As the decade comes to a close we thought it would be a good idea to look back on what it all meant for the Milwaukee Brewers and their fans. It's the Brewers Decade in Review. SPOILERS: Some of it is good, a lot of it was bad and most of it was forgettable. Just like every decade except for the 80's. The 80's were awesome.

The 2001 Opening Day was probably the most anticipated Opening Day in Milwaukee Brewers history. You couldn't drive on I-94 without seeing it, you couldn't turn on the TV without hearing about it and you couldn't make love to a man or woman without accidentally screaming it's name. The presence of Miller Park lingered over everything. At least that's how I assume it was, I was living in Seattle in 2001 watching Ichiro lead a team to 116 wins eating copious amounts of salmon and drinking five gallons of latte per day. Yet I couldn't help but notice what was going on back home and feeling sorry for everyone. A whopping 2.8 million people came to see the new place that season and the Brewers rewarded them by winning their first game there. a game that had President George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch. It would prove to be the high point of the season. In the next 161 games they went 67-94.

The story of the season was the offense. Like all the Selig era teams they could hit homeruns (3rd in the league) and not do much of anything else except lose. Eight players hit ten or more homeruns that season. You'd think with a lineup like that they would have an above average offense and with this group, you would be wrong. They weren't good.

There was, however, a few bright spots.Richie Sexson had one of the better offensive seasons the Brewers have had in years with 45 homeruns and 145 125 RBIs. This season also saw the debut of Ben Sheets who was 10-5 with a 3.59 ERA in the first half of the season. Sheets made the All-Star game that season, but Sexson was somehow left off. (Which probably isn't surprising in retrospect as this was the height of the steroids era and 45 homeruns was only good for 6th in the NL and 9th in the MLB. For comparisons sake he would have been third in the NL and MLB this season.) Sheets ended up falling apart in the second half of the season likely costing him a few Rookie of the Year votes that season, but it didn't really matter because nobody was taking it from Pujols.

Speaking of falling apart Jeff D'Amico was the Opening Day starter that year, but ended up only starting only 10 games where he went 2-4 with a 6.08 ERA.

The amateur draft wasn't much better this year. The first round pick was Mike Jones who would go on to a better rap career than playing career with such hits as "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)" and "Back Then". They would hit with a few more picks with such fan favorites as JJ Hardy and Manny Parra. They also added a few solid future contributors in Brad Nelson, Tim Dillard, Dan Kolb and Dennis Sarfate. (What's that you say? They weren't your favorites? Besides Kolb those guys didn't really contribute much to the team? Huh? I can't hear you.)

When people look back on this season they might remember a towering homerun that Sexson hit or a good start from Sheets, but not much else. When all is said and done, 2001 is the season that Miller Park opened and there is nothing that the Brewers did on the field to make people remember the season for anything besides that. Well, unless you're this guy.

As the decade comes to a close we thought it would be a good idea to look back on what it all meant for the Milwaukee Brewers and their fans. It's the Brewers Decade in Review. SPOILERS: Some of it is good, a lot of it was bad and most of it was forgettable. Just like every decade except for the 80's. The 80's were awesome.

I don't remember much about the year 2000 in baseball and I definitely don't remember much about the Brewers in the year 2000. I was too busy being cool. Listening to Less Than Jake CDs, drinking Carlo Rossi straight from the bottle (my favorite? Vin Rose, of course), doing backflips off of piers (back when I could still do a backflip without breaking my neck) and generally just screwing up the next few years of my life. It was a good time and I didn't really care about the Brewers or how they did. Judging by the looks of things, they didn't either.

Seriously, look at their Opening Day starters:

Kevin Barker 1B
Ronnie Belliard 2B
Henry Blanco C
Jeromy Burnitz RF
Marquis Grissom CF
Jimmy Haynes SP
Jose Hernandez SS
Geoff Jenkins LF
Mark Loretta SS

Uhhh, yeah. Does it surprise you they finished 73-89? Didn't think so. If you think the Brewers pitching sucked in 2009 try a season where Jimmy Haynes is your Opening Day starter. Yikes.

The year 2000 is best known for two things: the last year of County Stadium and the new logo/uniforms. The end of an era was met by the beginning of a new one as that stupid, stupid bats logo would be banished forever. The M didn't even really fit inside the B, which could only be described as "a B as drawn by Arnie Grape." Also, the bats looked like shit. I hated that logo.

As for County Stadium it had a lot of history and a lot of great memories, but if you asked anyone now (or then) if they missed it, they would surely tell you no and if they didn't they are morons. Sure, the constant barrage of audio and visual stimulation can get trying at times (like the faggy Harley sounds), but the overall comfort and quality of the stadium trumps anything else. It's amazing what $310 million of public funding can get you. The shadow of Miller Park loomed over the Brewers all season, as if to say "man, watching this shitty baseball would be a lot better at the new place."

And boy was it shitty. The two bright spots on the season were Geoff Jenkins and the surprising performance of Jeff D'Amico who posted 12 wins and 2.66 ERA, numbers that he never came even remotely close to matching again. The team was out of it early and the fans didn't have anything to cheer for most of the season. Until July 28 when this happened:

July 28, 2000: Bob Wickman, Jason Bere and Steve Woodard were traded by the Brewers to the Cleveland Indians for Paul Rigdon, Richie Sexson, Kane Davis and a player to be named later. The Indians completed the deal by sending Marco Scutaro to the Brewers on August 30.

Sexson stepped in right away and did a great job posting a .296/.398/.559 line with 14 homeruns and 47 RBIs in just 57 games. He immediately became the team's best hitter and starting hitting homeruns that are still waiting to land to this day. He was a good player on a bad team, which made him seem like the greatest player ever and Milwaukee loved him for it. Except, of course, when he struck out. Which he did a lot, 63 times in 57 games.

The Brewers didn't do much better in the drafting department, Corey Hart being the only player of note to be drafted that year (and even he was drafted in the 11th round). They used their #1 pick on Dave Krynzel who didn't really work out for them. It's hard to second guess these things because you never really know how they're going to work out, but they could have had Chase Utley, Adam Wainwright or Xavier Nady here. The future wasn't bright, yet.

In the end this was the beginning of the Richie Sexson era, which can be defined as "lots of losses, lots of homeruns" and that's about all you can really say about it. Unfortunately, things would get a whole lot worse before they got better. Once again, great job Bud Selig.