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EXCERPT | April 27, 1987

A Heady Start

For a magical fortnight the Brewers were unbeatable

Coming off three straight losing seasons, unheralded Milwaukee began the 1987 campaign on a record tear. Bruce Newman reported for SI.

By the bottom of the ninth inning at County Stadium last Sunday afternoon, it seemed that the inevitable had finally arrived. The Brewers had opened the 1987 season with 11 consecutive wins, tying them with the 1981 Oakland A's for the best start in American League history, but now they trailed Texas 4--1. As Milwaukee came off the field to the dugout for its final turn at bat, the Easter crowd of 29,357 began to rise and cheer.

The applause had a valedictory feel at first, a certain sadness that the streak was about to come to an end. But then the cheering began to swell into something more until, with two men on and one man out, leftfielder Rob Deer strode to the plate.

Deer, who had hit his sixth homer of the season in the fifth, turned on reliever Greg Harris's second pitch, propelling it 445 feet into the leftfield seats, against a strong wind. Tie score. Suddenly, winning seemed inevitable. With two outs and a man on, shortstop Dale Sveum lofted a towering homer to right. "It felt like we just won the World Series," said Deer, and indeed, for 15 minutes after the players left the field, people stood in the stands, cheering and stomping their feet. It was only April 19, but they were waiting for an even bigger miracle in Milwaukee.

Monday night the streak continued, as the Brewers beat the White Sox 5--4, to tie the major league record set by the 1982 Atlanta Braves.

Milwaukee lost to Chicago the next night. In May the Brewers dropped 12 in a row before recovering to finish 91--71, good for third in the AL East.

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Streaks of Genius

1957

Oklahoma, which graced SI's Nov. 18 cover, had won 47 in a row dating back to 1953—still a Division I-A record. But the Sooners lost their next game, 7--0 to Notre Dame.

1978

Pete Rose broke out of a 5-for-44 slump in June and just kept going. He went on to hit safely in 44 straight games, the most since Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941.

1983

Edwin Moses dominated the 400-meter hurdles as no other man ever has. He made SI's cover after his 87th straight victory and went on to win a record 122 races in a row.

GALLERIES

Tiffany Hayes UConn

Gareth Delve Rugby

Karl Malone Dream Team

PHOTO

Photograph by JOHN IACONO

WRECKING CREW Deer, who hit three homers in the series sweep of Texas, wasn't the only hero of the Brewers' run—pitcher Juan Nieves threw a no-hitter against Baltimore for win number nine.

PHOTO

GARRY WINOGRAND

PHOTO

JOHN IACONO

PHOTO

TREVOR JONES

PHOTO

FRED VUICH (WOODS)

PHOTO

MIKE POWELL/GETTY IMAGES (MALONE)

PHOTO

MATT CARDY/GETTY IMAGES (DELVE)

PHOTO

LOU CAPOZZOLA (HAYES)

PHOTO

AL TIELEMANS (MCNABB)

PHOTO

DAVID E. KLUTHO (HUGGINS)

PHOTO

GREG NELSON (DURANT)

April 12, 2010