First lesson: Title comes before name

Brett Favre’s creaky bones remain in Green Bay. The Milwaukee Bucks participated in the NBA draft lottery. Brats, cheese and angioplasty are still available on demand.

All seemed in order around Milwaukee.

Then baseball’s Brewers caused a hiccup, starting the season 25-11. Quicker than you can say “schlemiel, schlemazl, Hassenpfeffer Incorporated,” they were the toast of the town.

Miller Park attendance is up 31%. Brewers players landed cameo roles on the daytime soap opera “The Young and the Restless.” Even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tried to tap the Brewers’ success with an online nickname contest.

“Baseball has a long tradition of naming its great teams. Of course, there were Harvey’s Wallbangers in ‘82, the last Brewers team to go to the World Series. Going back further, we had the Hitless Wonders (1906 White Sox); Murderers’ Row (’27 Yankees); Gashouse Gang (’34 Cardinals); Amazin’ Mets (’69 Mets); Big Red Machine (‘75-’76 Reds).”

Uh, folks, point of order: All those teams except the Brewers won the World Series.

Trivia time

Who pitched in the first games played by the Seattle Pilots (now the Brewers) and the Seattle Mariners?

How about

beer nuts?

The Journal Sentinel’s promotion continued, “Maybe it’s too early to give the ’07 Brewers a nickname worthy of a champion, but that’s not going to stop us. How do you think this Brew Crew should be tagged?”

A few readers seemed to understand that this is May, offering “Fadeaway Boys” and “Great Pretenders,” as well as a deep thinker who suggested, “Nice Guys” and signed as “Leo Durocher.”

As this world turns

In possibly the biggest TV boost for Milwaukee since Laverne and Shirley were bottling beer, Brewers Chris Capuano, Bill Hall, J.J. Hardy and Jeff Suppan played themselves on “The Young and the Restless,” in a photo op with fictional politician Jack Abbott.

Future plot lines could include the soap opera staple amnesia. Hey, we forgot we were the Brewers and won the National League.

The rest of the Brewers seemed to take their teammates’ TV appearance in stride.

Asked why he didn’t get an invitation to the show, 32-year-old Geoff Jenkins told CBS SportsLine, “It’s ‘The Young and the Restless,’ not ‘The Old and the Restless.’ ”

Meanwhile, Brewers fans -- 38 years, no World Series titles -- are just plain, old restless.

These are not the droids you’re looking for

Friday was the 30th anniversary of the original release of “Star Wars,” and Major League Baseball missed a chance for a few no-brainer promotional tie-ins.

A New Hope: Carlos Santana gives playing-on-the-road tips so Angels’ pitcher Ervin Santana can stop his evil ways, baby.

The Empire Strikes Back: Darth Clemens again swears loyalty to Emperor Steinbrenner.

The Phantom Menace: Public address announcer says, “We’d like to congratulate Barry Bonds for breaking Hank Aaron’s home run record. Unfortunately, Aaron, Commissioner Bud Selig, Victor Conte and all those wonderful employees from BALCO could not be here today.”

Trivia answer

Diego Segui, a reliever in the Pilots’ 4-3 victory over the Angels in 1969 and starter in the Mariners’ 7-0 loss to the Angels in 1977.

And finally ...

The Kansas City Royals scrapped a $4-million entertainment pavilion in the renovation plans for Kauffman Stadium because, “We thought there were a lot better uses for the money within the stadium,” Kevin Uhlich, senior vice president of business operations, told the Kansas City Star.

Another cost-saving tip: No real need to enlarge the stadium’s trophy case, either.

chris.foster@latimes.com