The Brew Crew was on the move in 1979. After winning 93 games in 1978 and breaking the .500 barrier for the first time in franchise history, this club was expected to be a contender. While Brewer fans were hoping for a divisional crown they couldn’t be upset with a team that won 95 games and improved on it’s previous year’s finish. The Brewers made a run in late August that put them 6 games behind the O’s, but Baltimore was on a torrid pace that Milwaukee just couldn’t keep up with. This was a fun team that hit a lot of homers, and other than Gorman Thomas, didn't strike out all that much. Speaking of Thomas, Stormin Gorman hit 45 homers and knocked in 123 runs. He was much better in centerfield than pundits gave him credit for. Sixto Lezcano (101) and Cecil Cooper (106) also knocked in over 100 runs. Cooper, Oglivie and Lezcano eclipsed the 20 homer plateu. There was no sophomore jinx for 1978's Rookie of the Year runner up Paul Molitor, who hit .322 and stole 33 bases. Lost in the shuffle was the fact that future HOF'er Robin Yount (just 23 years old) hit just .267. Milwaukee's usually malligned pitching was ranked 4th overall in the league. Yankee Killer Mike Caldwell was 16-6 with a 3.29 ERA. The rest of the rotation was above average. When your #5 guy (Moose Haas) goes 11-11, you've got a decent staff. Unfortunately for the Brewers the O's staff was just a notch better. Bill Castro led a bullpen by committee. There wasn't a true closer. Castro's 6 saves led this bunch. With a few breaks this team could challenge the O's for the ARAIG AL East crown since they do not have a weak spot in the lineup and they have 3 starters who logged over 210 innings.
Editor’s Note: By far this was the smallest team set that I worked on. Not a lot going on here. The Boitano picture is a reasonable colorization. I love the Sakata action shot that Tony sent me. The Nordbrook shot came from a minor league card where he was managing the Brew Crew’s AAA affiliate. The Rautzhan photo was a close up of a Dodger photo. Off came the “LA” and on came the “M”. I probably should have put the Brewer cap logo with the MB looking like a glove on this cap and I still might update it later.
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