Brewers’ Tie-Tanic Season Start Goes to 10-0 : They Round Up the Rangers, 10-2, Then Kick Back and Loosen Their Collars

“Tonight is Tie Night,” said Tom Trebelhorn.

The manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, talking before Friday night’s game against the Texas Rangers, did not mean that anybody who bought a ticket would receive a free necktie. Nor did he mean that anybody who came from Thailand would get a discount.

What he meant was, if the Brewers won the game, running their record to 10-0, he would be true to his word and rescind an order that players must wear ties with sports jackets on road trips.

Well, baseball’s only unbeaten team held a necktie party at County Stadium, hanging the Rangers, 10-2, with a seven-run seventh inning.

The can-do-no-wrong Brewers had 5 stolen bases, turned 3 double plays and got 12-strikeout, 5-hit pitching from Teddy Higuera, whose record is 3-0.

The best start in baseball history was Atlanta’s 13-0 in 1982. Oakland was 11-0 in 1981, and three other clubs went 10-0 before this one--the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, 1962 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1966 Cleveland Indians.

The Brewers can tie--pardon the expression--the American League record today with an 11th straight win.

“I told them in spring training that coats and ties were mandatory, not only on commercial flights but on charter flights,” Trebelhorn said. “They asked me, ‘Is that negotiable?’ I said, ‘No, if we want to be a first-class team this year, let’s look like one. It’s time we clean up our act.’

“Then they said, ‘You mean there’s no way we can get out of this?’ So I said, ‘OK, let’s say if you win 10 games in a row sometime during the season, we’ll make it just coats, no ties.’

“Well, tonight is Tie Night.”

Something has motivated these Milwaukee guys this spring--maybe this is it.

No team has started this fast since the 1984 Detroit Tigers, who went 9-0 on the way to winning 104 games and the World Series.

The difference is, Detroit was expected to be strong that season. Milwaukee was thought to be still rebuilding. The Brewers finished sixth in the American League East last season, replaced Manager George Bamberger with the neophyte Trebelhorn, and made few major roster changes, other than acquiring first baseman Greg Brock from the Dodgers.

Yet, County Stadium has come alive, because the Brewers are hot as a bratwurst. Their ticket offices have been swamped, and so many of Friday’s 41,548 spectators were stuck in freeway traffic that the Brewers moved back the game’s starting time 27 minutes.

Interest in the club, already high, zoomed after 22-year-old Juan Nieves no-hit the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday night, the first no-hitter in Brewer history. The night before, Milwaukee batters hit five home runs against the Orioles, and they also had a four-homer game against Boston April 9.

Upon their return from Baltimore after the no-hitter, approximately 600 fans were waiting for the Brewers at Gen. Billy Mitchell Airport, chanting: “162-0! 162-0!”

“What else can happen to this team?” asked Nieves, whose no-hitter was saved by center fielder Robin Yount’s diving catch for the final out. “It’s a little round ball that comes out of a little square box, and anything can happen.”

Higuera, a 20-game winner last season, looked sharp against Texas from the very first inning, striking out the side. But Larry Parrish homered on his first pitch in the second inning, and the Rangers made that run hold up through five, Mike Mason giving up only two hits. Milwaukee then scored three runs in the sixth, chasing Mason, and seven more in the seventh.

Paul Molitor walked, stole second and scored on Yount’s double into the right-field corner to tie the game in the sixth.

After an intentional walk to Rob Deer, Yount took third on Glenn Braggs’ infield out. Cecil Cooper, who killed an earlier threat with a double-play ball, appeared to hit another one, but Deer broke with the pitch, and Texas had to settle for the out at first. Although Cooper’s batting average fell to .067 (1 for 15), he got the go-ahead run home.

Shortstop Dale Sveum then made it 3-1 with a double off the left-field fence.

Four Ranger relief pitchers took a beating in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Brewers busted loose for seven runs. Even Cooper got into the act with an RBI double, and another run scored when Brock was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Everything is going right for the Brewers these days--including getting rid of that necktie obligation on charter flights.

“We might be wearing T-shirts and jeans by the All-Star Game,” Molitor said. BASEBALL’S FASTEST STARTS

Games Team Year 13-0 Atlanta Braves 1982-x 11-0 Oakland A’s 1981-x 10-0 Milwaukee Brewers 1987 10-0 Brooklyn Dodgers 1955-z 10-0 Pittsburgh Pirates 1962 10-0 Cleveland Indians 1966 9-0 New York Giants 1918 9-0 Brooklyn Dodgers 1940 9-0 St. Louis Browns 1944-y 9-0 Detroit Tigers 1984-z 8-0 Philadelphia Phillies 1915-y 8-0 Cincinnati Reds 1980 8-0 Chicago White Sox 1982

x-won division

y-won pennant

z-won World Championship