Somehow it wasn’t a dream. The Milwaukee Brewers are actually World Series Champions.
As a lifelong Brewers fan, its hard to even explain what it meant to see them win it all. I lucked out, I was born in 1996. I didn’t have to go through the struggles that many older Brewers fans did. From 1993-2006, they finished above .500 once. ONCE! Then all of my childhood hero’s started playing. Braun, Fielder, Hardy, Hart, Weeks. They gave Brewers fans a new life. Hope. They were young, fun, and energetic. They ended up fizzling out after a couple of playoff appearances, but it was cool to just see our team get there and have some success.
A new run of playoff teams started in 2018. This time it stuck. We watched our team for the next eight years look good, but come up short. When I started this blog I talked about how bad it was for older Brewers fans in 1990’s and early 2000’s. This is going to sound crazy, but for younger Brewers fans this was our “bad” period. Obviously you want your team to make the playoffs, but the ways they found to come up short hurt every time. I still remember every scar. Losing in 13 innings and Chris Taylor running down a Yeli gap shot in 2018, Grisham misfielding the Juan Soto hit in 2019, Freddie Freeman off Hader in 2021, bats going quiet in 2023 against Arizona, Pete Alonso of Williams in 2024, and humiliated by the Dodgers in 2025. It was becoming a ritual for the Brewers to inflict the worst pain possible at the end of every season.
When I told my wife the playoffs were starting this year, she told me not to get too into it. I told her how great this team was and they actually have a shot. She just said “You say that every year.” I said “THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT!”
AND IT WAS!
As Game 5 of the World Series was in the 8th inning I turned to her and said, “I think I am about to watch my baseball team win a World Series.” Those eight years of pain truly broke me as a sports fan. I was pretty certain I wouldn’t ever see something like this.
But this team and their quiet confidence that they were never out, pulled through. All throughout the playoffs you could sense they knew this was their World Series to win, they just had to go play the games.
As the 9th inning started I thought about all the times watching games with my parents and friends and all the memories that were created through that. I thought about my Grandma who passed recently and wasn’t able to see this. I, like many, thought of Uecker and wished he was here to give us one last call. I thought about how I will never shut up about how great of a baseball team this was (my poor wife and future kids).
It is kind of corny, but baseball truly is not about the results. We act like it is and get mad or sad when our team loses. Its just about the memories and connecting with people. I think you can see that in the way Milwaukee and Wisconsin rallied around the team and celebrated them. People flying down to Florida to watch them win in person. People buying tickets to go to a watch party. 750,000 people going to the parade. They didn’t do those things alone! They asked their friend or family to do that with them. They wanted to share that experience with a loved one.
At least once a week during the Brewers season I text my dad about the Brewers. It is one of our ways connecting. I really wanted this team to win now because I always thought my dad deserved to see our team win it once in his life. He wasn’t as lucky as me. He had to sit through the bad years after their magical 1982 run. He even probably came to the same realization I did after the eight straight years of coming up short. This team is never going to be able to win a World Series. So when they won, I called my mom and dad minutes after the final out. To share that moment with them meant everything to me and I won’t ever forget it.
Thank you 2026 Milwaukee Brewers!
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