Baseball Isn’t Won in April
"A baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. One bad series won’t bury you, and one hot streak won’t crown you." – Earl Weaver
The Brewers opened the 2025 season in New York and got embarrassed. They lost the first game 4–2, striking out 15 times. Chourio struck out five times on his own, Yelich struck out to end it.
Game two was worse. The Yankees won 20–9 and hit nine home runs, three from Aaron Judge. Brewers pitchers couldn’t keep the ball in the park. Everyone was talking about the “torpedo bats” the Yankees were swinging — legal, but the ball carried different.
The sweep ended with a 12–3 loss. Over three games the Yankees outscored the Brewers 36–14 and hit fifteen home runs, tying a major league record for an opening series. Brewers fans lost it. My phone was full of texts from friends and family ready to write off the season before it had even started.
A text from a good friend when the Brewers were getting clobbered in the second game of the season:
Baseball doesn’t get decided in a weekend. The Brewers getting swept by the Yankees to start 2025 is the perfect example. Fans were ready to call the season over after three games. Milwaukee has the best record in the league.
That’s the nature of baseball. It’s 162 games. Teams go cold, then get hot. A lineup that looks hopeless in April can be unstoppable in July. A bullpen that blows games in May can lock everything down in September. One bad series, even a bad month, doesn’t tell the whole story.
Baseball is about adjustments. Managers change lineups, pitchers tweak mechanics, hitters make small fixes that flip everything. Over time, talent rises, depth matters, and consistency wins. You can’t crown a champion in April, and you can’t bury a team, either.
This is why I love the game. It’s also why I hate the playoffs, but I’ll cover that in another post.
For now, my weekly Between Innings posts will end for the season. The Dark Side of the Diamond season topic is also ending, except for a summary piece that I’ll post during the playoffs.
"Brewers fans lost it."
It's me. I'm that fan. lol. That was a *rough* opening series. Hard to keep any kind of perspective--even when you know better--when the excitement of Opening Day is met with such a thrashing. Though, I suppose sports fandom has never really been rational...
But a season can be lost if your team gets off to a miserable start; those games lost that should have been won can’t be won again the rest of the year.