Nicole Robinson

It took 12 long years, but on Friday night, it finally happened.

With the champagne on ice, I watched the Milwaukee Brewers dig themselves a 0-5 hole heading into the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

With the chances of the Brewers clinching a winning record fleeting, I resigned to the fact that they would lose in stunning fashion. A winning record was just asking too much.

I was mistaken.

After a pair of home runs in the seventh inning, the Brewers managed to climb back in the game and take a 6-5 lead into the eighth inning. In typical Brewers fashion, they allowed the Pirates to load the bases in the bottom of the eighth.

With two outs to go, they brought in their tenth pitcher of the night, Julio Santana.

Since he’s coming off an injury, and simply for the fact that I’ve never heard of him before, I wasn’t too confident Santana would get the job done.

Instead of getting into a gut wrenching ten pitches at bat, Santana went after Pirate’s Craig Wilson; he wasn’t going to waste any time.

After blowing a fast ball by Wilson to move the count to 1-2, I began to believe.

With everyone in the Brewers dugout standing, Santana made Wilson look stupid; striking him out with a breaking ball as Wilson watched it with a dumfounded look on his face.

Only three outs away from having a winning record for the first time in 12 years, the Brewers turned to one of the ugliest closers in the game, Derek “Baby Face” Turnbow.

He might not be the cutest thing in the world, but he’s effective.

Whether he intimidates batters with his massive mullet or the fact that he’s just a good pitcher is irrelevant; he gets outs. Period.

Turnbow sealed the Brewers’ 81st victory of the year striking out two of three in the ninth en route to a 6-5 victory.

Although there was no celebration in the Brewers’ locker room after the game, my apartment looked like the Boston Red Sox locker room after their World Series win last year – with a few less cameramen of course.

With champagne spraying everywhere, and the ever flowing tears of happiness streaming down my face, I came to the realization that for the next couple of years, the Brewers are going to give Wisconsinites something to cheer about.

And in my opinion, with the current state of the Green Bay Packers, we’re going to need something to cheer about.

“I couldn’t be happier for us to turn the corner and finally have a winning season. It’s a big step for us and our fans,” Brewers right fielder Geoff Jenkins said.

Although we might not be watching them in the post season next year, the Brewers are back, finally.

Knickerbocker is a senior print journalism major and a columnist for The Spectator.