Hometown boy ready to provide Counsell for Brewers - MLB - CBSSports.com Live Scores, Stats, Schedules

Miller's camping trip

MARYVALE, Ariz. -- Somewhere in Milwaukee, there's probably a 12-year-old boy who will be sitting cross-legged on his bed in the fifth inning of every Brewers game this summer.

Or clutching his tattered, lucky Brewers sweatshirt when the seventh inning begins. Or changing into his lucky T-shirt for the fourth inning.

Because as everyone knows, these superstitions work extremely well. Often, they lead to the beloved hometown team scoring runs in bunches. And when all of that is accomplished this summer and the years pass and the boy grows up, perhaps he, too, can play for the Brewers.

Maybe you chuckle. Maybe it's the corniest thing you've heard all spring. Maybe you're just too tired from the boss grinding you so hard at work that you don't believe in fairy tales anymore.

Which is why you should meet Craig Counsell.


A trade sent Craig Counsell back to the place it all started for him.(AP)

And why you should at least pay attention to the struggling Brewers for a few seconds this summer, so you don't miss one of the neatest Milwaukee homecomings since Richie returned from the Army for the final episode of Happy Days.

Counsell, you see, was that 12-year-old boy in Milwaukee. It was in 1982, when the Brewers were rolling through their dream season and long before he had any idea that he would ever play in the major leagues and then be traded from Arizona back to Milwaukee in the winter of 2003.

His father, John, was the Brewers director of community relations from 1978-88. And Craig was a developing baseball rat who couldn't soak in enough of the game.

So he hung around County Stadium during every free minute of the prime of his childhood. Could there be anything better than your dad working for a big-league club during the decade when you're growing from an 8-year-old boy into an 18-year-old young adult on your way to playing baseball at Notre Dame?

And that's how it came to be that as the Brewers marched through the '82 playoffs and tangled with the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, there was this stairwell leading to a ramp in the far reaches of County Stadium ...

"It was the ramp that led up to the upper deck at the end of the right-field stands in the lower deck," says Counsell, whose nickname is, yes, "Rudy." "You could barely see the game from there. But it always seemed like they scored runs when I was out there."

So long before you could find Counsell preparing to play shortstop for the Brewers this spring, you could find him standing on that ramp in the seventh innings as a little boy, wide-eyed, watching the biggest thing a kid could imagine.

Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, Jim Gantner, Cecil Cooper, Gorman Thomas ... things hadn't been that good in Milwaukee since the late 1950s, when Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn led the Braves to consecutive World Series appearances in 1957 and 1958 -- they won in '57 -- a few seasons before they moved to Atlanta.

Things have never been that good again.

"When you're a kid, just the contact with 'em was pretty special," Counsell says. "Just to be around the game and see that they're human beings, regular guys.

"The Brewers clubhouse was in two parts, and in the back room, I remember hitting off of the tee, or the soft-toss machine they had back there. I'd always be pounding away at balls, and then guys would come in (to work) and I'd have to stop."

Years passed and Counsell grew up and, sadly, the Molitors and Younts grew older and moved on and were never adequately replaced. The Brewers turned into a wreck, compiling 12 consecutive losing seasons with No. 13 all but a certainty in 2004.

But the grit Counsell learned during those days of breathing baseball in dusty old County Stadium served him well. Never blessed with Alex Rodriguez talent, Counsell kept plugging. Not only did he play himself into the majors, he earned himself two World Series rings. As the 1997 Florida Marlins and the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks saw, the kid was hard-nosed and had a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

He scored the winning run for the Marlins in Game 7 of the '97 World Series, and he was hit by a pitch to load the bases just before Luis Gonzalez's game-winning bloop single in Game 7 in '01.

"He's one of those classic overachievers," says Yount, a Hall of Famer and now a coach with the Diamondbacks. "Unfortunately, often in this game you see underachievers. It's nice to see someone with less physical ability still be able to do what he's done."

Since the champagne dried in Arizona after the '01 season, things have been tough for Counsell. A neck injury ruined his 2002 season, and a subsequent fusion made baseball iffy for him for a while. Then, a torn thumb ligament knocked him out for two months last season, and he finished with a .234 batting average.

The Brewers acquired him in the big deal last November in which they shipped Richie Sexson to Arizona -- in a cost-cutting move -- for Counsell, first baseman Lyle Overbay, second baseman Junior Spivey and catcher Chad Moeller.

Counsell was well past the point where he figured it was inevitable that his career would take him back through Milwaukee at some point.

"Wellll," he says, dragging out the L's, just as the Brewers have on the field for years. "Actually, I didn't think it would happen because of where Milwaukee was going and because of the things that have happened in my career.

"But it's fun. It's exciting. And it's a new challenge and a great opportunity."

Says Yount: "Seems like it's fitting, doesn't it? He was around that ballpark a lot. I can remember hitting him some ground balls before our batting practice. He was probably high school age, I guess. You could tell it then that he was a gritty player. He had the makeup as a kid, too. He loved the game. He couldn't wait to get on the field."

He still can't. The other morning, after a night game, Brewers manager Ned Yost told the players they didn't have to be ready until 11 a.m. Counsell, who was given the night before off, was at his locker by 8:40 a.m.

"There's something special about Craig Counsell," Yost says. "Craig Counsell is really the player every manager wants. He gets the total most out of his ability. He works so hard to do it right. He works, he thinks, he tries to apply things."

Most scouts will tell you that Counsell, now 33, isn't an everyday player, that he can best help a team as a utility man. The Brewers, though, haven't had a proper supply of legitimate everyday players for years. So if they're going to spot grinders into their lineup instead of five-tool players, it's nice to see Counsell get a chance.

"It's a neat thing for him to come back here," says Tony Migliaccio, Milwaukee's long-time home clubhouse manager, who started work for the organization as a bat boy 27 years ago. "He went to high school there, grew up in Milwaukee. ...

"He was one of the few players we ever had who played in Arizona and came back during the winter and lived in Milwaukee. Usually, it's the opposite."

So maybe things are different this spring for Counsell, not being in the camp of a World Series contender for the first time in years. And yes, he'll admit to being a little disappointed with the trade initially simply because he liked the Arizona organization so much.

But that all has been overridden by the prospect of the wide-open Midwestern summer that awaits. Even in all of the other places, Counsell always checked the Milwaukee box scores in the mornings, always pulled for his hometown nine to do well.

"It's been rough to be a Brewers fan for the last 10 years," Counsell says. "And it's been tough to be a fan. I think Ned and Doug Melvin (Milwaukee general manager) have got it going in the right direction. There's an opportunity for us to stop it, and we have to keep the ship moving in the right direction.

"We have some really good players in the farm system. And those kids are going to have opportunities like Scott Podsednik did last year, to really show what they can do. Hopefully, we can take it to the next step this year and be a competitive team.

"Guys in here need to win as much as possible. We need to win. If you win, the fans in Milwaukee will come. It's our job to keep the ball rolling. I think people will be surprised at how quick they come again.

"When I was a kid, they drew a lot of fans. People wanted to come to the games."

Maybe one day soon, they'll want to come again.

"It's the city where, when I was a kid, I dreamed of putting on that uniform," Counsell says. "It's pretty special, honestly. It's a dream come true."