Confronting Brewers general manager David Stearns on the field at Miller Park recently, I asked if the stories about a misspent youth were true.
Did Stearns once consider joining the dark side and becoming a sportswriter?
"It could've happened," he said.
That's a scary thought, I told him.
"I still might be one day," he replied.
It's doubtful the 33-year-old Stearns will be looking for a job in the newspaper business anytime soon.
He has done quite well in his three years running the Brewers, inheriting a team that lost 94 games in 2015 and putting together the puzzle pieces that led to 96 wins and a National League Central title this year.
After going 7-0 in the final week of the season and beating the Cubs, 3-1, in Monday's tiebreaker game at Wrigley Field, the Brewers are now battling the Rockies in an NL Division Series.
It's a rags-to-riches saga, with a bit of drama added Wednesday when Stearns' wife, Whitney, gave birth to their daughter, Nora, on the eve of the playoff opener.
And to think, Stearns could have been covering this story instead of living it out.
"I've always enjoyed writing, even as a kid, and I've always loved sports," he said. "It made sense to explore what the combination of those two things might look like. As my career evolved and I got different opportunities to work for clubs, I really began to enjoy and value that side of things, the competitiveness and the wins and losses. That's what led me to pursue the team side of things rather than the journalism side."
Stearns began his baseball career as an intern with the Brooklyn Cyclones, a Class A affiliate of the Mets, and then with the Pirates' Class A affiliate in Bradenton, Fla. Former Pirates GM Dave Littlefield brought him up to work in the team's baseball operations department, and Stearns proceeded to jump to various jobs _ with the Arizona Fall League, back to the Mets, to Major League Baseball's central office, to the Indians and eventually to the Astros, where GM Jeff Luhnow hired him as an assistant during the team's rebuild.
The Brewers made Stearns their GM after the 2015 season, and the fresh-faced 30-year-old went to work trying to change the clubhouse culture and compete with the Cubs and Cardinals in the NL Central.
"I've been incredibly fortunate throughout my career," Stearns said. "I've had bosses everywhere I've been who've taken time to teach me and allow me to make mistakes _ sometimes big mistakes _ and grow from those mistakes. I recognize that's not normal."
