Why Ben Sheets is on the Brewers' Mount Rushmore for the past 25 years

[ASFN Admin]

Ben Sheets​

Right-hander Ben Sheets’ first iconic moment as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers came at Milwaukee County Stadium, though he never threw a pitch in the shadows of Miller Park on that mound.

It was the final game at the beloved ballpark, and Sheets had just pitched the United States to the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Considered one of the game’s top pitching prospects at the time – as well as one of the Brewers’ best in a long while – Sheets appeared midway through that final game, an 8-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. His effort in the gold medal game was heroic: a three-hit shutout against Cuba, the heavy favorite in the tournament. As he arrived back in Milwaukee, gold medal around his neck, Sheets received some of the most rousing cheers from the crowd of 56,354.

It’s against that backdrop that Sheets’ career with the Brewers takes shape. As the team shifted to its new ballpark, Sheets was the enduring face through the continuation of the franchise’s lean years, only to finally play a critical role in its breakthrough.

The native of St. Amanta, Louisiana, became an all-star as a rookie in 2001, then served as the team’s bulldog on the bump the next three years, making every start as the team lost 106, 94 and 94 games.

The latter of those seasons is still the greatest pitching season in Brewers history.

Across 34 starts and 237 innings in 2004, Sheets struck out 264 batters – a franchise record that may never get broken – walked only 32 and pitched to a 2.70 earned run average. Sheets’ season was worth 8.0 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, a figure that’s been topped by a pitcher only five times in the 21 years since.


Sheets earned the second of his four all-star appearances in 2004 and on May 16 of that year struck out 18, a single-game franchise record.

In 2008, it all finally came together for the Brewers – and, fittingly, the team’s longest-tenured player. Sheets put together the second-best year of his career, going 13-9 with a 3.09 ERA over 31 games while also starting the All-Star Game for the National League.

There was a cruel ending to the script, though. Sheets, on the penultimate day of the regular season, tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm. After eight seasons of putting his all into pitching for the Brewers, of finally helping them reach the playoffs after a 26-year drought, Sheets was unable to pitch in the postseason wearing a Milwaukee uniform.

That marked the end of Sheets’ tenure with the Brewers, which was strong enough for second-most strikeouts and pitcher wins above replacement in franchise history. Even with the reputation the Brewers have built for pitching over the past decade, that’s a strong enough résumé for Sheets to be the lone pitcher on this mountain.


This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ben Sheets is on the Brewers' Mount Rushmore for the past 25 years

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