What Does Going to the World Series Mean to You?

[Soupy]

I was in high school when Merle Harmon and Bob Uecker started broadcasting games for the Brewers. The best, by the way. By 1982 there were children, job and those responsibilities to attend to. No way I could make it to those games. I remember thinking I will go the next time. But I never imagined it would take 44 years. I have tickets for Friday nights' game. Gotta keep promises to yourself. I am beyond ecstatic that it has happened while I can still watch. Also my 8 grandchildren are all Brewer fans. So glad they along with their parents are growing up in this era of Brewer baseball.

[MrTPlush]

4 hours ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Somewhat related topic: I was wondering, which Brewers on the current roster will we be celebrating decades from now? Who are the ones who will be throwing out opening day pitches and be part of alumni celebrations for the next generation? Similar to the 1982 players.

Obviously, the work is not done and we need to celebrate more than LCS championships.

Christian Yelich

Jake Bauers

Garrett Mitchell 

Jackson Chourio

William Contreras

Aaron Ashby should be one, literally threw 1/4 of the inning in the LCS…all scoreless. Idk if he gets remembered like that though.

Miz will probably always be iconic even though (so far) he really hasn’t been that special. Hopefully he left his magic for the World Series, very wise of him.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

6 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

 

Miz will probably always be iconic even though (so far) he really hasn’t been that special. Hopefully he left his magic for the World Series, very wise of him.

Not that he was awful, but if you showed me his line, I'd guess we escaped the first round and got swept again.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

My grandfather was a Cubs fan. He'd had a stroke before I was born and wasn't particularly mobile, so we'd watch games on WGN in the afternoon and then flip over in time for 4:30 Jeopardy! My dad is also a Cubs fan, and I rooted for them in 2016 just so he got to experience that joy. Still, we lived in Wisconsin (I was born in 1986), and most of my earliest MLB memories are Brewers-related. First game at County Stadium. We moved to Minnesota (right on the border of Wisconsin) in 1998, the same year the Brewers moved to the National League. Really, that was the start of my love for this team. I listened to Ueck on the radio. I had a walkman with ear-bud headphones and would sneak them under my sleeves and listen in school. I thought Jeffrey Hammonds was going to save the franchise. I remember the sweep suits. I once bet a fried 50 bucks we'd win a World Series by 2004. I also didn't have many friends (middle school is tough, man), so I listened to the radio a lot in my room, by myself. Sometimes, my neighbor and I would play Wiffle ball. He'd be the Giants. I'd be the Brewers. Richie Sexson. We'd set up a lawn chair and just pitch (if it hit the chair, it was strike) and hit (if it hit the roof it was homer, the house a double, the grass on the fly a single--anything on the ground was an out, and I believe we started the launch angle revolution). I've loved baseball for a long time. 

I've also always been the kind of baseball fan who loves the regular season. I just love having a friend in the background, slowly chattering away for six months. I dread the playoffs mainly because that part of the game is over. You're hoping your winter doesn't have to start, even though you know it will. And every moment means so much and gives you no opportunity to bounce back (this is why the NLDS is harder than the NLCS and the Wild Card is hardest of all). It's all jangled nerves and fried sleeplessness. Then, at the end, if you don't win, most people forget about your season, and you go back to the beginning all over again.

I've always relished division titles. Winning single playoff games has been incredible. Winning series even better, but I never got to see the season all the way through. 

This year, our winter starts at the same time as everyone's. That's special. When the last out of our year is recorded, MLB closes its books, and I don't know whether I'll be thrilled or hurt by who makes that last out. In some ways, I don't really care, at least not today. Sure, winning would be better than losing. But we won the National League. We have a pennant. Pennants are flags, and they fly forever. I'd love one more, but I don't need it like I think I needed this. Last night validates a lot of time spent with this team and also illuminates the joy of baseball, all its failures and defeats and beautiful little moments along the way.

[gregmag]

My parents were lovely people, but they had issues. Our house at night could be a scary, lonely place for a bewildered only child.

I got into baseball and the Brewers at age 10, just in time for the 1978 explosion. Through all the bad years after 1982, all the numbing losses and false starts and nights spent fiddling with radio dials around the country to try to pick up staticky broadcasts,  I never forgot that feeling of discovering baseball and having it seem touched with grace. 

My parents cared about my passions. They got into the Brewers. Ueck was on at our house all summer, lifting us up and calming a lot of the chaos at night. Once I was away at college, Mom and Dad started going to quite a few games themselves. When Mom was recovering from a heart attack at 60, I went to a game in Detroit and passed a note to the broadcast booth, and Ueck gave her a shout out. She couldn’t believe it.

They both passed away in 2017. It was their time, and I’m glad they didn’t have to endure Covid and MAGA and social media. But the night we drove up to Milwaukee to start cleaning out the house, the Brewers traded for Christian Yelich. Mom and Dad would have loved this, and as I process my joy, all I can do is carry them in my heart.