Relive the time a bunch of dudes on the 2007 Brewers went on a soap opera
It's been a super busy week for the Milwaukee Brewers. Between the
The entire clip is incredible, but the fun really gets going around the 0:55 mark when the woman in the blue shirt -- who the Internet informs us is named Phyllis Summers -- starts bursting out hilarious proclamations about each of the Brewers in the room. We're now going to fact check each of her remarks.
"Jeff Suppan, Game 4, World Series 2006, you know what I'm talking about."
We in fact, did not know what she was talking about. Were the 2006 Brewers in the World Series and all the history books are lying? But after some quick research we discovered that Jeff Suppan had only just joined the Brewers that off-season, having spent all of 2006 with...the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
Well now you're probably wondering about Suppan's Game 4 start in the 2006 World Series, eh? He was pretty good that day: eight hits, four punchouts and three earned runs in six innings of work against the Tigers. Not a bad World Series start, but nothing particularly remarkable either. In fact, Game 4 was the only game the Cardinals lost in that World Series!
What Phyllis perhaps forgot, is that Mr. Suppan was the 2006 NLCS MVP against the Mets, a series in which he allowed only a single earned run in 15 innings of work. That infamous
"Chris [Capuano], he is the best left-handed pitcher in the entire league."
In 2018, this sounds like a pretty biased comment for a Brewers fan to be making. No way Chris Capuano was the best left handed pitcher in the league...right? WRONG.
Capuano's 3.4 Wins Above Replacement in 2006 was second amongst all left-handed pitchers in the National League, behind only the D-Train himself, Dontrelle Willis. Capuano followed that up with an extremely strong start to 2007, racing out to a 5-0 record by May 7th (probably around the time the script for this episode was written).
So yeah, Chris Capuano maybe wasn't the best left-handed pitcher in the entire league, but he was pretty dang good at that point in time. Also, maybe he has a future as a pitching coach?
"Bill [Hall]... that pinch hit go-ahead single against Pittsburgh to win it..."
Only seven shortstops have ever, in history of Major League Baseball, hit 35 or more homers in a season. Alex Rodriguez did it seven times. Ernie Banks did it four times. Somehow Rich Aurilia did it in 2001. Nomar did it. Rico Petricelli did it. And Bill Hall.
Even in today's baseball world which has seen both more dingers than ever before and feature a cadre of powerful young shortstops like Seager, Correa and Lindor who consistantly fling taters into the air, the most recent 35-dinger season by a shortstop belongs to Bill Hall. Incredible.
Also, the pinch hit go-ahead single against the Pirates referenced in the episode absolutely happened. It came after a Tony Graffanino flyout and was off Matt Capps and scored Prince Fielder. Wow, we miss 2007.
"J.J... his bat is on fire this year, one of the longest hitting streaks in all of Brewers history."
As of May 22nd, the day the episode was filmed, J.J. Hardy had already plastered 14 homers, good for second in all of baseball behind only A-Rod. So his bat was indeed "on fire."
Also, his 19-game hitting streak which ended only a few weeks before they filmed the scene was, at the time, the fourth-longest in Brewers franchise history.
Though he comes off like a natural in the video, Hardy was quoted afterwards: "I was a lot more nervous doing this than I would be going out and facing Roger Clemens. I lost some sleep last night thinking about the lines."
Final note: young J.J. Hardy's soul patch belongs in the Baseball Facial Hair Hall of Fame.
"Alright, World Series 2007 guys!"
At the time this episode was filmed, the Brewers were 6.5 games up on the Cubs in the NL Central and had the third-best record in all of baseball. They carried a 4.5 game lead into the All-Star break before collapsing in the second half, ending up just two games back of the division-champion Cubs, and out of the postseason.
So unless Phyllis Summers of The Young and The Restless was somehow talking about the incredible Rocktober Rockies or Mike Lowell, her 2007 World Series prediction did not age well. Apparently day-time soap operas are not the best place for reliable postseason prognostication. Who knew?
