Wow.
I thought this might be haunting me for a very long time.
So now that the Brewers are in, as the result of a rather improbable run to get there. They fired their manager, had to basically shred their rotation and had to win on a bunch of walkoffs and late rallies to make it in. The team must be feeling a bit of amazed disbelief at this point.
The talk about the guys not being "just happy to be there" is already going, and I wouldn't want it any other way. But you have to think there is a feeling of nothing to lose amongst the players, and that is a good thing. More than any other obstacle in September, the Brewers were having trouble with the pressure.
Well, the pressure that was on the Brewers is gone now. It will certainly be replaced by a whole different sort of pressure, that of trying to take the next step. But they were playing for a group of fans with a 26 year monkey on their backs, and now that is gone. They were playing with the fear of failure and now that is all gone.
On the other side of the field is the Philadelphia Phillies who made the playoffs last year and exited in a very inglorious manner. For them, just making the playoffs is no longer good enough. They will be playing in front of fans that are not simply thrilled to be there, but who expect and demand wins. One can reasonably hope at this point that the Brewers will come in loose and ready to rock and roll and that the Phillies will have the weight of expectation on them, as they will almost certainly be installed as heavy favorites.
Maybe the Brewers really are long shots to beat the Phillies at this point. However, if the last 162 games have taught Brewer fans anything, it is to expect the unexpected.