It wasn't that long ago that people were clamoring about the Green Bay Packers / Brett Favre soap opera was usurping coverage of the Brewers quest for the playoffs.
Funny how quickly things can change.
The Brewers continue their horrific tumble from National League playoff contention, the Packers, sans No. 4, are looking as if they haven't missed a step from last season's 13-3 regular season and run to the NFC Championship game under first-year quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Two months ago, the Brewers were a soothing escape from the Favre nightmare. Tonight, when the Dallas Cowboys come to Lambeau Field, it will be the Packers providing an escape from the nightmare.
But even Rodgers' so-far stellar performance can't erase the stench that is the Brewers at this point in the season.
Whatever Mark Attanasio thought firing Ned Yost would accomplish has yet to come to fruition. The Brewers, under interim manager Dale Sveum, have won just one of five games and went from being tied for the NL Wild Card to three games behind the Mets for the final playoff spot.
When Sveum took the job, he said it was hoped that the change would provide a shake-up and a shock value to a roster that has been suspect for much of the season and downright awful in September.
But from the get-go, things have been flawed.
One of the biggest gripes against Yost was his inability to manage a pitching staff. OK, that's fair ... but where is the scorn for Sveum throwing Dave Bush on short rest, on the road and against the Cubs, who have not exactly been his best opponent.
How about moving Jeff Suppan and CC Sabathia up in the rotation? Or moving Mike Cameron -- whose strikeout numbers have been among the team's worst all season long -- into the leadoff spot in place of Rickie Weeks (who, to Sveum's credit, was benched in favor of Ray Durham ... until Durham got hurt.)
Moves like that would have provided enough fodder to last talk-radio and Web board posters for months. Yet, with the Brewers' season and playoff hopes circling the drain, nobody is clamoring for Garth Iorg to take over the managerial reigns.
In a nutshell, the last week proves the point the Brewers problems were not Yost's fault alone. In fact, his alleged mis-managing of the team wouldn't have been as much of a problem if:
• His offense, especially Ryan Braun, had been hitting in September and had been able to hit with runners in scoring position all season long.
• His bullpen could be counted upon to perform in crucial situations.
• The starting rotation -- aside from Sabathia - has proved to be a colossal let down.
These very same problems that led to Yost's demise are the same ones that are plaguing the team today.
So, with Yost gone, who's left to blame? He was let go, in part, because he had no answers for the teams September swoon. The sports radio hotlines aren't lighting up with angry, anti-Sveum venom and the Talkbacks following OnMilwaukee.com stories aren't exactly overflowing with similar sentiments.
More than likely, the Brewers will be home watching the playoffs on television come October, as they have every year since 1982. Fingers will be pointed. People will be blamed. More people will lose jobs. Few people will remember the teams that -- albeit slowly -- snapped the losing atmosphere that clouded the franchise for the last decade, but they'll remember how those teams failed to make the postseason.
The wheels fell off the 2008 Brewers many months ago. Blaming Yost -- even now -- is the easy way out, but it's unfair and completely inappropriate. Like him or not, Yost turned the franchise around. He laid the foundation. He set the example. And nobody wanted to see the Brewers win a pennant more than him.
Unfortunately, baseball is not a fair game. Eventually -- though probably not this season -- the Brewers will fully turn the corner, make it to the postseason and even -- maybe someday -- win the World Series.
Until that day comes, it'll be up to Rodgers and the Packers to distract Brewers fans from another winter of discontent.
