1982 it is - what a fun series that was. Both the Brewers and Cardinals kind of came out of nowhere. Not exactly of course (Cards had best record in NL East in 1981 but missed the postseason due to the quirky split-season rules; Brewers had been a strong club in the highly competitive AL East since 1978 and had made the playoffs in '81), but it was a refreshing change after seeing the postseason dominated by the same small group of teams for so many years. And such contrasting styles. The Brewers were Harvey's Wallbangers, got an all time great season from Robin Yount, but had no real pitching. Vuckovich is one of the worst ever choices for Cy Young. Cardinals had almost no power but were a forerunner of the great speed and pitching teams of '85 and '87. Milwaukee's offense absolutely exploded in game 1 and it looked like it might be a romp, but the Cards ended up winning a very competitive 7 game series.
Rookie Willie McGee had quite a game 3, with
2 HR and an incredible catch to
rob Gorman Thomas of a HR.