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Hall of Famer Robin Yount had no idea that a 12-day cruise to Italy, booked long ago by his wife, would coincide with the MLB playoffs. By the time he realized the timing, he was already nearly aboard the ship, and his beloved Milwaukee Brewers were in the thick of the postseason. "I hadn't paid attention to the timing of this cruise," Yount told USA TODAY Sports. "I pulled up the schedule, and it was the start of the playoffs."
Unable to watch the first two games of the NL Division Series on TV, Yount resorted to the ESPN app. "So here I am, it's 2:30 in the morning, and I'm lying in bed for three hours, watching stick figures of balls and strikes, and the lights where the ball was going until 6 in the morning," he recalled. "Then, I remembered, 'Hey, you idiot, you can use the Sirius app to listen.' Then I'm lying in bed all night with an earpiece listening to the broadcast. So what was supposed to be a nice, relaxing cruise with stuff going on all day long, and I'm getting about six hours of sleep the entire trip. When the cruise ended, I was beat up."
After the cruise, Yount and his wife, Michele, retreated to their Phoenix-area home to watch Games 3 and 4 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium. They witnessed every pitch as the Brewers swept the Dodgers to win the pennant for the first time in 44 years—the same year Yount won the American League MVP award. In 1982, the Brewers fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games and had not returned to the World Series until now, still seeking their first franchise title.
"When we lost in '82, we all thought we'd be back to the World Series the next year," Yount said. "It took us 44 years. So when we won in LA, let's just say I may have overserved myself a little bit. I guarantee you that every guy on that '82 team was watching and celebrating, too."
This Brewers team reminds Yount of the 1982 squad with its joy, passion, and determination. While the modern players might not stay in the clubhouse until 2 a.m. having a few pops and talking ball—preferring video games—and have a personal chef with a nutritional menu instead of downing hamburgers and bratwurst, they play the game hard with an emphasis on fundamentals, just like Yount's team. "I love the way they play, but we may want this more than even they do," Yount said. "We still believe we have some unfinished business to take care of. It'd be a huge relief to win this now with all of us still around to see it."
Yount, 71, laughs robustly when reflecting on his lifelong connection to the Brewers. Drafted out of high school, he reached the big leagues as a teenager, played his entire 20-year career in Milwaukee, was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Brewer, and is widely regarded as the greatest Brewer player of all-time. "Oh man, I live and breathe with these guys," he said. "I grew up in LA, but I was never a Dodger fan. We had so many years of disappointment and heartbreak against them. And then to beat them the way we did, it couldn't have been a better script."
Now, 44 years later, the Brewers are in a different stadium, in a different league, and facing a team that didn't exist during Yount's career—the Tampa Bay Rays—in the World Series beginning Friday at American Family Field. "The fans, not just in Milwaukee, but the entire state of Wisconsin, they are all starving for this," Yount said. "They have as much passion as any fanbase in baseball. The city, all of Wisconsin, nobody's missing this. The TV ratings won't be low in Wisconsin, I guarantee you that."
Yount, who has been constantly exchanging text messages with his former teammates, is certainly not about to miss this World Series. He is taking 15 family members to Milwaukee, where he will throw out the ceremonial first pitch Friday with Bud Selig, Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball, who brought the Brewers to Milwaukee in 1970 and ensured they never left. Yount never left either. A two-time MVP and one of the most gifted all-around athletes of his generation—who even considered quitting baseball to become a professional golfer or a Motocross rider—he had opportunities to depart. He was a free agent twice, heavily pursued by the Dodgers and Angels, but always returned to Milwaukee. He could have earned more money and fame elsewhere, but his heart belonged with the people of Wisconsin, and particularly Selig, the Brewers' beloved owner.
"It was the right fit for me," Yount said. "I was an extremely shy kid except for the baseball field and the motocross track. I was just always comfortable in Milwaukee. The smaller market was probably better for me. The only time I considered leaving is after that one taste of the World Series. That's what motivated me, to have that shot again. But Mr. Selig was a car salesman before he bought the Brewers, and he did a pretty good sales job keeping me there. But you know something, he was absolutely right. If I had left, it would have been the biggest mistake I made in my career."
Yount, who amassed 3,142 hits and joined Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg and Alex Rodriguez as the only players to win MVP awards at two different positions (shortstop and center field), says his only career regret is not winning a World Series championship. But the Brewers came close in 1982. They clinched the AL East on the final day of the regular season against the Baltimore Orioles when Yount hit two home runs off future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. They trailed 2-0 in the AL Championship Series to the star-studded California Angels—featuring Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew, and Don Baylor—before winning the final three games. In the World Series, Yount batted .414 with three doubles, a homer, six RBI, and a 1.072 OPS, becoming the only player to produce two four-hit games in a World Series. Yet they lost the seventh and deciding game after blowing a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning.
The 1982 Brewers, a team with four future Hall of Famers, were built on power with Gorman Thomas and Ben Oglivie hitting more home runs than the entire Cardinals team. The irony now is that this Brewers edition is built like the old Cardinals. They hit the second-fewest home runs in baseball and ranked fifth in stolen bases, while in 1982 the Cardinals hit just 67 homers and stole 200 bases. "We played hard, we played to win, just like this team, but our team was a total different team than this one," Yount said. "We had a lot of power through the lineup. The lineup was unbelievable. We scored a ton of runs. But those guys, man, they can run and beat you in so many ways. I'm just hoping this year's team brings the same results as that Cardinals team."
Who knows, maybe this time Yount will ride his motorcycle into American Family Field proudly carrying the World Series banner instead of riding his dirt bike to a Brewers rally he wanted no part of, still livid over the 1982 defeat. The Brewers had already arranged a downtown parade and celebration at County Stadium before the end of the World Series, and two days after losing Game 7, they went on with the ceremony with beloved Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker as the MC. "We came back from St. Louis just after losing the World Series," Yount recalled, "and they told us they were going to have a parade for us. In every player's mind, the last thing we wanted to do is have a parade after losing the World Series. We had to be there at 8 or 9 in the morning. So, the little bit of rebel in me, I had a dirt bike in the garage, and even though it's not street legal, I didn't care about anything at that point. It was my way of showing I was upset. I rode 10 miles, parked the bike by the dugout, and did the whole parade, with the fans celebrating like we won."
After the parade, as Yount walked downstairs, teammates Pete Vukovich and Ted Simmons spotted the bike and asked, "Is this yours? You rode it here? What's it doing here?" Then came the challenge: "Why don't you ride it on the field?" The center field gate opened, and Yount, wearing a leather jacket, jeans, and dark sunglasses, jumped on the motorcycle and roared around the warning track, with no helmet and his hair flying, riding right up to home plate. The crowd roared, and the scene became such an iconic memory that the Brewers created a bobblehead featuring Yount atop the dirt bike. "It was quite the celebration for losing," Yount said. "It went over pretty good. It certainly wasn't planned on my part, so blame it on Vuk and Simba."
Yount, who still rides his motorcycles on the streets and surrounding mountains in Phoenix and loves working on his bikes even more, will gladly ride his motorcycle one more time into a ballpark—but only in a victory celebration at American Family Field in front of a euphoric Brewers crowd. "You have no idea how bad I want this, and so does everyone else on that '82 team," Yount said. "We've waited such a long time for this. I just wish Ueck was around, but I guarantee he's got a front-row seat watching this. He's with us. We can feel it." And with four more victories, the spirit of Ueck, Selig, and every member of that '82 team will be celebrating long and hard, making a Milwaukee winter seem downright balmy. "I never had the courage to spend the winter in Milwaukee," Yount said, "but I'd love to see that parade. We've had to wait 44 years. I just want to see my team win, at last, while we're still alive to see it."
Originally reported by yahoo.