This story, by contributing writer Mike Downey, first appeared in the May 4, 1987, issue of The Sporting News, after the Milwaukee Brewers ran off a record-tying 13 wins to open the season.
MILWAUKEE — Memorial Stadium. Baltimore. They send Juan Nieves to the mound against the Baltimore Orioles. The same Juan Nieves who nearly squandered an 8-0 lead the week before. Nieves goes out and throws a no-hitter.
Nine in a row.
They are met at the Milwaukee airport by a platoon of fans chanting: "162-0! 162-0!" After a day off, they take on the Texas Rangers. More than 41,000 cram the County Stadium stands. Teddy Higuera goes out and wins his third straight start and gets support from a seven-run seventh. Outfielder Rob Deer says, "This is the funnest time I've ever had."
Ten in a row.
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They tackle the Rangers again the next day. This time, 39.715 show up. For the second straight day, the starting time is pushed back 30 minutes to accommodate fans stuck on the freeway. Once they reach the park, they see Deer smack his fifth homer. The team wins by a run.
Eleven in a row.
Easter. It's over. Everybody can see that it's over. Texas leads by three in the ninth. But wait. The Brewers rise from the dead. Deer hits one halfway to Kenosha to tie it. Dale Sveum's homer wins the gveum. The manager says Sveum is supplying "Hall of Fame" stuff. "I've got goose bumps," says Deer.
Twelve in a row.
Comiskey Park, Chicago. The parking lot is full of Wisconsin plates. The grandstand is full of fans wearing three-sided "cheese head" hats. The press box is full of press, as though the World Series had come to Chicago (an unlikely story). No-Hit Nieves is more like No-Heat Nieves this night, but Chuck Crim rescues him. Robin Yount's blooper wins it and Dan Plesac saves it.
Thirteen in a row.
The Milwaukee Brewers have tied the major-league record for quick starts. They also have won 16 in a row over two seasons. The time has come to look up the record for most victories in a row-start of the season, middle of the season, any time of the season. Turns out the 1916 New York Giants took 26 in a row (the 13th game of that streak was a 1-1 tie called after eight innings because of rain and darkness). Hmmm.
The Brewers are confident. They believe in themselves. They are loose as geese. Rick Manning, judge of the Kangaroo Court, passes sentence on the "funky swing" of the previous day's game, the "waaaah, mama" crybaby of the game and orders Crim, the $62,500 rookie, to take possession of the traveling "Louisville Slugger," which is not a bat but something similarly shaped: Crim must hang it from his locker until Judge Manning of the people's court rules again.
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Mark Ciardi, another rookie, makes his second major-league start. The veterans tell him: Be cool. The streak is something to be enjoyed, as Paul Molitor says, and not something to sweat. "It's not as though if we don't win two out of three, we won't make the playoffs."
But the kid pitcher doesn't have it tonight. He is rocked for five runs and gets only seven outs. He is sorry to be the one to make the streak end. It's Mark Ciardi and you can cry if you want to.
The Brewers do not start crying and do not stop trying. In the eighth inning, with the White Sox leading. 7-1, Manager Tom Trebelhorn waves in Yount from center field with a Chicago runner on third and one out. He uses five infielders.
Trebelhorn obviously thinks Milwaukee can score six runs in the ninth, but will have trouble scoring seven.
Donnie Hill taps out to the pitcher. Yount returns to center.
"Oh, we were just fiddling around with it," Trebelhorn says later. "You can win a ball game with it here or there, but I'd hate to have to rely on it. We were just having some fun. I like the way the guys went right to their spots, didn't you?"
The Brewers keep plugging, right to the final out. Deer triples with two gone. He stands on third base, clapping. B.J. Surhoff steps up, digs in. But Jim Winn strikes him out. What a name for a pitcher who ends the win streak to have.
Surhoff slams his bat to the ground. Twice. Third-base coach Tony Muser consoles the rookie catcher with an arm around the shoulders.
"I'm very off at myself." Surhoff says later. "I thought if I could put the ball in play, I could keep it going. I don't like the way it ended. Here I am, a contact hitter all my life, and I strike out." Thirteen and one.
Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted. What a riot that the Brewers turned out to be the best team out of Milwaukee since Laverne and Shirley. What fun they had. watching Deer and Greg Brock belt 11 homers in 13 games, introducing No-Hit Nieves and Hall of Fame Sveum and Rookie Minimum Crim to the general public, getting invited to the "Today" show and "Good Morning, America," and making the wide world of sports wonder: "What's gotten into these guys?"
When they finally lost, the Brewers just sighed and smiled. "Baseballs were bound to bounce against us," said Ciardi, rather poetically.
"Now we can get on with the season." said pitcher Chris Bosio.
"No matter what happens the rest of my career, nobody will ever be able to take this away from us," said Deer.
And then there was the leader of Tom Trebelhorn and His Orchestra.
Someone asked Trebelhorn what he would remember most about the streak. "The shared effort of everyone on the club," he said.
"The sheer effort?" someone asked. straining to hear in a crowd.
"Shared effort." Treb said. "Well, sheer. 100."
At 39, with no major-league playing career of his own and only nine games experience as a manager. Trebelhorn suddenly established himself as a man of means. Harry Dalton, a general manager who has been around some, credited Treb with running the best spring training camp he had ever seen. Yount did, too. Catcher Bill Schroeder praised Trebelhorn for fielding grounders, hitting fungoes. running in the outfield, pitching batting practice and being one of the boys. "And he's the first one to pat you on the back after a miserable game." Schroeder said. although there had not been many miserable games.
Postscript: Though they had several other modest winning streaks in the second half, the Brewers finished the season at 91-71, in third place and seven games out of first. And in the pre-wild card era, that meant watching the postseason from home.