My Week that Was - October 18

Section of Military Ridge Trail. 10/11/25 dwm

Our first day at home in eight days, so it was time to get back into the routine for Saturday; get-up, work out, and either bike or go for breakfast.

While the day was cool, it was nice, so I was able to take advantage of the dwindling opportunities remaining to get in another ride. 

It was in the upper 40s when I took off wearing two pairs of gloves and socks plus a wool hat, tights and long-sleeve jersey. There wasn't much of a wind, so they did the job.

It was a familiar course, riding across the Capital City trail and then the South Yahara trail to McDaniel park in McFarland, then turning back to the Cap City path to the isthmus where I joined the southwest commuter path back to the Military Ridge trail and Verona. That route left me 5 miles short of 40, so instead of the usual turn to home, I stayed on the trail for three and a half extra miles before heading home. Ride 29 is in the books, 40 miles in 2 hours, 30 minutes. The new total for the year is 1,527 miles.

Wisconsin played its homecoming game Saturday and you'd think it was Iowa's homecoming as the Hawkeyes had their way with the Badgers. The only good thing about the early blow-out was being able to focus my attention on the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Crew beat the Chicago Cubs 3 - 1 in game five of the Divisional Series and advances to the Championship Series for the first time since 2018. I was on my feet for the last inning and a half as Brice Turang added an insurance run in the 7th and Abner Uribe shut out the Cubbies over the last two innings in relief to secure the win.

It has to be a quick celebration as the Los Angeles Dodgers will come to town Monday ready to play the National League Championship Series. Let's go, Brewers!

Green Bay won it's only home game this month when the Cincinnati Bengals visited Lambeau Field, 27 - 18. The Packers dominated the first half, but only had a 10 - 0 lead at intermission. The Green Bay offense moved up and down the field. The defense put pressure on the quarterback, even though they didn't have many sacks. The next two games are on the road, Sunday in Arizona and the following Sunday in Pittsburgh.

Going back to work Monday was just the start of the process. The first thing was going through the email, which took two hours. It wasn't until Tuesday afternoon that I felt caught up on the basic, week to week pieces of the job. For the first week back, there seemed to be a lot of meetings and other things eating up an hour or two of the day. 

Monday and Tuesday nights didn't go the way the Brewers wanted, as they lost twice to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The glimmer of hope for a Milwaukee comeback dimmed after a 3 - 1 win by L.A. in game three. Milwaukee tied the game in the second inning, then didn't score again. Our pitchers were valiant but if you can't score, you have to win every game 1 - 0. 

While Milwaukee chased a win, I got a flu shot Thursday during an Oakwood campus skills fair. Since starting at Oakwood, I've gladly lined up for a shot to reduce my chances of getting the flu and/or passing it along to others. 

Friday was the last chance for the Brewers to get a win this season. It wasn't in the cards as Shohei Ohtani hit three home runs and kept Milwaukee off the scoreboard in his first post-season start. Ohtani is an amazing athlete. Plenty of athletic kids pitch, hit, and field on their high school teams, and occasionally for their college, but Ohtani is in a category of excellence that includes a player you may have heard of, Babe Ruth.

The Brewers couldn't get the crucial hit when they needed it against Los Angeles and if you can't get on base you can't score. If you can't score, it's really hard to win.

It was a great series with a disappointing loss but a bright future. Milwaukee can't compete with big market teams in terms of payroll (L.A. pays their players $200 million more than the Brewers), so they have to find other ways to win. It worked in the regular season this year. I believe if the starting pitchers had been healthy for the play-offs we would have been more competitive. 

I grew up during lean years for the Brewers and always hoped they could stay competitive until Green Bay started their training camp in August, they had down their job of entertaining sports fans. Since 2011, Milwaukee has been a competitive team and in the mix for a playoff berth nearly every year. Let's get 'em next year, Brewers!