I’m from Milwaukee, so I’m going to say this plainly. I’m proud. Really proud. Last night the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4 to 1 and won the first World Series in the history of the franchise.
It took 44 years from their only other trip to the Series, back in 1982. And for most of this season, a lot of people said it would never happen.
Nobody picked them. The fans did.
After the final out, Pat Murphy was asked about it. He didn’t talk about himself. He talked about the people who never stopped believing.
We didn’t get picked to win the division by one outlet. But those fans of ours, they picked us.
Pat Murphy, Brewers manager, after Game 5
Then he told the team what this means. This group, he said, will be remembered forever. In the clubhouse before the champagne, he thanked his players for being the first Brewers team ever to be World Champions. He credited the front office. He pointed to what he called an uncommon mindset that started back in spring training.
We came in with a spirit about us, and we weren’t going to be denied.
Pat Murphy
And then he said something I can’t stop thinking about. He looked around at the whole thing and asked a simple question: who believed it? That’s honest. That’s a leader who knows how big the odds were and is grateful anyway.
A team, not a collection of stars
Here is where it gets good. The Dodgers carried a payroll of about $413 million this year. The Brewers were around $142 million. That’s roughly a third. The Rays, the team they beat, were even lower. I have nothing bad to say about the Dodgers. They are a great club. But this series showed that the biggest checkbook doesn’t always win. A group that plays for each other can.
The Brewers won 103 games in the regular season. Then they went out and won it all with depth, with a bullpen that carried more than half the postseason innings, and with names most of the country didn’t know in April.
William Contreras was the World Series MVP. He hit .381 and threw out runners all postseason. His teammate Aaron Ashby called him the team’s bulldog, and said they love him. Jacob Misiorowski threw the fastest pitch in World Series tracking history at 103.5 miles per hour. Cooper Pratt is a 22 year old rookie who set a World Series record with hits in six straight at bats. Jackson Chourio is also 22 and already holds the record for most postseason hits before turning 23. Jake Bauers was the NLCS MVP. Aaron Ashby threw 18 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, the most ever in one postseason. Trevor Megill got the final out. Christian Yelich said it best about what this does to a city.
Any time you win a World Series, it changes a place a little bit.
Christian Yelich
Brandon Woodruff, who has waited a long time for this, put it simply: to finally get over the hump and do it this way is unbelievable.
The stress part is real. Here is how they handled it.
This series got me thinking about something. Baseball is stressful. Every pitch matters. Every at bat can turn a game. Game 4 went into extra innings and the Brewers lost it in the 12th, which kept them from a sweep. Misiorowski didn’t hide how he felt. He said last night it sucked, and then said it’s baseball. That’s the whole lesson right there. Say the hard thing out loud. Then move on to the next pitch.
Look at what Murphy was described as doing all year: keeping things loose while still demanding the best. That is how you manage stress, in baseball or anywhere. Here are the things I took from watching them.
- Take it one pitch at a time. You can only play the moment you are in.
- Be honest about a bad night, then let it go. Do not carry Game 4 into Game 5.
- Lean on the people next to you. Nobody on that field did it alone.
- Keep it loose. People perform better when they are not afraid.
- Breathe. A slow breath before the hard moment is not a small thing.
These are the same tools for a tough day at work, a hard week at home, or a goal that feels too big. Big goals feel less stressful when you treat them like a series. You do not have to win the whole thing today. You just have to win the next small piece.
This is what a team looks like
I think a lot of us were waiting for a story like this. A group of hardworking players, not paid like superstars, who showed up for each other every night and beat the odds. It feels very American to me. It feels like the kind of thing that reminds you hard work and heart still count.
And it makes me excited for next year, too. This team is young. Chourio and Pratt are 22. The core is just getting started. The hunger is going to be there. Milwaukee, you have something special.
Congratulations to Pat Murphy, to William Contreras, to every Brewer, to the front office, and to every fan who kept the faith when no one else did. You earned this. Thank you for the reminder that small, steady, together can beat big. Let’s go.
Sources: MLB.com, Heavy, ClutchPoints, Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated.
