. 58-30 over the final four and a half months of the season is not that hard, especially when fate is on your side. The key may be the wild card berth. Right now, the Brewers lead their division, which is testing fate since the others were wild cards. If the Crew happen to fall and finish as the wild card, that would all but seal it. Finally, who wouldn't list the Brewers as a heavy underdog in any playoff series?

The evidence is all there. I have made my prediction, and backed that prediction with history. Many will challenge my logic, but I'll be the one laughing when the season is over. You heard it here first... the Brewers are going to win the World Series.

Peace.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes you have brilliant stuff and sometimes you dont. This blog was the latter. I can appretiate the comparisons but things do not work like that. The Brewers started out hot but are falling fast in a weak NL Central. They are no different then the 2005 O's. They may not even finish above 500. I say the world series winner resides in LA.

Anonymous said...

well one thing is for certain...the world series winner does NOT reside in Baltimore!!!!

Kurt Nose Best said...

i think patterns exist for two reasons: for me to find them, and for them to be broken shortly after. anytime i find a pattern, like craig counsell or milwaukee's 25 year plan, things fall apart soon after. all of this is simply conjecture, and is the product of the lack of good stories to write about. i have many ideas in the works for football season, however, when things are much more rigid and cyclical. you have not seen my brilliance yet.