With the NLCS heading back to Milwaukee for Game 6 on Sunday, I think it's time to address this.
Sure, Monday's 12-3 loss to the Cardinals in Game 2 of the NLCS was embarrassing. It was a blow out and it wasn't a fun game to watch.
However, it was just the 2nd NLCS game held in Milwaukee in 29 years.
And that right there means to me that it was inexcusable that Brewers fans exited Miller Park en masse in about the 7th inning Friday night.
By the end of the game, I'd estimate there were less than 5,000 people left in Miller Park, which I find downright embarrassing.
All postseason, national writers have been writing about what great crowds the Brewers have had. They've said Miller Park has been, by far, the loudest stadium in the postseason.
Concurrently, Brewers and national media were all over Arizona and the Diamondbacks for their inability to sell NLDS tickets and sell out their stadium. The Diamondbacks had $12 tickets available to games 3 and 4 of the NLDS as close as two days before the game. They had to sell 10,000 tickets in the 24-hours prior to game 3 in order to sell out and they failed to sell out game 4.
And local writers, bloggers and tweeters couldn't stop making fun of the team and their fanbase, railing at them for being awful baseball fans.
I can't imagine how any of those people could defend the fans that left Miller Park on Monday or think that they are any better than the Diamondbacks fans they maligned just a week before.
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These tens of thousands of fans that streamed from Miller Park like it was on fire - did they just think they'll catch the next NLDS? Did they figure they'd gotten their money's worth (likely hundreds of dollars/ticket)?
I understand I'm a hardcore fan and the fact that I refuse to leave a game early isn't a trait shared by all. But I guess I figured the folks who were in Miller Park for the first NLCS in Milwaukee in 29 years weren't casual fans. They weren't interested in "beating traffic."
While we know now that it's not the case, at the time, it could have been Prince Fielder's last game in Milwaukee. If Fielder hits an 8th inning home run and no one is there to see it, did it really happen?
With Shaun Marcum pitching, its possible that Game 6 will get away from the Brewers and the Cardinals could go up big early on.
If the worst happens, I hope Brewers fans behave better than they did Monday night. I hope they don't dishonor the guys on the field and I hope they stick around to applaud each player and thank them for the amazing ride this season has been.
Wouldn't it be just an incredible shame if the 9th inning Sunday or Monday look like it did on Monday and the Brewers, having lost a heartbreaking series to their biggest rival, have to leave the field to a bunch of empty seats?
This team deserves better treatment than that. Prince Fielder, who has put it all out there this season and postseason and has given the Brewers his all, deserves better than that.
I'm sure people will be disgusted and upset, and I know folks have work in the morning, but please, Brewers fans, if the Brewers lose the NLCS, please don't desert your team. They deserve better than that.
