Any game featuring the Milwaukee Brewers will have its share of thrills and excitement, in particular at home at Miller Park. The highlight film the folks at MLB.com mashed together provides evidence of this, and another disturbing trend:
I am a fan of fan support, and nothing gets fans rooting for the home team than a big inning or a solid performance from the mound. There is a growing concern about the bravado and borderline showmanship by some Milwaukee Brewers on any or every big play. While the following is a quote from American football coaching legend Paul "Bear" Bryant, one can apply it to baseball as most teams exhibit high levels of enthusiasm, more so in the postseason. "Act like you did it before, and you plan on doing it again."
Last summer, I spent a great deal of the baseball season as the left fielder, and in our league if the baseball was in the air, then it was heading for left field. There was no fence to rope off where the outfield ended and the tree line began, so the challenge was to find a spot where I can reach any spot in that area, and not run into a tree. For years, players in left field would catch the ball, throw their hands up, and jump around; after the third out, teammates would rush to the lucky fielder who made the catch to end the inning. I understand that part of it: Teammates being happy for each other, celebrating the opportunity to be an adult, play a kid's game, and enjoy it. However, what happens to a player or a team, when the baseball falls and no one is there to catch it?
I was guilty of jumping around and gesturing, only to be burned on the very next play. To go from an emotional high and crash can be a shattering experience, so when playing left field I would try to "act" I did it before, and I "planned" on catching the ball again. Last year, to keep this philosophy was very difficult to do, and prevent those emotions from coming to the surface wound up costing me an opportunity to really have some fun out there. Quite possibly the ultimate respect a left fielder can attain is for the opposing team to push the ball the opposite way to right field, so to watch Ryan Braun notch another assist, when he gunned down Diamondbacks' base-runner Bloomquist in the early stages of Game 1 in the NLDS, was a thing of beauty. When the outfield is in "max protect" to right field, then the batter can't figure it out ^_^
In the case of the Milwaukee Brewers, who are now up 1-0 in the National League Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, there seems to be no end to the enthusiasm and energy their players possess. My hope, for their sake, is to be able to dial things down before someone on that great team gets burned o_O
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