Brewers' Nyjer Morgan displays many sides of himself

MILWAUKEE - As the champagne gushed like oil from newly struck wells, the man whose 10th-inning single had triggered the Brewers' Friday night bubble bash was somehow apart from it all.

Dressed in a soggy uniform and a black-metal swat-team helmet, Nyjer Morgan paced the clubhouse in a solitary fog, as if more determined to comprehend his good fortune then enjoy it.

On the joyful night that Milwaukee earned its first Championship Series berth in 29 years, Morgan, the diminutive outfielder with many alter-egos displayed several sides of himself - the outstanding, the outlandish and, finally, the outsider.

His line-drive single off Arizona closer J.J. Putz won the Brewers Game 5 of the NL division series and set them up for an NLCS rematch of the '82 World Series, against the despised Cardinals.

But that wasn't all Morgan had done in his biggest moment yet in the spotlight, a place critics of his most un-baseball-like style insist he'd like to occupy permanently.

Earlier in the 3-2 victory, after a double that he'd punctuated with his trademark over-the-top posturing, he'd scored on a pop fly to the second baseman. He also broke a bat over his knee, swung so hard at one pitch that he toppled over, celebrated the triumph so vigorously initially that his swat-team helmet bruised teammate Randy Wolf's face, and finally uttered obscenities during a nationally televised interview.

After all that, dealing with an emotional postgame cocktail that was equal parts joy, vindication, and something indecipherable, Morgan walked off by himself. He'd embrace a teammate or answer a single question from a reporter, then stride off alone on his personal trek.

"Nyjer can't talk right now," said manager Ron Roenicke, when he was asked about the play of his sparkplug outfielder. "He's emotional."

Roenicke, who in his first year as Milwaukee's manager has had to deal with the residue of Morgan's act - derided by opponents but embraced by most of his teammates - then got emotional himself.

"He's just a joy to have, I'll tell you," Roenicke said. "I don't care about all the little issues. . . . This guy, I love him on this team. I like him as a really nice young man. He came through big again."

Morgan tried to explain how a player who had behaved like a joyful tot in the immediate aftermath of the game could transform so suddenly into someone so introspective.