The Brewers didn't win and their playoff run came to a grinding halt at Miller Park on Sunday, but, nonetheless, the atmosphere in the stadium was amazing and the thunderous crowd rattled the closed roof.
Clearly, starter Jeff Suppan was the wrong man for the job on Sunday, but in his defense, maybe if more than a couple Brewers hitters notched postseason averages above .199, it wouldn't have been so dreadful.
But despite the home run walloped off Suppan in the game's first at-bat and despite the 6-2 final, Miller Park was alive like never before. Not even the first game there nor the 2003 All-Star Game could hold a candle to the excitement, the passion and the all-out noise of the crowd.
Armed with those thunder stix -- which, by the way, haven't much helped the Angels so far, so why not pick a more successful tchochke? -- the stadium was shifting on its foundation Sunday. At every strike, the thunder returned. At every ball, the crowd lost its air like a deflating balloon.
Before the Brewers reached the playoffs, the goal of fans was just to get there. The Crew did it this year and even if the team didn't advance to the NLCS, at least it won one more game in the playoffs than the Cubs did, right?
And, if these first two home playoff games since 1982 did anything for Brewers fans, it reminded everyone of how much they love their team and how much noise Milwaukee can make, even when the chips are down.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
