In the last Talkin’ Baseball column, I highlighted the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team of young, talented players that appears to have rising fortunes in the National League. As promised, this week we will take a look at another surprising team, one that could very well win the National League Central in 2007. Let’s discuss the Milwaukee Brewers. First off, baseball fans in the Ardmore area have every reason to cheer the Brew Crew to victory. Milwaukee’s Triple A farm team is located up the road in Nashville, and the Brewer’s Double A franchise is just down the road in Huntsville. You might say that, due to its location, Ardmore is a natural to be a hotbed of Brewer supporters. Most of the core of talented young players that have catapulted Milwaukee into first place cut their professional baseball teeth playing for the Stars in Huntsville.

In order to put this year’s team in proper perspective it is necessary that we climb into our Way Back Machine and take a brief look at Brewer history. Let me warn you, it isn’t pretty.

The Brewers came into existence as an expansion team in 1969. During its first year of existence, the team wasn’t known as the Brewers and wasn’t located in Milwaukee. No, the Brew Crew originally called Seattle home and went by the moniker of the Pilots.

This reality was short-lived.

After only one year, the team up and left Seattle faster than you could say, “I’ll have a double shot latte.”

Due to poor attendance and even poorer weather, the Pilots hoisted anchor and headed to Milwaukee. During the early and mid-70’s the Brewers were your typical expansion team. They lost a lot of games due to low budgets and poor talent.

Things gradually began to change in the late ‘70’s as the team began to assemble a cadre of great young players. Players like Robin Yount, Jim Gantner, Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper, Ben Oglivie and “Stormin’” Gorman Thomas gained more experience and by 1982, were able to go to the Big Dance and defeat the Cardinals.

This talented team, known as Harvey’s Wallbangers, was managed by Harvey Kueen. Kuenn was best known for possessing a choleric personality and a wooden leg. The Brewers remained competitive until 1984, then the wheels came off.

Until recently, the wheels remained off.

Possessing one of the lowest payrolls in baseball, the Brewers just couldn’t compete against bigger market teams. Further, Milwaukee’s situation was complicated by other factors.

First, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig was also majority owner of the Brewers. His commitment was to the sport as a whole and his energy became less focused on the team from Milwaukee. Second, in 1997, something even stranger happened.

Bear with me as the history lesson deepens a bit.

If you are a younger fan, you may wonder how it came to be that the Brewers and Cardinals, both National League teams, managed to meet in the 1982 World Series. It is quite simple, actually. In 1982, the Brewers were an American League team. When baseball underwent realignment in 1997, splitting each league into three divisions instead of two, Selig transferred the Brew Crew from the American League to the Senior Circuit.

Since coming over the National League, Milwaukee has been consistently bad. Only the dismal Pirates have prevented the Brewers from finishing last in the division every year.

Things began to show gradual improvement four years ago when the Brewers hired Ned Yost as manager. Yost had served a number of years under Bobby Cox in Atlanta and learned much from his highly successful mentor. Since coming to Milwaukee, Yost has instilled a winning attitude and a commitment to excellence to this ball club. Still operating under a dismally low budget, the team has consistently improved over the years and now is a legitimate challenger in the Central.

Young standouts like Billy Hall and Prince Fielder give the Brew Crew a solid foundation on which to build. Just how far the team can go, considering budgetary restraints, remains to be seen.

Still, with the National League Central being perhaps the weakest division in baseball this year, the Brewers could indeed make the postseason and bring a smile to the faces of their much-beleaguered fans. Stay tuned.