Brew Crew celebrates 15 years in McAllen softball

McALLEN -- Two strikeouts in a single inning isn't usually cause for celebration - unless you're a member of the Brew Crew.

That's because of one of the few team rules the McAllen softball team has: whoever strikes out buys a case of beer for the next week's game.

With back-to-back strikeouts Thursday night, that means team members can expect a pretty fun post game party next week.

"That's the kind of team we are," says team member Dan Martinez, 43. "It makes it a lot of fun."

The team isn't exactly known for its athletic prowess. In 15 years, it has failed to win a league title, though it's managed to make it to several championship games - always with an unsuccessful outcome.

"The umpires always say, ‘I can't believe you blew that game,'" jokes Martinez, a fuel service engineer.

Though the team members are competitive, they're more interested in camaraderie than wins and losses. Of the team's 14 members, the overwhelming majority have played together for more than a decade.

The team formed because a rival group wouldn't let some of the original Brew Crew players join - so they created their own team. In their first season, they didn't do too well, but they managed to beat their old rivals twice. "We got our revenge pretty quickly," Martinez jokes.

Always willing to share a laugh and a beer, the team is a study in self-effacing trash talk.

"He just got his AARP card!" yells one player to a teammate who moved a little slow during Thursday's game.

"They're playing deep, so it's a good thing he's got no power," Martinez calls from the dugout while a teammate bats.

"You hear about our winning steak?" asks 41-year-old Anthony Martinez - no relation to Dan - during the final minutes of Thursday's 14-10 victory. "It's one game."

Martinez says the Brew Crew keeps a small roster -  unlike some others in the city softball league - to ensure that everyone gets plenty of playing time.

That means that on Thursday, 32-year-old catcher Mike Mendoza, the team's designated cook, had to play the whole game. As the team's designated cook, Mendoza typically heads to the grills in Westside Park to start the fire for the weekly post-game cookout after just a few innings.

Most of the group's hijinks seem to involve beer, and team members boast that they even got one a former teammate who is Mormon to start sipping the suds.

While the family members used to show up for the fun, it eventually became mostly a guys-only affair. "Years ago, our wives gave up," Martinez says.

In addition to playing softball, the team also goes on regular road trips to fishing spots, golf tournaments and professional sporting events throughout the state.

Over the years, the group has been a motley crew of people who all found common ground through the games and cookouts. Among team members past and present is a doctor, a janitor, bankers, engineers, a police officer and even former gang members.

"We've got a little bit of everything," Martinez says. "We have the guys and they stick around, and they never leave."

____

Ryan Holeywell covers McAllen, PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.