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PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN SPANIER

Two outs in the bottom of the eighth. Score's tied at one. Runner on first. With his team neck-deep in a pennant race, Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun steps up to the plate. It's the moment every little leaguer dreams of. Chicago Cubs right-hander Bob Howry twists his wiry frame and a 93-mile-per-hour fastball flies toward the inner half of the plate-a mistake. About 60 feet later, it jumps off the thickest part of Braun's bat.

Braun knows it's gone. The crowd of 45,299, flying into the air even faster than the red and white ball of twine and leather, knows it's gone. As is customary in these situations, arms shoot skyward, fists pump and hands slap. One particularly excited fan goes into labor. The Brewers have taken the lead in the last game of the season. A half inning later, they win the game, and two hours later, when the New York Mets lose 740 miles away, Milwaukee baseball fans hear a word they haven't heard in 26 years: clinch.

"It was pandemonium," Braun says. "That whole experience is something I'll never forget."

Brewers fans won't forget either. From the tearful to the simply misty-eyed, they'll remember the win, they'll remember the excitement, but most of all, they'll remember Braun's 406-foot shot over Miller Park's left field wall. "That home run is right up there with the top Brewer moments of all time," says Jared Blohm, obsessive fan and co-founder of Right Field Bleachers, an unofficial team blog.

After two years as a Brewer, Ryan Braun the baseball player has become one of the franchise's most celebrated players while also building an extensive portfolio as Ryan Braun the brand. He's the indisputable face of the youthful team and one of the driving forces behind its ascent from Major League Baseball's musty cellar.

In Milwaukee, he's a movie star. His jersey is as ubiquitous as sausage and his reputation is starting to rival that of Paul Bunyan, the towering lumberjack whose story is still told in the Midwest. In six years, when his $45 million contract (the largest ever given to a player with less than a full year in the majors) expires, expect to see 30-foot statues erected in his honor, too.

Milwaukee natives love their beer, their brats, their Brewers and now, their Braun. But the 25-year-old is not the typical Wisconsin idol. He's not folksy like longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. Nor does he sport a horseshoe mustache like Brewer Hall-of-Famer Robin Yount. Toeing "the borderline between confidence and cockiness," is how the Los Angeles-born Braun describes his personality.

Braun is much more Malibu than Milwaukee. He sports a faux-hawk and perfectly manicured scruff. He wears designer jeans and $100 shirts (often from his own company, Remetee) and hangs out with Hollywood stars like supermodel Marisa Miller. His good looks draw legions of teenage girls in extra-small jerseys to the stadium and lead to rampant message board speculation about his relationship status. Yet the working class city of Milwaukee and this West Coast native are, somehow, a perfect fit.

"He's a tireless worker, and that's what Wisconsinites love-players who are never good enough for themselves," Blohm says. "Nobody is going to have higher expectations than he has for himself."

"Work ethic" is a phrase used a lot when discussing Braun. A shortstop in college, the Brewers moved Braun to third base after drafting him in 2005. But in his 2007 rookie year, he led the league with 26 errors despite playing in only 112 games. So the team moved him to left field, where he's quietly become one of the best outfielders in baseball, going 180 games without committing an error. "He's not your meat and potatoes and beer kind of guy. But fans respect how hard he plays the game," says Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin.

In just two and a half seasons, Braun has been an MLB All-Star player, and won the Rookie of the Year Award and the National League Silver Slugger (given to the best hitter at each position). He and St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, widely considered baseball's best player, are the only players to hit 30 home runs in each of their first two seasons. Braun also reached 50 career home runs in fewer games than all but one player: Pujols.

"Fans feed off of performance," Melvin says. "He performed at a high level at such a young age, and the Brewers haven't seen that kind of player in decades. It's been such a long time since a superstar player like Ryan has captivated fans in Milwaukee."

For more than two decades, the Milwaukee Brewers have been among the most loveable losers in the Major Leagues. They bumbled along, periodically surging up the standings, but typically finishing near the bottom. In the mid-'90s, the team even flirted with leaving Milwaukee when financing for a new stadium was jeopardized. The low point came in 2002, when the team finished 25 games below .500. Over the next few years, thanks to a steady stream of young talent, they got progressively better, inching from despicable to watchable, but never quite approaching respectable.

In 2005, that young talent was bolstered by Braun, drafted as a shortstop out of the University of Miami. He immediately became the team's top prospect. Unfortunately, that status doesn't confer much privilege: Braun bounced around Brewers minor league affiliates. "It was not fun," he says.

After playing less than two full seasons in the minors, Braun became a Major League Baseball player in May 2007. In his first season, the Brewers finished over .500 for the first time in more than a decade, due largely to Braun, who hit 34 home runs and led the team in slugging percentage despite playing in only two thirds of the season.

The following year was even better. The team won the National League Wild Card, making the playoffs for the first time in Braun's lifetime as he led the team in home runs and RBIs. While the team lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round, Braun says, "It was unbelievable to be part of the first team that got back into the post-season for the first time in 25 years."

It's not hard to see why Milwaukee loves Braun. But why does Braun love the city back? After all, this San Fernando Valley boy takes such great pains to ensure that his hair looks perfect, it's impossible to imagine him in the favorite local hat- the cheese wedge. The key to making the relationship work, Braun says, is timing. "It's a great place to be during the summer," he says. He lives in Malibu in the winter, but during the playing season keeps a condo in downtown Milwaukee. "There's a lot of character down there," Braun says. But when it comes to the glitz, glamour and warmth of his former homes, Braun admits, "It's different."

When Ryan Braun talks about baseball, it's like a slugger talking about his glove. It's clear that he's close to it, he's devoted to it and he recognizes that without it, he wouldn't be where he is today. But when he talks about Remetee, his high-fashion clothing line, it's like a slugger talking about his bat. He perks up, smiles and waves his hands around. He talks excitedly about unexciting things: spending time in the office, infrastructure, "the brand." But perhaps none of this should come as a surprise. "I view myself as a businessman," Braun says.

In the offseason, Braun is involved in many aspects of the business. After a workout he'll head into the office, where on any given day he might be approving designs, interviewing prospective employees or helping his business partner Todd Beard print samples. "Nobody has ever helped me with that," Beard says. "It's not fun."

Remetee was born out of Braun's clothing obsession and his friendship with Beard, who founded Affliction, an Ed Hardy-like clothing line favored by mixed martial artists and beefy LA types. Influenced by gritty graffiti and grittier tattoos, Remetee's designs are bright and colorful with the occasional sparkling rhinestone. Braun's goal with the line is to provide a solution to what he calls "the boring stuff that everybody is wearing." That's where the name, a play on the word "remedy," came from.

"We are not playing by anyone's rules," Beard says. "Our focus is to be unique and special, and unlike a lot of high-end fashion brands, our brand is not run by ego."

It's not hard for Braun to think of a day when his only job is managing Remetee or another of his business ventures (he's working with companies to develop a line of baseball bats and he endorses products from hair clippers to workout supplements).

"Hopefully I have an amazing career and play another 15 or 20 years," he says. "But if I choose to, I could shut it down whenever I want because I have plenty of opportunities to go do things away from the baseball field. Ultimately, it's always been my goal to set myself up to be successful in life, not just as a baseball player."

For now, at least, with three months remaining in the season, success in baseball is Braun's main focus. If his Brewers return to the playoffs, he hopes to make it out of the first round. If they don't, he may have other chances, thanks to a contract that will keep him in Milwaukee through 2015.

When Braun signed, he had only played in 152 games. Putting such a big deal (it could be worth $51 million with incentives) on paper was a leap of faith for both Braun, who could potentially make much more money in the later years of the contract, and the team, who could watch Braun fizzle and fade while still owing him tens of millions. No one expects to see the latter.

"[Signing the contract] really showed us the commitment he has," Blohm says. "For the first time in a long time we knew there was going to be a star on the team for a decade. That really launched him into a different stratosphere."

Ten months after sending Bob Howry's fastball clear out of the stratosphere and into Brewers history, Braun still remembers that home run as his most important. "So far, that's been my biggest accomplishment because of how much it meant for us as an organization, to the whole city and the whole state," Braun says.

Few understand how important last year's playoff run was to fans better than Braun. The displays of emotion he saw in the aftermath are typically reserved for the birth of a child.

"Grown men were coming up to me and crying," he says. "Making the playoffs was probably equivalent to most other teams winning the World Series as far as our fans were concerned."

So what will happen if the team ever ends its World Series drought? "It would be crazy," Braun says. But as he knows from the win against the Cubs, crazy things can happen.

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