This may have been my favorite World Series that didn’t involve a team I love … or hate.
Before it started, I would have been lucky to come up with the names of more than five Milwaukee Brewers. Front Row Amy was more recognizable to me than center fielder Garrett Mitchell, which probably says more about me than I’d care to admit.
The Brewers aren’t about to become my new favorite team, but they are my most admired team. Watching them in the World Series was just what we needed, whether we realized it or not.
We are constantly bombarded with how Major League Baseball is all about the Dodgers and Mets and Yankees and Cubs. Any other team might as well be a JV outfit.
Plus, a Milwaukee-Tampa Bay series was going to be a TV ratings disaster. The expectations were low, especially since Milwaukee is the lowest-ranked TV market in MLB. But the final numbers were actually better than expected.
I don’t care about any of that, because the only TV set I’m worried about is the one in my living room. Is it being televised on that one? That’s all that matters to me. Who cares if they aren’t watching in Brooklyn?
The Brewers play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. They showed you can win without playing home run-or-strike-out-trying baseball. Wait a minute … you can actually win without hitting home runs? Milwaukee hit a whopping total of three home runs in the entire World Series. New-age baseball expects you to try to hit that many in one inning.
It’s not the little things they did – bunting, moving runners over, taking an extra base – it’s the things that are seemingly even smaller than that. One of them is the ability to constantly foul off pitches to stay alive at the plate. Milwaukee’s plate discipline and quality at bats is far more important than launch angle or exit velocity.
Put. The. Ball. In. Play.
In almost every run-scoring rally the Brewers had, there was at least one (and sometimes) multiple instances of hits that weren’t even close to 100 miles per hour coming off the bat.
Since high school baseball players (and, sadly, those even younger) take their cues from how the game is played at the highest level, style has too often replaced substance. Measurables are all that seem to matter.
Pay attention.
The Brewers have shown that there’s another way to play the game on the field. Also, they have shown there’s another way to win off the field. The team payroll is right between that of Kansas City and Cincinnati – two teams that finished in last place in their divisions.
If you took the combined salaries of the Milwaukee starters in Game 5, it would still be less than that of Juan Soto, whose $46 million contract for ‘26 helped lead the New York Mets to a last-place finish this year.
By the way, the Brewers are one of the youngest teams in baseball and have most of their players locked up with team-friendly future deals. Get used to them, if you haven’t already.
But the greatest thing about Milwaukee winning the World Series is Milwaukee itself. This might be the textbook example of a baseball team reflecting its city.
While no one was looking, this franchise has won four straight division titles. But they haven’t been to the World Series in 45 years. Literally tens of thousands of Brewers fans made their way to Florida so they could be there when the city celebrated its first title since the Eisenhower Administration.
Twenty-four hours after winning the World Series, many of the Brewers escorted the trophy to Lambeau Field to celebrate with Wisconsinites at the Packers-Panthers game. And it’s not as if Green Bay is across the street from Milwaukee; it’s a two-hour drive on a good day.
Do you honestly think the New York Yankees would have showed up in New Jersey at a Giants game after winning the World Series?
Plenty of baseball lovers became Brewers fans for no other reason than knocking the we’ve-got-it-all Los Angeles Dodgers out of the playoffs. Thanks for the favor.
But the World Series provided a much better one.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com