An Open Letter To Kato Kaelin

MILWAUKEE, WI — This is an open letter from Patch.com Milwaukee Regional Editor Scott Anderson. All experiences, reflections, and notions of baseball despair are uniquely his, and subject to subsequent laurels, and laments.

Dear Kato Kaelin,

You and I are huge fans of the Milwaukee Brewers, and for as much as the 2017 MLB season has been an unexpected surprise, I acknowledge that the outcome from last week's four-game series against the Chicago Cubs really sucked.

Some of us are taking it hard, and I know you're no exception.

I recently came a Tweet you made on Sep. 22 stating that you were retiring from tweeting about the Milwaukee Brewers. At the time, the National League Central Division appeared as though it was up for grabs, and a critical four-game series at Miller Park had Milwaukee faithful salivating over the potential to wrest control of the division from those dreaded north-siders.

As it turned out on the evening of Sep. 22, the Cubs eked out a one-run game in extra innings to take the first two games of that four game series, effectively salting away the division for this year and relegating the Brewers hopes to that of a stinky one-game wildcard playoff.

So, the only thing I can say to you Kato, is that I get it.

I totally get it.

On the evening of Oct. 16, 2011, I sat in the third-base photo pit for the sixth and deciding game of the 2011 NLCS between the Brewers and Cardinals photographing the game for my local newspaper. We all watched as Milwaukee trotted out Shaun Marcum to face Edwin Jackson. Marcum, as it turned out, was banged-up and out of gas. He barely lasted an inning before the team's fate was sealed.

As the team from Horrible Garbage City celebrated in the visitors clubhouse, I ventured in along with them. Numb with disappointment, a sense of morbid curiosity came over to me to see exactly how the other half lives.

I watched as the Cardinals "hitting coach" Mark McGwire (whom I hate), David Freese (who was a menace), Yadier Molina (who's just plain old frustrating), Albert Pujols (who's not earning his paycheck in Anaheim), Daniel Descalso (who's beard I still hate) doused their clubhouse in cheap beer and halfway-decent champagne with manager Tony LaRussa (the ringmaster of this horribleness).

The party was over, man. It was so over.

I'm not alone in Brewers despair. My father, who's somewhere north of 60 years old, still to this day laments about the '82 Brewers and that "they should have never pitched Don Sutton in St. Louis." In that series, the Cardinals - again - won the series.

My grandparent's generation - the ones who at once welcomed the Braves into Milwaukee from Boston, only to see them depart for Atlanta a little more than a decade later - were also witness to baseball's deep despairs.

In a recent OnMilwaukee article, you were quotes as being "100 percent passionate." You went on to say "I'm telling you, God's honest truth, I love Milwaukee, I'm not just saying that, I really love where I'm from. I know because it has everything to do with my family. Just seeing them watch sports and the passion. So that just goes to my brain."

It goes to my brain as well. I mean, can't we have just one championship season in 47 years? I wonder if this is how the Indians fans feel? We all know how Chicago Cubs fans feel - well ... at least the ones who lived long enough to see 2016.

But as I write this letter to you, Kato, it appears that the suffering will continue for at least one more season.

There's a saying that goes "we all win together, but when you lose, you lose alone." Given how well Wisconsin shows for home Brewer games, simply know that you're never alone. As much as we need a clean inning from our setup man and more men on base, we also stand to benefit from your ongoing rants and raves in this Midwestern Miller-High Life milieu.

We are never more than one Spring Training trip, or even one tailgate, away from a good time.

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scott anderson photo