By Susan Shemanske
Journal Times Sports Editor | Posted: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 12:00 am
MILWAUKEE - They were affectionately known as Harvey's Wallbangers for their slugging ways at the plate and their no-holds-barred play in the field.
In 1982, the Milwaukee Brewers led the major leagues with 216 home runs - still a franchise record - en route to winning the American League pennant.
Under the leadership of manager Harvey Kuenn, the Brewers didn't just win games, they pounded their opponents into submission. En route to a
95-67 record and the AL East Division title, the Brewers scored a league-leading 891 runs, were second with 277 doubles and fifth with 41 triples.
The Brewers may have lost 6-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals Oct. 20, 1982 in the seventh and deciding game of the World Series, but you'd be hard-pressed to find any player from that team or any baseball fan in the state of Wisconsin that year who didn't think the Brewers not only were the best team in Major League Baseball that season, but also were one of the best teams in history.
"Although we lost (the World Series) in seven games, it would be very hard for us to convince anyone in Milwaukee that we had lost," catcher Ted Simmons said Tuesday at Miller Park during ceremonies celebrating the 25th anniversary of the '82 AL championship team. "They made it plain to us that we came home winners."
Considering the Brewers have had just five winning seasons in the 24 seasons since winning the AL pennant, it's easy to see why any reunion of that '82 team triggers memories of a special place in time.
"Let's be honest about it," said center fielder Gorman Thomas, who led the way that season with a league-leading 39 home runs and 112 RBIs playing most of the season with an assortment of injuries sustained in his all-out play at the plate and in the field. "It's the high point of this organization. There's no other way to say it. Every organization has a high point and that was our peak right there."
What best exemplified that '82 team wasn't its offensive prowess, but its collection of personalties that somehow meshed together to form a winning mix.
"We had every personality imaginable in that clubhouse, but it all came together with one common goal and that was to win," said Rob Picciolo, a reserve infielder and one of 24 players on hand for the reunion.
As Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton noted, the '82 Brewers had everything from altar boys to Attica state prisoners on the 25-man roster. This was a group of players who delighted in playing practical jokes on each other. Some of those pranks, like locking pitcher Bob McClure in the bullpen bathroom before a game, were pretty harmless. Some, like starting each other's clothes on fire or trying to outdo each other during some vicious games of flip, may have bordered on downright dangerous.
Yet, ask any of the members of that team today what made the '82 Brewers special and they'll tell you the same thing: Teamwork.
It may be a cliche in the modern sports world, but for the '82 Brewers, it was a way of life. It didn't matter whether you were future Hall of Famers Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, Rollie Fingers or Sutton. It didn't matter whether you were Cy Young winner Pete Vuckovich or little-know reserves Marshall Edwards or Ed Romero. Everybody had a role to play and they played it to perfection day-in and day-out.
"We didn't have any prima donnas," Thomas said. "Everybody was down to earth. You had probably two of the greatest 1-2 hitters in the history of the game in Paulie and Robin and you had a bunch of players who were reclamation projects. Players who had kind of been discarded by other teams, but were given a chance here. It didn't matter.. Everybody contributed something to each and every game every day.
"The Brew Crew was what we were. What you saw was what you got. That's all there was to it. We showed up at the ballpark every day with the attitude that we're going to kick somebody's (expletive) and enjoy doing it. So, that's the way we played."
Much of the credit for the team's success has to go to the late Harry Dalton, the general manager who assembled the cast of characters over a five-year period, and the late Kuenn, who took over for the fired Buck Rodgers June 2 with the team in the midst of an 8-14 slump and in fifth place in the AL East.
"The leader of this club was Harvey Kuenn," Yount said. "He was the guy who kept this whole group together, which wasn't easy to do."
But somehow, Kuenn and his staff managed to push all the right buttons by telling the players just to go out and play and have fun. And have fun they did.
"I've been in baseball 32 years and when anybody asks me what the highlight of my career was, hands down, it's playing for the '82 Brewers," said Picciolo, now a minor-league instructor for the Los Angeles Angels' organization. "Being a part of that club, being able to watch those guys play and be a part of it, nothing comes close."
"It was one of those years when everything fit together just right," Uecker said. "I still think - and I mean no disrespect to the Cardinals by any means - but I still think the Brewers were a better club."