Exorcising The Ghosts Of 1982

Brewers Video

On October 17, 1982, 18-year-old me went down to County Stadium from Madison with my parents and sister for Game 5 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The series was tied 2-2.

Before the playoffs, my dad had submitted a request for postseason tickets, and this was the game he got. Lucky us.

The game was brilliant. Robin Yount had hit a dramatic home run in the 7th, and Mike Caldwell had gutted out 8 1/3 innings as the Crew won 6-4.

It was the last game of the series in Milwaukee - as the final two were in St. Louis.

I went home confident - knowing that we had to just win one of the last two games. Surely we could do that. The Brewers were - after all - a great team. They had won 97 games, and had slugged 216 home runs. They had three players with more than 30 homers. And three that had hit better than .300. Three players had more than 200 hits. Robin Yount was the league MVP. The names are now part of Brewer lore. Cecil Cooper, Gorman Thomas, Jim Gantner, Ben Oglivie, Don Money, Paul Molitor, Ted Simmons, Yount, Mike Caldwell, and others. This was Harvey's Wallbangers at their finest.

My friend (RIP, Andy) and I watched Game 6 at a bar (drinking age was 18 back then). The Crew got pummelled. We had one more chance.

The Brewers lost 6-3. I remember walking away with my buddy lamenting our not-so-stellar pitching. And the injury to Rollie Fingers - one of the game's great relievers. But still, I said, next year. Or the next. We had a good team. We surely had more epic seasons in us.

But it was not to be.

The Brewers were getting older. Injuries and age chipped away at the club. The team hit only 132 home runs the next season - with only one player hitting more than 20. And the lack of pitching further exposed the team.

Now, the Brewers were still good. They won 87 games in 1983. But this was pre-wild card baseball. Good didn’t get you into the playoffs.

And so the Brewers floundered. Some years they showed signs of life - but the club was always exposed in some fashion.

The greats of 1982 aged and faded - or retired or moved on. There would be no division titles. No World Series trips. Nothing.

The 1990s were the bleakest of eras. It was the Sal Bando era. That’s not a compliment. The team failed to invest in scouting not just in the United States, but also in Latin America. They made poor decisions on who to sign as free agents - and who to let walk. They drafted badly. It was the ugliest of times, as we were not only not very good but also had little hope for the future.

That changed in the 2000s with a new regime - and then a new owner.

In 2008, I took my then 9-year-old son to the final game of the season - watching Ryan Braun hit a homer to put us in the lead - and CC Sabathia close things out with another complete game victory.

My son says he remembers being at the game - but not much about the specifics of it. He just remembers the place going crazy, then watching the Mets-Marlins game - which got us into the playoffs. He said dropping the blue-and-gold confetti was what he remembers most.

Since 2008, the Brewers have had legitimate opportunities to get back to the World Series. Perhaps decades of heartbreak have steeled me to be cautious - but even this year - I tried not to get too excited about the club’s success. Even as the team came within one out of defeating the Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLCS - I fretted, thinking we’d find some way to blow it. But we didn’t. It was glorious.

For more than 40 years, Brewer fans have revered the 1982 Brewers - the one team to make it to the Big Dance. The club that came so close to winning it all. The team that we held close to our hearts. Heck, there was even a film - Just a Bit Outside - made a couple of years ago about the 1982 team.

And so, while people who lived through the 1982 season will never forget their beloved Harvey’s Wallbangers, the victory over the Dodgers last week has exorcized a ghost. It was a ghost of the greatest club ever to wear the Brewers uniform. A ghost reminding us - every year - of the failures of more than four decades.

And that is a good thing.

44 years is too long to cling to such ghosts. It’s far better to embrace the living, breathing thrill and excitement of today. And I can’t help but feel happy for a new generation of Brewer fans. They can experience the thrill I had experienced back in 1982. The thrill that we are the best. And there is so much more to come.

For myself, the greatest joy is that my son and his wife are big Brewer fans. His excitement about this year’s club was so much fun. To have him texting me during the games these past few months - usually excited about something that happened - has been awesome. It’s a bonding moment that I cherish as I am older - and know that the years ahead are a lot fewer than those behind me.

So as the 2026 World Series approaches, I can only look at the experience with incredible amounts of anxiety - but more than that - gratitude and satisfaction.

It has been 44 years since I cheered from the first base side of County Stadium - as fans swarmed the field at the end of Game 5. Those are great memories - but also ghosts that have hovered over the franchise for far too long.

It’s time to make new heroes and new memories - and hopefully - an experience never before seen in franchise history.