The way this relationship began between the Brewers and West Virginia Power in 2005, it seemed Charleston was getting Milwaukee's baseball version of Laverne & Shirley.
In a South Atlantic League first-half season debut of 25-45, the Baby Brewers sent to Charleston were Lenny and Squiggy laughable.
Oh, well, at least we had a new ballpark then.
The Brewers, to their credit, did more than just get it right. That's why the revelation by the Daily Mail's Jacob Messer on these pages two weeks ago that Milwaukee's Class A affiliation is all but going, gone, gone from Appalachian Power Park is sad news.
Starting tonight, when the Power opens an eight-game homestand, you have 25 games (and maybe a playoff date or two) to see the Brewers as the home team provider. It's not that Charleston baseball will be only losing a first-place team this half.
The Power has been plugged into a first-rate organization.
Since that 20-games-under start, the Power is 48 games over .500. The Brew Crew sent through the capital city's farm will leave local and Major League memories for years to come.
Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo, Will Inman, Joe Thatcher, Alcides Escobar, Hernan Iribarren ...
Why this is happening is something of a mystery. You won't get an answer on the thinking from Milwaukee, at least none that is no more than speculation, at least not now. Try September.
Supposedly, the Brewers want to move their low Class A farm team about 90 miles from Miller Park to Appleton, Wis. -- where these days most sports fans are consumed by the Brett Favre Flu.
I can't believe the baseball people from the Brewers are thrilled about leaving Charleston, where they've enjoyed nice facilities and supportive crowds that on this homestand will surpass 900,000 in four years.
However, some Cheesehead suits or bean counters in Beertown probably see the chance to sell a few more Milwaukee seats and caps and jerseys in Appleton, so they say to the baseball guys, "You can teach a right fielder to hit the cutoff man in Wisconsin as easily as you can in West Virginia, so ..."
Mat Gamel, Matt LaPorta, Angel Salome, Darren Ford, Taylor Green, Michael Brantley, Andrew Lefave ...
No one who cares about baseball here can be steamed about what the Brewers have produced in the East End ballpark. In fact, we have been spoiled recently.
If you go back into Toronto's final season (2004) as the Alley Cats' parent club, Charleston baseball has had eight half-seasons of at least .500 (out of 10). The city was 11-for-12 under .500 from 1998-2003.
The way this relationship began between the Brewers and West Virginia Power in 2005, it seemed Charleston was getting Milwaukee's baseball version of Laverne & Shirley.
In a South Atlantic League first-half season debut of 25-45, the Baby Brewers sent to Charleston were Lenny and Squiggy laughable.
Oh, well, at least we had a new ballpark then.
The Brewers, to their credit, did more than just get it right. That's why the revelation by the Daily Mail's Jacob Messer on these pages two weeks ago that Milwaukee's Class A affiliation is all but going, gone, gone from Appalachian Power Park is sad news.
Starting tonight, when the Power opens an eight-game homestand, you have 25 games (and maybe a playoff date or two) to see the Brewers as the home team provider. It's not that Charleston baseball will be only losing a first-place team this half.
The Power has been plugged into a first-rate organization.
Since that 20-games-under start, the Power is 48 games over .500. The Brew Crew sent through the capital city's farm will leave local and Major League memories for years to come.
Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo, Will Inman, Joe Thatcher, Alcides Escobar, Hernan Iribarren ...
Why this is happening is something of a mystery. You won't get an answer on the thinking from Milwaukee, at least none that is no more than speculation, at least not now. Try September.
Supposedly, the Brewers want to move their low Class A farm team about 90 miles from Miller Park to Appleton, Wis. -- where these days most sports fans are consumed by the Brett Favre Flu.
I can't believe the baseball people from the Brewers are thrilled about leaving Charleston, where they've enjoyed nice facilities and supportive crowds that on this homestand will surpass 900,000 in four years.
However, some Cheesehead suits or bean counters in Beertown probably see the chance to sell a few more Milwaukee seats and caps and jerseys in Appleton, so they say to the baseball guys, "You can teach a right fielder to hit the cutoff man in Wisconsin as easily as you can in West Virginia, so ..."
Mat Gamel, Matt LaPorta, Angel Salome, Darren Ford, Taylor Green, Michael Brantley, Andrew Lefave ...
No one who cares about baseball here can be steamed about what the Brewers have produced in the East End ballpark. In fact, we have been spoiled recently.
If you go back into Toronto's final season (2004) as the Alley Cats' parent club, Charleston baseball has had eight half-seasons of at least .500 (out of 10). The city was 11-for-12 under .500 from 1998-2003.
After Milwaukee's poor debut half season when too many young prospects were overmatched, the Brewer teams here have finished lower than third in the division in only one half (sixth, 32-37 the first half of this season).
If the Power wins the second-half SAL Northern Division title, Charleston will be in the playoffs for the third time in five summers.
What's next after BrewerBall? It's a crapshoot. West Virginia Baseball LLC Executive Vice President Andy Milovich said playing the affiliation game "is like trading lottery tickets."
Even if the Power does its homework and studied a farm system's depth (as Milovich and General Manager Ryan Gates will), who's to say what the 2009 draft will or won't bring that organization, or what impact a trade involving multiple prospects may cost a club?
Jeremy Jeffress, Zelous Wheeler, Stephen Chapman, Carlos Corporan, Zach Braddock, Eric Farris ...
There are 17 clubs in the South Atlantic and Midwest leagues who have Player Development Contracts that end with the 2008 season. Some affiliations just won't change because of ownership, regional ties or geographic sense (Cincinnati among them).
Contractually, Boston, Anaheim, Kansas City, Toronto, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Atlanta, St. Louis, Florida and both Chicago clubs are unavailable.
When Milwaukee re-upped with the Power for 2007 and '08, the other Major League clubs that expressed more than a passing interest in a Power plug-in were Tampa Bay, Texas, San Francisco and the New York Mets.
If you want to hold out hope for a "regional" affiliation, maybe the best bet is Pittsburgh -- although Hickory Crawdads owner Don Beaver is a part-owner of the parent Pirates. Still, the Wheeling-based Nutting family now guides the Pirates' management.
Maybe some Pittsburgh poobah might take a similar tack to what Milwaukee seems to be taking. Might the Bucs might sell a few more of the very available PNC Park tickets in the Kanawha Valley if the organization had team ties in a city where the storied Pirate-fueled Charlies remain a fond memory?
The likely time frame for the Power to land a new parent club is the second half of September, after Major League teams spend the first two weeks of the month in discussions and negotiations with potential farm stops.
Lorenzo Cain, Jonathan Lucroy, David Welch, Derek Miller, Chuck Caufield, Patrick Ryan ...
The prospects have been prominent, and the irony as the Power heads into the last 6 1/2 weeks of the season is that Charleston baseball fans will be rooting for their team to make the SAL playoffs for a second straight year ... and then watch that organization pack its bags.
They will still sell Anheuser-Busch products at the Power Park concession stands, but I'm here to tell you Milwaukee's best has tasted mighty fine to spectators, too.
--Contact Sports Editor Jack Bogaczyk at ja...@dailymail.com or 348-7949.
