Grand Slam

You know how you wait for something to happen? And that something never seems to happen, so you just wait, for like, your entire life up to that point? And then it happens?

Yeah that.

As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up in Milwaukee. I spent my childhood rooting for the Brewers, and I was thrilled when they made the World Series for the first time in 1982, when I was just a kid. They lost, but I was confident they would return to the Fall Classic soon.

And I was right. It took only 44 years.

The Brewers and I came into existence the same year. I have seen them play at least once each year, except for the 2020 season (the pandemic era). I have no conscious memory of the first few years so I’m taking my mom’s word for it, although it’s a little strange that she brought a baby to a baseball game. And speaking of conscious memory, I cannot recall a time when I was not a Brewer fan. They are just that important to me.

Neither the Brewers nor I had ever won a world championship. That changed (for one of us, at least) this week.

When you follow a team for literally your entire life, and they constantly come up short, it can be exhausting. And yet I remained a Brewer fan, no matter what city I lived in or how badly they were playing. 

My son, born and raised in Los Angeles, asked why I didn’t make life easier by switching my allegiance to the Dodgers. I explained that it’s not that simple, and that you never abandon your hometown team. 

I don’t know where my son will be living when he is my age, but I’m sure that he will still be a Dodger fan, and he’ll finally understand what I’m talking about. Maybe the Dodgers won’t be the evil empire of baseball by then, but I digress.

The point is that years, even decades, can go by, with nothing but failure and frustration to show for it, and sometimes you have to acknowledge that it might never happen.

And then you win.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions about this assertion, and whether it relates to your life, our country, or our world.

Maybe you think it’s pablum, or maybe you think dumb luck guides us all

But I know one thing.

This was definitely worth the wait.