Brewers streak versus Pirates...should it get more attention?

[Invader3K]

I thought this would be worth discussing.

 

A couple people on the JSOnline Brewers blog noted that ESPN's Baseball Tonight only devoted about 10 seconds to the Brewers-Pirates game last night, and made no mention on the 17 game streak. Of course, they noted the Red Sox' whopping 5 game win streak over the Yankees.

 

So, is this streak the Brewers are enjoying against the no-luck Pirates note worthy, or do we only care because we're Brewers fans?

 

On a side note, someone over there noted the Brewers are currently on pace to match their record from last season.

[Ennder]

I don't watch ESPN but MLB network mentioned it a few times. It is just a fluke thing so I don't see why they would need to dwell on it much.

[Invader3K]

Well, good to know the real baseball show mentioned it, even if the Eastern Seaboard Pandering Network did not.

[Bruce Ciskie]

I'm pretty sure that if the Yankees or Red Sox held such a streak over Baltimore, we'd never hear the end of it.

 

That's fine. Like someone mentioned, it's a fluke deal. Among the reasons Pirate fans have to be embarrassed with their favorite team's management, this is near the bottom of the barrel. For us, it's more entertaining than anything else. Personally, I'm just happy we seem to have figured out how to win at PNC.

[Tbadder]

I don't think it's a story but I can see where others might. I think it's basically luck as JJ Hardy said himself last night on MLB Network. I don't think the record (17-0) really accurately expresses the true relationship between the two clubs. If it did that would certainly be a can of worms worth opening.

[RyDogg66]

What is the all time series at? Are we still below .500? This short run of dominance is nothing compared to what Pittsburgh has done to Milwaukee over the years, especially in Pittsburgh.

[Ennder]

We are 75-82 lifetime vs the Pirates. We are catching up on them fast!

 

Though to be fair we don't have a winning record against any NL team and are .500 against Ari and Cin.

[Thurston Fluff]

If Chamberlain's 5.2 innings of 4 run baseball was worth what seemed like half the show I would think the Brewers doing something that hasn't been done since 1969 should have been worth similar time.

[homer]

I really don't think it's a big deal at all. I think it would be different if they were big rivals or playing for the lead in the division. But it's really not that big a story, IMO.

[Invader3K]

If Chamberlain's 5.2 innings of 4 run baseball was worth what seemed like half the show I would think the Brewers doing something that hasn't been done since 1969 should have been worth similar time.

Yeah, you'd think Joba was the second coming of Cy Young, given how much attention he gets on that network.

[mls4]

We are 75-82 lifetime vs the Pirates. We are catching up on them fast!

 

Though to be fair we don't have a winning record against any NL team and are .500 against Ari and Cin.

I am curious about your source for this information. I checked baseball-reference.com and according to them, the Brewers are now 94-83 against Pittsburgh, best of all NL teams. They are also 3 games above .500 against both Washington/Montreal and Arizona.

[jjfanec]

I don't watch ESPN but MLB network mentioned it a few times. It is just a fluke thing so I don't see why they would need to dwell on it much.

It may be a fluke thing but in a lot of ways so is a long hitting streak and that still gets a lot of publicity. To be fair to ESPN i was listening to espn radio yesterday and one of the guys talked about it for a little while. I do think if it was the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs etc it would get a little more play but that fact that it is Milwaukee and the fact that the team we are beating up on is Pitt nationally it probably is not much of a story. It is still pretty amazing to me though.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Nothing is less interesting to a bunch of east coast cable programming execs than Milwaukee, except maybe Pittsburgh. Unless Brett Favre suits up as a reliever and Troy Polamalu replaces Nyjer Morgan as their leadoff hitter...I wouldn't expect this to change.

[Patrick425]

I do realize that it's fluke streak and nothing to get too excited about. However, why can't anyone in the media provide a better history of streaks of this nature? What is the all time (or since 1900) streak record winning streak for one team vs another team? Can anyone answer this? I'm just curious.

[pitchleague]

I don't know what the MLB record is, but I will assume that the professional sports record is the win streak of the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals. It was something like 2,000 consecutive victories over the Generals until 1972 or so.

[joepepsi]

I think it would only matter if it were against two good teams. The Brewers are playing great, but beating up on Pittsburgh isn't all that impressive. In 2002 the Pirates went 15-4 against the Brewers. 2004 they were 12-6. 11-6 in '01. They've beat up on the Crew plenty in the past.

[SenatorShriv]

To be honest, I'm just glad that we're on the winning end of it. Maybe the dog-days of being a Brewer's fan are starting to fade from the memories of some Brewer fans, but not this one. I would rather quietly enjoy the success and hope that it helps us gain some ground on the division leaders then gloat over a team that has struggled as bad as the Pirates have recently. I used to get really tired of hearing about how so many teams (including the Pirates) used to "have the Brewer's number."

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I thought they said on MLBN last night that the Orioles over the expansion Royals at 23 (1969-1970) was the longest streak.

[Ennder]

I am curious about your source for this information. I checked baseball-reference.com and according to them, the Brewers are now 94-83 against Pittsburgh, best of all NL teams. They are also 3 games above .500 against both Washington/Montreal and Arizona.

Oops you are correct, I was looking at baseballalmanac and didn't notice their stats only go through 2007 for some reason. So what I posted is how the Brewers had fared before last season.

[Invader3K]

SenatorShriv wrote: I used to get really tired of hearing about how so many teams (including the Pirates) used to "have the Brewer's number."

I remember a few years back when the Brewers had a really horrid pitching staff, and reading an article that said the Cubs hitters were almost literally salivating at the thought of facing Milwaukee and boosting their batting averages. It was the truth at the time, too.

[Bankjob]

I don't think you can blame ESPN that this is not a gripping national story line. They are only showing what most the viewers care about. Can never blame a network or any business who is looking to maximize there ratings or profits for that. They are not obliged to cover all teams, unlike the MLB network who is. When the crew was a story with CC and the playoff run last year they were near the top of Baseball tonight on a nightly basis. Hopefully as the year progresses we will be a story America cares about again.

[Invader3K]

I don't think it's that people want ESPN to make a huge deal about it...it's the fact that it wasn't even mentioned at all. They've really barely given the Brewers any attention the last few days, even as they play well. The foul ball controversy on Friday received basically zero mention on the four letter network as well. You know if that had been during a Yankees or Red Sox game, they would have dissected it for at least 15 minutes.

 

I guess there's no point in rehashing what ESPN is at this point...just more reason to tune into the MLB Network.

[trwi7]

They actually did mention it. While they were showing Freddy Sanchez' web gem. No highlights of anything else though.

[joepepsi]

I stopped watching Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter years ago. Don't even visit the website. Back in the early 90's when they signed that billion dollar deal to carry games, they treated each team equally. I think they had games on 4 nights a week and so carried many different teams. I'm an Orioles fan too and used to see 12-15 games a year back then.

 

But after a couple years they claimed they were losing millions and MLB let them renegotiate the deal. I'm sure by then they realized carrying those Brewer-Royal games on Wednesday nights didn't get much of a rating nationally. Ever since then it's been nothing but Yankees/Red Sox, or as a friend call them, YESNESNPN

[homer]

I will say that if the brewers get close or break the record and ESPN doesn't mention it then it's shoddy journalism. At that point I'd consider it a story.