Series time!

 The Fall Classic begins tonight in Milwaukee, where mittens might be required before mitts. But who cares? It’s the Fall Classic!

This year, weirdly, it actually pits the top team in each league against each other, and neither is the Dodgers or Yankees, which pleases everyone in America who’s not a network executive.  It’s the Milwaukee Brewers vs. the Tampa Bay Rays, two smallish-market teams who’ve never won a World Series, and who’ve only ever played in one a combined four times.

Three of those times it was the Rays, who are a sound, splendid team that doesn’t beat itself. The Brewers are also a sound, splendid team that doesn’t beat itself. So it should be a great Series.

And if you’re asking, at this point, which sound, splendid team the Blob favors (“We’re not, but OK,” you’re saying now), the answer is the Brewers.

I like ‘em partly because I consider  beer and brats part of a balanced diet; partly because of Laverne, Shirley, Lenny and Squiggy; and partly because Milwaukee hasn’t celebrated a World Series title since 1957, when the Braves beat the Yankees before departing for Atlanta.

The Brewers?

They’ve only played in the Series once, and that was 44 years ago. It was a team led by Robin Yount, Paul Molitor and slugger Gorman Thomas, who looked like a guy who  enjoyed an occasional beer and brat. If Milwaukee suddenly became a sentient being, it would be Gorman Thomas.

So, yeah. It’s time for Gorm’s spiritual descendants to bring home the Big Trophy.

One other reason to root for the Brewers?

They began life in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, who lasted just one season before relocating to Milwaukee. And whom Jim Bouton made famous in “Ball Four.”

And so, in the immortal words of the Pilots manager Joe Schultz: “S***f***. F***s***. Up and at ‘em, Brewers, and pound that Budweiser.”