Even midway through the baseball season -- heck, even in the last week -- I thought I had two chances to root for a potential World Series contender.
Growing up a Mets fan has been full of highs, lows and everything between. Being a decades-long Brewers fan, sadly, has prepared me only for disappointment. But I'm loyal, even when my teams don't win.
But, boy this is a tough October. The Mets were in first place all year long and seemed a shoe-in. I hold Drew Olson personally responsible for their collapse because he kept telling me -- a superstitious and worrying baseball fan (can you blame me?!) -- they had it sewn up. He's been around baseball long enough to know better than to talk like that!!
The Brewers had potential choke written all over them for much of the season, but they kept managing to do it and they stuck in there. Even when fans and media got gripey and sad, the team held on and was only truly eliminated at the end.
While the standings at the end of the regular season spared me the potential horror of having to emotionally navigate a Mets-Brewers playoff series, they also marked the end of my baseball interest for the year. I had hoped to be shouting "yay team (insert Mets or Brewers, as appropriate)" well into the month.
A good friend -- despite being a Cubs fan -- has promised to never speak of the Mets' season if I vow to stop bringing up 1969. Deal.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
