Because he didn't begin covering baseball in Milwaukee until 1985, Tom Haudricourt didn't get to experience the hysteria of Harvey's Wallbangers as a first-hand observer.

But, he had a great time chronicling it as a historian.

In his role as baseball writer for the Journal Sentinel (and it's predecessor, the Sentinel), Haudricourt crossed paths with most of the key members of the Brewers' 1982 American League Championship Team at one time or another. Earlier this year, Haudricourt sought out each member of that memorable outfit -- from Robin Yount to Randy Lerch -- and conducted in-depth interviews about that unforgettable season.

The book that resulted from that work "Where Have You Gone, '82 Brewers? Catching up with Robin, Vuke, Coop and the rest of Harvey's Wallbangers," hits shelves this week just as the members of that team assemble for a 25th anniversary celebration that will feature a golf tournament and a pre-game ceremony on Tuesday night at Miller Park.

"It's the first-ever compilation of interviews with all the players from that year," Haudricourt said of the hardcover book, which retails for $19.99. "That team was full of great characters and they told some incredible stories.

"I know it sounds self-serving, but I'm pretty sure that anybody who reads this book will learn something about these guys that they did not know. I've been around some of these guys a lot over the years and there were stories that I had never heard.

"It was really just a matter of getting a hold of everyone, turning on a tape recorder and asking them to tell their story."

Published by KCI Sports, the Stevens Point-based publisher that released recent books by Packers president Bob Harlan and University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, Haudricourt's book is broken into 33 individual chapters. Twenty-nine of them deal with individual players, while the others are devoted to team owner Bud Selig, general manager Harry Dalton, manager Harvey Kuenn and the four players (Bob Skube, Doug Jones, Chuck Porter and Kevin Bass) who were with the club briefly that season.

"When I talked to the publisher, Peter Clark, about the book, we agreed that we didn't want to put out a 200-page novel that you have to read from beginning to end," Haudricourt said.

"We're dealing with something that happened 25 years ago and everybody already knows what happened to that team; how they beat Baltimore on the last day of the season, came back to beat California in the ALCS and lost the World Series to St. Louis in seven games.

"We wanted it to be a series of vignettes, because that format has worked in so many other sports books."

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