Craig Counsell - If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers

To my mother and father, who gave up a lot of summer vacations to drive me to baseball tournaments, and to my wife, Kate, and my three childrendaughters, Lindsey and Mallory, and son, Billyfor allowing me to spend so much time at the ballpark

Contents

This Buds for You, Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Bob Uecker

Food, Team Parties, The Chandler Explosion, The Sausage Race, Nicknames

Brewers Win the 1982 Pennant; Tony Plush Saves the Day; Braun and CC Brew Up a Winner; It Takes 162; Good-bye, Detroit; The Kid Hits 3,000; Molitors Streak Ends; Shadow Dancing; County Stadium Finale; Grand Salami; The Hit Parade; The Future Arrives; Friday Night Fights; May Marathon; Nieves No-Hitter; CCs Near No-No; Easter Sunday 87

Director of Clubhouse Operations, Clubhouse Pranks, The Training Room, The Video Revolution, Team Travel, Batting Practice

My Baseball Life, Becoming a Broadcaster, Matt Vasgersian, Daron Sutton, Brian Anderson, Director, Producer, Calling Pitches

Foreword by Craig Counsell

I ts hard to believe that Bill Schroeder is in his third decade broadcasting Brewers games on TV. Hes certainly aged as a beautiful man, but 20-plus years is a long time. There is a generation of Brewers fans who have learned about baseball from watching Bill Schroeder. The fans know who he is. I think what people realizemore than anythingwhen they watch Bill is that hes a Brewer. That certainly lends something to the broadcast.

I know that once you step into the booth, you have to try to be impartial because youre telling the story of the game. But it also comes through that Bill was a Brewer as a player and now as a broadcaster. Hes been through good times and bad. He has lived the history of the franchise, and that comes through, and that makes everybody more passionate. Because of that fans can share their love for the team more. The fact that Bill was a player gives him perspective. He can explain certain situations and tell fans how players feel and how they are reacting and how theyre anticipating. Thats a difficult thing to do for someone who didnt play the game.

Bill provides those insights. He does a great job with it. But I also knowafter watching and listening to him over the yearsthat he demands a lot of the players and also understands how hard it is to play. Thats a good combination, and it seems to come naturally for him.

I did a little bit of TV work after I retired as a player, and there is an adrenaline that you dont always get when youre done playing. Its hard to replace the excitement on the field, but you get a bit of that in the broadcast booth. You are on live TV and living the game, and the challenge of it is a rush. The joy of coming to the park and performing comes out every day. In that way its similar to playing.

The link between Rock and the fans, though, goes beyond the games. He runs the teams fantasy camps and does a really good job with it. I know the former players love going down there, and the campers come back and everybody has a blast, and the stories are really great. Its another way, in addition to his charitable activities and work with military groups, that Bill is representing the Brewers, and hes representing them in the right way.

Bill was with the Brewers in the 1980s and played with some of the best players in franchise historyRobin Yount, Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner, Ted Simmons, Rollie Fingers, and others. Thats still such an important era for the Brewers. So many fans associate that with their childhood, and the fact that he was part of that is important. He provides a link to that, but hes also been around great players as a broadcaster, guys like Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Jonathan Lucroy, Carlos Gomez, CC Sabathia, and Zack Greinke. There are a bunch of fans who identify with those guys. Bill has been a link to that group, too.

For the next great Brewers team, he can provide a link to those guys. He is able to do that and he does a good job of it. And I think people are going to enjoy reading his stories because his story really is intertwined with the story of the Brewers.

Craig Counsell

Foreword by Bob Uecker

Y ou want me to say something about Bill? Bill who? Bill Schroeder? Never heard of him

Im kidding, of course.

I think Rock and I have always been close, going back to when he played for the Brewers in the early 1980s. Now that hes a broadcaster, we talk to each other every day for the most part. I was always kind of partial to catchers anyway because thats what I did, too, as a player.

Rock was a good catcher. He hit with some power and he was a good receiver, too. He also was a big dude. Thats one thing that always impressed me with Rock. He was a big guy who never shied from anything.

We talked a lot when he was playing, but we do it even more now that hes working in the broadcast part of baseball. We talk about what goes on in the field and what goes on in the broadcast booth. Its nice that he asks me a lot of times for tips on the broadcast part.

Once you have the separation from player to broadcasting, there are some guys who dont want to talk to you anymore. Thats fine. But I think players know that were going to be fair. Rock knows the intricacies of the game. He knows why things happen, which is what you get from playing.

We like to have fun and make people laugh, but we dont ever rip guys just to rip them and we dont mess around when weve got a good game going. Ive talked to Rock about that a lot. He gets it. There is a comfort zone for him with fans. Broadcasting for a team is not easy. Its not like doing a network game, where you can say whatever you want. You have seasons where its sometimes hard to watch. But when you work for a particular team, you get a closeness with the players and the people in the organization.

Ive been around long enough now that Ive seen guys as players. Ive seen their kids. And now, Ive seen their grandkids. When you look at Robin (Yount), Paulie (Molitor), Cecil Cooper, Jim Gantner, Gorman Thomasthose guys have been the foundation for what we have here today in Milwaukee. They never go away. When you do see themeither at a Brewers On Deck event in the winter or someplace elseits like old home week. You really enjoy being around the guys. People move on at times to different teams. Thats part of the game. But you never lose that connection, and I know that Billy likes that part of it a lot. I never wanted to leave here. There were opportunities over the years, but I never wanted to leave here. Im a Brewer.

Bill is a Brewer, too. He does fantasy camp every year. He asked me if Id spend a day in fantasy camp. I said, Sure, absolutely. Im happy to do that. Thats still a big connection. Bill didnt leave after he was done as a player and hung around Wisconsin. He will be here for a long, long time, however long he wants to be. There is a comfort zone for Bill with fans and the organization. He is a great fit.

Bob Uecker

Introduction

G rowing up, I played in all kinds of sports. I played football, basketball, soccer, but baseball was my favorite. My first exposure to baseball came through my father. He was a junior high baseball coach, helping kids feed into Steinert High School in Hamilton Township in New Jersey. I remember going to practices and games with my father as a really young kid. Id be around collecting balls in the outfield and picking up bats and things like that and I developed an instant love for the game.

When I was about seven years old, they didnt have T-ball or anything like that. We just started playing. When I signed up for my first team, they called it the Tiny League back then. I was seven and playing against eight and nine-year olds. I remember going to registration at the fire house in Hamilton. I was standing with my dad. There were a couple of men at the desk, and there was a lady making sure we lived where we said we did and that we had the proper forms filled out. While my dad was getting me signed up, I looked around and saw an old cardboard boxit was probably an empty beer caseand there was some catchers gear in there. I knew what it was because I had been hanging around the ballpark during my dads practices. The catchers gear was heavy and dirty, and it took a long time for players to put on and take off and it was hard to stuff into the equipment bag at the end of the day. I didnt want anything to do with it.