{"id":79252,"date":"2025-08-17T14:03:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=79252"},"modified":"2025-08-17T14:03:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:03:55","slug":"column-milwaukee-brewers-are-suddenly-a-touchy-topic-for-chicago-cubs-manager-craig-counsell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=79252","title":{"rendered":"Column: Milwaukee Brewers are suddenly a touchy topic for Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It was sometime during Saturday morning\u2019s pregame media session that Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell facetiously cut off questions about Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d been asked about the Milwaukee Brewers\u2019 13-game winning streak, their jovial manager, Pat Murphy, and the divisional race the Brewers are now running away with after the Cubs spent the first four months in first place. The way things were headed, Counsell might have feared answering questions about the Mars Cheese Castle, the Green Bay Packers receiving corps\u00a0and his favorite lunch spot at the Wisconsin Dells.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did you expect?\u201d I asked him.<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin native who left his job in Milwaukee for the bright lights of Chicago has watched his former team turn into baseball\u2019s best story, while the Cubs were doing Cub-like things, falling nine games back by mid-August after a sensational start.<\/p>\n

Asked if he could appreciate how \u201cgreat\u201d a story the Brewers have been, Counsell deadpanned:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s so great about it? I mean, they\u2019re playing good. They\u2019re playing great. They haven\u2019t lost since we played them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So is he annoyed by the fact the Brewers never lose?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the job is to try to win the division,\u201d he replied. \u201cThat\u2019s the ultimate goal, and they\u2019re really making that difficult. So from that perspective, yeah. We only get 13 chances to affect it though, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs, who went 4-4 against the Brewers in their first eight meetings, begin a five-game series against them Monday at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n

It could be a wake if the Cubs don\u2019t wake up. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 on Saturday, while the Brewers won in dramatic fashion again, defeating the Cincinnati Reds 6-5 in 11 innings for their franchise-record 14th consecutive victory.<\/p>\n

\"Column:
Cubs manager Craig Counsell, right, high-fives right fielder Kyle Tucker after Tucker scored during the fourth inning against the Pirates on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (Paul Beaty\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Counsell didn\u2019t want to bury himself, as many Cubs managers before him have done, by saying something that would be used against him on sports-talk radio, the internet or the Brewers\u2019 virtual bulletin board.<\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t blame him for dodging questions, just as you couldn\u2019t blame the media for asking.<\/p>\n

Counsell was a teenager in Milwaukee when the \u201887 Brewers won their first 13 games, setting a franchise record that was tied Friday in a crazy 10-8 comeback win over the Reds after trailing 8-1.<\/p>\n

The owner of the George Webb restaurant chain had promised to give away free burgers for one day after 12 straight Brewers wins, and eventually wound up handing out 168,192 freebies after the streak was reached in April 1987. Thanks to this year\u2019s streak, which reached 12 on Wednesday, the George Webb chain will do likewise from 2-6 p.m. Wednesday\u00a0at all of the restaurant\u2019s 23 Wisconsin locations.<\/p>\n

Counsell didn\u2019t recall getting a free burger in \u201987 when I asked him about his childhood memories. In truth he said he was more a fan of the burgers from Kopp\u2019s Frozen Custard, another Wisconsin staple.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019ve never seen a George Webb,\u201d Counsell said, referring to the restaurant, not the person.<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t seen a George Webb either until 1987, when the Chicago Tribune sent me to Milwaukee to report on a story a month after the 13-game winning streak. Rev. Dominic Peluse, a New York Yankees fan and priest at an elementary school in Franklin, Wis., had promised his 200 students free burgers if the Brewers lost 12 straight.<\/p>\n

With the streak at 11 straight, Rev. Peluse said before the May 20th game against the White Sox he was in a \u201cstate of frenzy,\u201d realizing how much 200 burgers would cost him. The Sox won 5-1, and the priest was forced to pay off.<\/p>\n

Brewers owner Bud Selig, who would later become MLB commissioner, was perplexed at how a team could win 13 straight in April and then lose 12 straight in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 26 weeks in the major-league season,\u201d Selig told me that day at County Stadium. \u201cThere are times in those 26 weeks when you think you\u2019re never going to lose, and times when you think you\u2019re never going to win. I never thought I\u2019d see both of those so soon. This is not a human experience that I like going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counsell probably can relate. This is not a human experience he likes going through either. Watching the 2025 Brewers look unstoppable while his Cubs struggle to score runs has been harder to digest than moldy cheese curds.<\/p>\n

\"Column:
The Brewers’ Caleb Durbin, left, and Andrew Vaughn celebrate their win against the Reds on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Cincinnati. (Kareem Elgazzar\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everything the Brewers touch seems to turns to gold, as evidenced by the play of former Sox first baseman Andrew Vaughn,\u00a0who was acquired for pitcher Aaron Civale on June 13 after Vaughn had been demoted to Triple-A Charlotte three weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

Entering Saturday, the Brewers were 27-4 (an .871 win percentage) since Vaughn\u2019s debut July 7 at Dodger Stadium, where he hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat in a 9-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. When Vaughn was demoted to Charlotte on May 24, the White Sox were 15-35, a .300 win percentage, and the first baseman was hitting .189 with five home runs, 19 RBIs and a .531 OPS in 48 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to understand what was going on and look at myself,\u201d Vaughn told two Chicago reporters last month in Milwaukee. \u201cI had to take the ego out of it. Baseball is our job, and if you\u2019re not producing, sometimes that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sox general manager Chris Getz rationalized the deal by pointing to Vaughn becoming a free agent after 2026, saying \u201cwhere Vaughn is in his White Sox career contractually, it did make some sense to look at ways to help our team currently in finding an arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf appreciated the financial savings, no doubt, while Brewers GM Matt Arnold gambled on Vaughn and won big.<\/p>\n

Entering Saturday\u2019s game in Cincinnati, Vaughn was hitting .343 with nine home runs, 35 RBIs and a 1.051 OPS in 29 games. His 54 total RBIs are five more than Lenyn Sosa\u2019s 49, which lead the Sox.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know what a change of scenery can do for you,\u201d Brewers slugger Christian Yelich said of Vaughn\u2019s surge. \u201cHe\u2019s been a really productive player in this league, and sometimes you get off to rough starts in a season. I\u2019ve had a few of those in my career too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you consistently stay at it, eventually it starts to turn. And it could be that change of scenery, getting into a different environment, a different culture \u2026 you never really know. He\u2019s done a great job, he\u2019s a great guy and he fits our group well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Cubs will enter the showdown against the Brewers as decided underdogs. They need to finish first in the NL wild-card standings to play at home in a best-of-three wild-card series and are neck-and-neck with the San Diego Padres in the race for the No. 4 seed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the next goal, right?\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThe wild-card series is a three-game series for seeds 3-6. You get the advantage of being at home if you\u2019re the top seed. Otherwise you\u2019re on the road. But a three-game series is a three-game series. We know what can happen in a three-game series. You want it to be at home, but I\u2019m not sure it matters in the playoffs. It matters, but it\u2019s small. That\u2019s what history tells us, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

History also tells us a team can win 13 games in a row and lose 12 straight one month later.<\/p>\n

You could look it up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The expected showdown between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers might be irrelevant after the Brewers\u2019 blew past the Cubs in the National League Central.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":79253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2207,3063,282,331,823,3064,290,3062],"class_list":["post-79252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-andrew-vaughn","tag-bud-selig","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-christian-yelich","tag-craig-counsell","tag-george-webb","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-pat-murphy"],"yoast_head":"\nColumn: Milwaukee Brewers are suddenly a touchy topic for Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=79252\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Column: Milwaukee Brewers are suddenly a touchy topic for Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell - 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