Beating Expectations

My beloved Brewers closed out their season this past weekend, with a come from behind win against the Padres.

As a fan, it was an entertaining year. The Brewers had a winning season for the first time (in what seems like) forever. They set a new team record for home runs - 228. Fans showed up in droves, setting a new attendance record (2.876 million).

Our team featured the NL home run champ (Prince Fielder) who just might be the National League MVP and we witnessed the exceptional play of (hopefully) the Rookie of the Year, Ryan Braun.

The Milwaukee Brewers held onto first place for something like 131 days during the season.

Although we missed the playoffs (due to the dreaded Cubs), the Brewers put on a pretty entertaining show. This year, fans turned out in droves and stayed until the last pitch, because you never knew when the Brewers would pull one out.

Next year will be an entirely different story. They will face their toughest challenge yet.

Our expectations.

You see this year, no one could have predicted the success the Brewers would have. Sure, we knew Prince Fielder was going to be a star and that the team featured a very young and talented group.

But after 15 non-winning seasons, expectations at the start of the season were pretty low - perhaps non-existent. The Brewers are a young team - talented, but not seasoned. And so, all the Brewer's accomplishments came as a VERY pleasant surprise.

It's what made this year's second place finish almost bearable.

But in the wake of such tremendous success, they've created expectations - for their fans and for themselves.

For the first time in a quarter century, next year the fans will fill the seats - not with the hope that the Brewers will win, but with the expectation that they will win. Next year it won't be about setting personal records, success will be measured by team performance in October.

Next year won't just be about beating the Cubs. It'll be about beating everyone's expectations. Next year could be their toughest challenge yet.