The Lost Weekend

Woulda, coulda, shoulda: the epitaph for the major Wisconsin teams this past weekend. Or perhaps it was coulda, shoulda, woulda.

The Brewers' season ended with the Phillies' 6-2 playoff victory at Miller Park. The UW Badgers slugged it out with Ohio State but fell at Camp Randall, 20-17. And the Packers dropped a 27- 24 decision to the Falcons at Lambeau Field. Once again the Observers conferred by phone, with Frank visiting family in Philadelphia and Artie amid the mourners in Milwaukee.

Frank: I missed most of the Brewers' demise to watch a nephew's soccer game. But I know the theme song was by John Lee Hooker: "Boom Boom Boom Boom." Four Phillies homers, three off Jeff Suppan, and adios.

Artie: Before the game I thought, "We'll either get the good Suppan or the usual Suppan." The good one gets you sort of near the sixth inning and gives up a run or two. With the usual one, after the third inning the opponent is ahead by five. I sort of hoped it would be the good one, the one Mark Attanasio imagined he was signing for $10 million a year.

Frank: Alas, it was the usual suspect.

Artie: He had a history of playoff success, which is what got him here.

Frank: Some of the East Coast radio gasbags questioned why he didn't start Game 3 instead of Dave Bush. His postseason stats were as good as CC Sabathia's were bad.

Artie: Until Sunday. Jimmy Rollins leads off with a homer and, in the third, Pat Burrell goes deep for three runs. Just before that, with a 2-2 count, Jason Kendall goes out to talk to Suppan. On TBS, John Smoltz says, "They're deciding whether to go with the kill pitch or set up the kill pitch."

Frank: The next pitch certainly was a killer.

Artie: Exactly. Burrell crushed it.

Frank: The teams were similar offensively, relying on power, and you figured whoever's boppers got hot would win the series. But the Phillies also are better at scratching out runs with Rollins at the top of the order. In Game 3 the Brewers did score with "small ball," but in the end the Phillies hit the bombs and the Brewers didn't-except for Prince Fielder late in Game 4.

Artie: But it was with the bases empty, the kind of homer Alex Rodriguez specialized in this year. In other words, meaningless.

Frank: Right you are. I heard plenty in New York about A-Rod's empty statistics. Except for the last couple weeks of the season, it seemed Prince had a mighty quiet 34 homers and 102 RBIs-after 50 and 119 last year.

Artie: Another disappointing thing: We always expected the worst of the bullpen, but in the last few weeks they'd been doing so well. But that didn't matter when things were in Suppan's hands.

Frank: Now the question is, assuming Sabathia goes on to richer pastures, was the Brewers' decision to rent him this year worth it?

Artie: I think it was, absolutely. Everyone talks about "taking the next step," and they took it-playoff games after 26 years! And the Game 3 victory is very important; the Cubs couldn't even muster that much. They've lost nine straight postseason games.

Frank: Indeed, Chicago's suffering is something for Brewer fans to savor. So it's on to '09, which we'll analyze in depth next week. A big downside: CC will soon wear a different uniform.

Artie: The upside is that Ben Sheets will be gone, too. But then it's back to the downside: Suppan will still be here.

Frank: On to our next sad topic: UW's loss to Ohio State. At the end they couldn't contain this kid quarterback, Terrelle Pryor.

Artie: The coaching has to be questioned, as far as how they could be so confused on defense.

Frank: Especially on Pryor's winning touchdown run, when the Badgers had three linebackers essentially standing next to each other in the middle of the field.

Artie: This loss, after the one in Michigan, kills them in the Big Ten.

Frank: Right. Even if they beat Penn State this weekend, they have to hope Ohio State and Penn State both lose twice while they don't lose again.

Artie: In my Badger heart, I was thinking before the Michigan game, "Hey, with USC and Florida losing, we could run the table for a national title."

Frank: Instead, the table fell on the Badgers. They coughed up a big lead at Michigan and a small one Saturday night.

Artie: Next is Penn State, 6-0 and looking like they deserve their No. 6 ranking.

And later it's Illinois, which smoked Michigan on Saturday.

Frank: Now for the Packers' portion of the gloom. Their game wasn't shown in Philly, but they were never ahead, right?

Artie: Correct. Down 10-0, they got to 17-17 but couldn't finish it off. One thing I know: They've got to have a new punter by the next game. This Derrick Frost stinks on ice!

Frank: Did he get one blocked?

Artie: Nah, he was just lousy. Getting him is one Ted Thompson decision that didn't work out.

Frank: But that other Thompson decision, the quarterback one, continues to look good, right?

Artie: Aaron Rodgers was really heroic, playing through that shoulder injury.

You could tell the arm was killing him but he kept going and played well. There was a late interception but also three TD passes. Just very courageous.

Frank: Favre-like amid the pain, you might say. But can Rodgers keep playing all season?

Artie: The injury is described as a sprain, and that can be worse than a break.

Frank: Maybe I shouldn't mention this, but we predicted they'd win this game.

Artie: Hey, the Observers always stand up and take the heat.

Frank: Maybe the Pack will prove us wrong again this weekend in Seattle. The Seahawks had a 44-6 disaster against the Giants.

Artie: For a while I thought I had one silver lining to the weekend, but in the NASCAR race at Talladega Wisconsin's own Matt Kenseth, after having led at one point, faded to 26th.

Frank: You, a gearhead? I never suspected.

Artie: Or how's this for a silver lining: The other day I was in a liquor store-go figure-and on the counter were 2008-09 pocket schedules for our Milwaukee Bucks.

Frank: The silver lining is they'll win more than 26 games this time?

Artie: Hey, new coach, new players, new optimism, There is one problem: The slogan on the schedules is "Ready to Rise." That's pretty much like my lunch after watching the Brewers, Badgers and Packers.

Frank Clines labored almost 20 years in the sports department at the Milwaukee Journal andand covered the Brewers part-time for most of those years. Art Kumbalek requests that Commissioner Bud Selig look into the longsuspected fixing of the Miller Park sausage races. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,