This week’s quote comes to us from a Brewers fan who summed up nicely how most of us felt about losing the team’s longest-tenured and most successful manager to the hated Chicago Cubs. As quoted in the Wisconsin State Journal, Kay Kenealy of Waukesha, a Brewers partial season ticket holder since 2006, said:
“You know in the first ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ movie where they’re digging to find the ark of the covenant and they open this big tomb thing and they look down and Indiana Jones says, ‘Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes?’ My initial reaction was, ‘Oh my God, the Cubs? Why did it have to be the Cubs.’ “
- Despite having played two stints with the Brewers before becoming their manager for the last several years, a lot of us don’t know how to spell his name exactly. The correct spelling is:
A) Counsel.
B) Council.
C) Counsell.
D) Traitor.
2. Who should we blame for our beloved manager’s departure?
A) Him.
B) Principal owner Mark Antanasio for being a cheap bastard and making his manager make something out of the retread players he supplied.
C) The Cubs for making him an offer he couldn’t refuse. I mean it is Chicago.
D) Joe Biden because he seems to get blamed for everything while getting credit for nothing.
3. The “small market” excuse used by Antanasio to justify his penny-pinching is reenforced by:
A) The small market Milwaukee Bucks who recently signed Giannis Antetokounmpo to a three-year extension worth $186 million and added Damian Lillard at around $60 million a year to make them one of the favored teams to go all the way.
B) The small market Green Bay Packers (by far the smallest market in all of professional sports) who have won more championships (including pre-Super Bowl years) than any other team in NFL history.
C) The small market Pittsburgh Steelers (26th largest market) who have won six Super Bowls (tied with New England for most) and have participated in more conference championship games than any other team.
D) Small market Kansas City (33rd largest among cities with pro teams) whose Royals won the World Series in 2015 and which now hosts the world champion football Chiefs.
E) None of the above. The “small market” excuse is just a cover to string fans along while extracting their entertainment dollars from them.
4. In 1945 the Cubs began to endure the “Curse of the Billy Goat.” That came about when the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern was ejected from a Cubs World Series game because his pet goat was bothering fans. The famed goat’s name was:
A) Murphy.
B) Mikey.
C) O’Malley.
D) William.
5. If the Brewers match the Cubs’ Curse of the Billy Goat with the Curse of Craig they will finally win a World Series in the year:
A) 2090.
B) 2061.
C) 2131.
D) In the year 2525, if man is still alive, if woman can survive.
6. What real life figure is the character Indiana Jones based upon?
A) Sir Edmund Hillary.
B) Explorer Ernest Shackleton.
C) Palaeontologist Roy Chapman Andrews.
D) New York Yankees and Mets Manager Casey Stengel.
Answers:
- C, though we will also accept D.
2. B.
3. E.
4. A.
5. C, but also A. The Cubs lost that Series in 1945 and didn’t win another one until 2016, 108 years after their previous pennant in 1908. The Curse of the Billy Goat lasted 108 years, which would put it at 2131 for the Brewers if you count it from this year. An alternative calculation, also accepted by the judges, would be to start counting from 1982, the only time the Brewers made it to the World Series. In that case you’re looking at 2090.
6. C.
That’s it for this week, kids. I’m packing up and heading back to the Emerald City after a lovely extended stay up here in the North Woods. Played hide and seek with a nice buck from my bow stand for several days. He survives. I head home defeated yet unbowed (both literally and figuratively).
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 