The Miller Lite Brewers: A season of success

It has only been about a week since the Miller Lite Brewers completed a sweep of 2003 champion Northern Yankees, and now that a little time has passed, it is time to take a look back on their season of success.

The Brewers opened up their season with a game against the San Roque D-9ers back on March 5, and proved they were ready for the new season with a dominating 18-0 pummeling of the 9ers.

As the season progressed, it became obvious that the D-9ers would not be a good team for which to gauge a team’s talent. The Brew crew found that out quickly the following week when they faced a Pirates team that was coming off of a victory over the defending champs.

The black and gold put a hurtin’ on the Brewers on March 10, as the boys in blue suffered their first defeat, 12-8. The next week the crew looked even worse as they lost their second game in a row to the Yankees, 10-2.

After the first round of play the Brewers found themselves in third place with a record of 1-2, ahead only of the 0-3 D-9ers. The crew regained their confidence in their fourth game, as they matched up against the D-9ers.

Finally, the offense that was quiet since their first game returned to the tune of a 25-10 whomping of the San Roque squad. With confidence on their side once again, the Brewers roared into their April 2 match up with the Pirates and avenged the previous loss with a 14-10 triumph.

Riding the wave of confidence, the Brewers beat the Yankees 9-5 on April 16, and suddenly they had a three game winning that put them into a tie for first place with the pinstripers mid-way through the season.

They made it a four game streak when they added a second coat of shellac to the D-9ers in their last game of the month, 13-3. This was their last April game because of a rainout that spoiled their match up with the Pirates in April 30.

That burp in the schedule may have impacted the team, as they dropped their next decision to a resurgent Yankees team, 11-9. At the end of round three, much as it was throughout the season, it was Yankees, Brewers, Pirates, and D-9ers.

The Brewers invaded District 9 on May 12, and unleashed a wave of offense that was brash enough to make a sailor blush. The blue and gold scored 33 runs on the D-9ers and allowed just three before one of the fans threw in a towel to stop the match.

With a full tank of fuel, the Brewers took it to their rivals over the next two games as they beat the Pirates and Yankees 9-4 and 11-8, respectively. Those wins together with the rescheduled rainout game versus the Pirates created an opportunity for the Brewers to force a one game playoff with the Yankees for the pennant.

All that the Brewers had to do was beat the Pirates, a team that they had seemed to all but figure out during the rest of the season. It was not to be as the blue and gold was on the hurtin’ end of the 7-5 stick.

They were still in a good position, finishing the season 8-4 behind the 9-3 Yankees, but they now would have to face the Pirates in a best-of-three playoff to advance to the finals.

Though the Pirates were energized going into the playoff round, it was difficult to tell as they dropped the opening game that had been put off by the foul weather, 13-3. Perhaps they were too amped up, as they committed errors in the second game as well.

The Brew crew looked well on their way to the finals when went into the final inning of the second game with a four run lead, but just managed to advance despite a two-out three-run homerun.

The finals were put off, delayed, pushed back, and almost forgotten about by the time that the Yankees saw action against the Brewers, an the rust was rather evident.

The Brewers silenced the Yankees’ bats to stun the champs 2-0 in a Game 1 that was dominated by the pitchers. Game 2 was not the same type of baseball outing for either of the squads, but one could tell that the Yankees’ were beginning to awaken despite losing 9-6 to go down 0-2 in the series.

What happened in Game 3 wasn’t expected by anyone that was in attendance at Francisco M. Palacios field, including the stadium’s namesake. The Brewers rocketed out to a huge lead only to edge out a one-run victory over the Yankees.

The Saipan Major League recognized the Brewers as the regular season pennant runner-up and the playoff champion for the 2004 season, as well a several of their players being named for individual awards.

The title of batting champion belongs to their third baseman Tony Celis, who compiled .560 batting average in 50 appearances at the plate, scored a league leading 23 times Celis, and being named by league officials the 2004 SML regular season’s most valuable player.

Their star first baseman Tony Camacho led the league with 20 while slugger Bruce Norita of the blue and gold was tied for the most regular season homeruns.

The accolades didn’t stop there for the Brewers’ players as shortstop Jester Garcia was named as infielder of the year as well as the MVP of the playoffs. The defense was mentioned again when the rocket Roy Celis was named as the pitcher of the year, in part due to his league high 38 strikeouts.

The Celis family was once again recognized, as Roque Celis was tabbed coach of the year for the second time in three years, capping off their season of success.