Top Five Major League Underdog Towns: 4, Milwaukee

This is the second in a series of articles about the greatest underdog venues in U.S. pro sports. The criteria is simple: small market towns, communities that get no respect, that personify the under-rated, that constantly challenge the giants of the world, and/or that have suffered some terrible devastation but are rebuilding.

Milwaukee is a small market, Rust Belt town, reinvented, but still misunderstood. It's much more than its beer-town reputation suggests, always with something to prove.

As Rust Belt cities go, Milwaukee is more prosperous than most. Their skyline is dominated by new shapes, more glass and steel than brick and stucco. Their lakefront glistens with Calatrava's new wing at the Milwaukee Art Museum. There are vibrant retail districts in and near downtown. The Midwest Airlines Center is a world class convention and exhibition facility in close proximity to their beautiful downtown arena, The Bradley Center.

Milwaukee has two major league franchises. Both teams were born from expansion.

Milwaukee's teams mirror the city in the sense that there is the peeling-paint of past greatness common to Rust Belt cities, as symbolized by the once mighty Bucks. And there is the resurgent, reinvented city that these days has more high tech than high alcohol content, symbolized by the new look Brewers in their new retractable roofed stadium, Miller Park.

With Hall of Famers Lew Alcindor (later changed to Kareem Abdul Jabbar) and Oscar Robertson ("The Big O") the Bucks won their only World Championship in their infancy. They've had competitive eras since then, but not for several years. At this point they are at risk of morphing from underdogs to dead dogs. But in spite of the recent dearth of winning seasons, attendance holds up.

The Brewers replaced the Milwaukee Braves after years of major league drought. A small market team on the bubble, it's been a generation since they made it to (but lost) the World Series. And for years after that, they languished.

But in good years and bad, the Brewers have maintained attendance at major league levels. Despite having a relatively small payroll they've been in the thick of the Pennant races recently, despite having a lack of blockbuster stars. Like most classic underdog teams they overachieve with team chemistry, discipline and strategy. 

So Milwaukee, city and teams, struggles to keep pace with larger, more glamorous cities, sometimes holding their own, sometimes surpassing, just as often falling short, yet like city, like teams together they stay in the game, ever proud, ever ready to upset the mighty, to become the mighty.