All of Wisconsin is sitting in the front row!
Wisconsin needed that. The Milwaukee Brewers won their first World Series after coming so close too long ago — 1982. The city and state’s first baseball championship since the 1957 Braves (for you history buffs).
Church bells rang in Milwaukee Wednesday night 10-28-26. Shouts of jubilation here in Madison, too. Parades to follow. At least 15,000 Brewer fans FLEW down to Tampa Bay/St Pete to out-cheer the locals and drink the town dry. Back home, 31,000 Brewer fans paid real money to watch the big screen so as to commune with otherwise strangers at American Family Field. On top of a thousand more Wisconsin taverns and living rooms shouting themselves hoarse.
Sports are one of our last great connectors, a bastion of humanity in a world full of screens and silos. — The Athletic, NY Times
Like most of Wisconsin, we were emotionally invested in this team. We like these guys: Les Miz, other-worldly fast baller yet humble as a peanut butter sandwich. Sal Frelick, good Catholic boy whose uniform seems to wear grass stains coming out of the dugout in the first inning. Garrett Mitchell, a full blown diabetic robbing home runs. Jake Bauers working the count because he needed the health insurance. Les Miz and young Cooper Pratt — barely adult — shedding tears of thanks in the post-game interviews.
Named World Series MVP, William Contreras was so overcome with emotion he started speaking in English! Bulldog catcher, bruised and battered by foul tips, guiding a bewildering assortment of pitchers, throwing out base stealers, scalding the baseball at the plate, virtually calling balls and strikes on his own. (Got to think umpires began asking, “Whaddayou think?”)
Shares the award on-stage with shut-down relief pitcher Aaron Ashby.
A small-market team not making excuses — just creating a lifetime of memories. Avenging last season’s humiliation by sweeping the Beverly Hills billionaires. (“Swimming pools, movie stars.”) Brewers overcame the departure of one free agent after another for better money but not greener pastures. It’s unfair, but someone said manager Craig Counsell did two things right: 1) hire Pat Murphy and 2) depart for the Chicago Cubs.
‘The Brewers way’
Pat Murphy is what leadership looks like. Brewers manager is not your best friend, not even a team mate. He’s the boss. His way or I-94. Won’t shake hands at pre-game player introductions. (Introductions are “happy horse manure.”) He’ll pull a pitcher almost mid-pitch if he doesn’t like the effort. He is why right fielder Frelick laid out to snare a fly ball with his team up 10 to zip in the 8th inning. Playing the right way, all the time.
The manager, Pat Murphy, holds players accountable at a time when many in his position shy away from discipline of any kind. Murphy’s style works because many of the Brewers’ players are young, and because his veteran leaders, Yelich and Brandon Woodruff, serve as sergeants-at-arms, maintaining his high standards. … Murphy will bench, chastise and tease players, anything to coax better performance out of them. — The Athletic, NY Times
In the victorious locker room, Murphy shared the locker room spotlight with Robin Yount. The Hall of Famer whom Bob Uecker always called “The Kid” is now 71 years of age. Appears to be Ueck’s successor as the team’s living icon. (Imagine the empty Miller Lite cans being left at Ueck’s statue at American Family Field.)
Always the college coach, Murph instructed his World Champions that Yount “played the game the right way. He set the standard.” Only when Yount (the unnamed captain in his day) agreed would Christian Yelich agree to be formally designated.
Yelich kept holding the club accountable. “Yeli’s everyday leading is by example,” Garrett Mitchell said. “It’s not telling guys what to do and how to be. It’s showing what it means to be a Brewer and how to do it the Brewers’ way.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Discipline and accountability. Playing by the rules. Giving that extra effort. Not making excuses. There’s No Whining in Baseball!
The Milwaukee Brewers could be a feature story in Governing magazine and Education Today — but we don’t want to get too political today. Today is just for feeling on top of the world, ma!
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