Maybe they should pipe the Rocky theme into the Brewers clubhouse these next few days.
After all, Milwaukee takes its smallest of small-market teams onto the biggest of baseball’s stages with this week’s three-game series at Yankee Stadium. It’s the Big Apple vs. Bushville, as Casey Stengel so memorably labeled our tiny Wisconsin hamlet. And the New York snobbishness didn’t stop back in 1957.
Remember last year when Yankees president Randy Levine basically called Brewers owner Mark Attanasio a whiner? Why? Because Attanasio had the temerity to say the Yankees owned an unfair advantage when it came to payroll. Which is, for lack of a better term, a stone-cold fact. Unless Levine doesn’t think $200 million is more than $80 or $90 million. Which, for lack of a better term, is stone-cold silly.
Do the Yankees play within baseball’s system? Of course. Would the Brewers do the same thing were the roles reversed? Absolutely. Does that make the system any more fair? Absolutely not.
But Levine’s message came off as having nothing to do with facts or fairness. It was a Yankees official reminding Milwaukee to keep its proper place. And in case you’ve lost the road map, that place is beneath the Yankees, along with all those other tiny teams. You know, the ones who should just feel fortunate that they’ve still got a seat in the game. Not at the same table as the Yankees, mind you, but at least in the same room. Levine may as well have said heel.
But this is par for the course. Not too long ago, the Brewers almost made a trade with the Yankees involving Mike Cameron and Melky Cabrera, but the deal fell apart. Why? Apparently the Yanks wanted Milwaukee to kick in more cash.
Yes, there is arrogance, and there is Yankees arrogance. It’s born of being the richest and most successful franchise in baseball history. Nobody can touch the Yankees when it comes to legends and lore. But the attitude coming along for the ride ensures that the Yankees remain baseball’s most hated franchise. You think the Miami Heat made good villains? Please. They’re rookies sucking on pacifiers compared to the Yankees and their footlong cigars.
So yes, the Rocky theme seems appropriate as this long-dormant rivalry is renewed. The Brewers may be a first-place team. They may have just one less win than the Yankees and they may have stars like Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. But they’re decided underdogs at Yankee Stadium this week. Because everyone’s an underdog against the Yankees. Every single year.
Levine would just say this is just so much more whining, but it’s not. This is the way things are. And winning as the underdog is so much more the sweeter. Yes, it’s just another three games in the middle of a long season, and for the Evil Empire and their fans, it will barely register on the Death Star radar.
But for Brewers fans, it’s a fleeting chance for Bushville to win again. They can do so against CC Sabathia, once Milwaukee’s conquering hero, but now just another guy in pinstripes. They can do so knowing Prince Fielder may someday join Sabathia, because the Yankees are one of the few teams who can meet his lofty salary demands. Maybe they’ll even do so in front of an ESPN camera or two.
And they can do so because, despite the inherent disadvantages of baseball’s economic system, the Brewers have put together a team that can compete with anyone this year. Including the vaunted Yankees.
Somebody get Apollo Creed on the phone. He’s got a bell to ring.
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