Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Team

The stench may finally be lifting from Miller Park. Literally and figuratively. Two weeks ago, workers at the Milwaukee Brewers' ballpark repaired a misconnected sewer line that had been sending waste down river into nearby Lake Michigan for more than six years.

The picture is in black and white, a snapshot of glory from far too long ago. The camera catches the aftermath of the last playoff game in Milwaukee. Fans linger on the field, celebrating their beloved Brewers, skipping merrily beneath a huge billboard for Winston cigarettes. Long ago, indeed. On the scoreboard, a polite nudge: "The 1982 American League champion Milwaukee Brewers will return for a bow after all fans have returned to the stands." They took their bow, and they left for St.

Thank you, Guillermo Mota. With the Dodgers holding baseball's best record and a widening chasm between sunny Chavez Ravine and the San Francisco Bay, with the Manny Ramirez fiasco turning into a routine fly ball and those trade-bait pitchers remaining on other teams, we've been in danger of slipping into cruise control until the playoffs. Then along comes anger, redemption and a harking back to one of baseball's great traditions: A fastball in the rump for a slider in the elbow.

Don't count Frank McCourt out of the baseball picture just because billionaire developer and philanthropist Eli Broad has informed News Corp. Chairman Peter Chernin that he is willing to buy the Dodgers, mostly for cash, if the highly leveraged bid of the Boston real estate developer falls through.

The Angels' 1-0, 17-inning loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night might have seemed like little more than a colossal waste of quality pitching, considering that it took the Brewers more than 4 1/2 hours to produce one run off five Angel pitchers.

Los Angeles investor Mark L. Attanasio appears to be close to an agreement to buy the Milwaukee Brewers from the family of baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Daniel Gilbert, the founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, said Monday that he was told that the team had selected another buyer, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on its website that the team had accepted an offer from Attanasio.

Ever since he was a boy growing up in the Bronx, Mark L. Attanasio has been immersed in baseball. He spent much of his childhood memorizing trivia from the Baseball Encyclopedia and playing whiffle ball with his brother in a church parking lot. Later in life, while making his fortune in junk bonds, Attanasio relaxed with rotisserie baseball, spending hours carefully picking players and strategies for his fantasy team. Now, at age 47, Attanasio has a real team to run.

The Dodgers' plans to revive the worst offense in the National League suffered another blow Monday when the Arizona Diamondbacks completed a nine-player trade with the Milwaukee Brewers to acquire first baseman Richie Sexson, a player the Dodgers wanted as a cornerstone in their 2004 lineup. The Diamondbacks' acquisition of Sexson comes less than a week after the Chicago Cubs completed a trade for Derrek Lee, another high-profile first baseman targeted by the Dodgers.

Here's the ultimate question for third baseman Jeff Cirillo of the Milwaukee Brewers: What is tougher, trying to hit a Randy Johnson fastball or changing the diapers of his 8-month-old son, Cole? "Hitting a Johnson fastball," Cirillo said. "The thing is, [changing diapers] is almost like a habit. It's like brushing your teeth. You do it every day and you get in good form."

In Hollywood they're called cattle calls, open to just about any and all comers who think they can act. That might work when you're trying to cast someone to play a butler. It's not the best method to find major league baseball talent. Stars don't come from open tryouts promoted through flyers, a few phone calls and a small newspaper announcement. Bruce Reid knows that. But the Milwaukee Brewer scout is at USC's Dedeaux Field on a hazy summer day anyway. Just in case.