I was a high school freshman the last time the Milwaukee Brewers went to the World Series.
As every fan of the team knows, that was 1982.
Robin Yount was 26. Paul Molitor was 26. Cecil Cooper drove in 121 runs. Rollie Fingers had the mustache. Harvey’s Wallbangers were everywhere.
And, as every fan of the team knows, the Brewers took the St. Louis Cardinals to Game 7 before coming home without a championship.
Forty-four years later, I’m still waiting.
So is every fan of the team.
And that is why, as much fun as this season has been, all eyes have been focused on October.
The Brewers have already done everything necessary to establish that this is a tremendous baseball team. The best in the history of the club.
They have already surpassed the franchise record of 97 victories they set last season. They have won the National League Central for the fourth consecutive year. They have reached the postseason eight times in nine seasons. They have clinched a first-round bye, meaning their postseason begins Oct. 3 in the National League Division Series.
MLB.com laid out what remains ahead in its Brewers postseason primer:
- Division Champions: Fourth consecutive NL Central title secured, breaking the single-season franchise wins record along the way.
- First-Round Bye: Bypassing the Wild Card round to host Game 1 of the NLDS at American Family Field on Saturday, Oct. 3.
- Home-Field Advantage: Positioning themselves for home field throughout the National League playoffs with the majors’ top run differential.
None of that is normal.
But none of it will make another early October exit feel any better, either.
Closer Trevor Megill pretty much nailed it Sunday after the Brewers set the franchise victory record.
“Cool and all, but we’re not trying to be regular season warriors,” Megill said.
That is exactly where this team is now. More is expected.
And something else has changed around these Brewers.
Stop calling them plucky.
Stop acting as though every division championship is the baseball equivalent of the little engine that could.
Yes, Milwaukee operates in one of baseball’s smallest markets. Yes, the Dodgers can spend money the Brewers cannot. Yes, Matt Arnold and the Brewers continue to find players, develop players and replace expensive talent in ways that bigger organizations ought to envy.
But the Brewers are not sneaking up on anybody anymore.
In fact, MLB.com’s preview of the postseason turned the old Milwaukee narrative completely upside down.
In a piece published Wednesday “The teams no one wants to play in October,” the Brewers were not introduced as an overachieving small-market curiosity.
They were introduced as “The team without a weakness.”
The analysis went even further. While acknowledging the Dodgers as the favorites, MLB.com said there is a case that Milwaukee is the scarier October opponent.
Why?
The Brewers lead the majors in run differential. They have played winning baseball every month since April. Jacob Misiorowski gives them one of the most dominant starting pitchers in baseball, Logan Henderson has been nearly unhittable in the second half, the bullpen ranks among baseball’s best and the defense supports all of it.
“The terrifying thing about the Brewers is that there isn’t an obvious way to attack them,” the analysis concluded.
Read that sentence again if you still think this is an underdog story.
Baseball writers around the country have started saying much the same thing.
Joe Sheehan put it particularly well in his Sept. 17 baseball newsletter, “Brewing Champagne.”
“It would help level expectations if we would stop talking about the Brewers like they’re Hickory High School,” Sheehan wrote.
His argument is difficult to dispute, even if his Hoosiers reference may bounce the wrong way for some.
Over the past decade, Milwaukee has built one of baseball’s best records while changing general managers and managers, replacing stars and operating with payroll constraints its biggest competitors do not face.
At some point, sustained success changes expectations.
Christian Yelich has essentially been saying that himself.
“We’ve become accustomed to winning and being a postseason team,” Yelich told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Greenberg. “That’s definitely not changing this year.”
Greenberg’s view is especially useful because it comes from the other side of the Wisconsin-Illinois border.
On Aug. 31, he wrote a column headlined, “Different year, same story: The Brewers own the Cubs.”
Greenberg did not dance around it.
“The North-of-the-Border Nine own our North Siders,” he wrote.
Even former Brewers manager Gred, sorry that’s Craig, Counsell, now managing the Cubs, acknowledged the obvious when Greenberg asked about trying to keep pace with Milwaukee.
“They’re on pace for a big number,” Counsell said at the time. “Go ask the rest of major-league baseball.”
The rest of baseball appears to have noticed.
CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa recently laid out three reasons the Brewers are legitimate World Series contenders.
The first is important because it addresses the obvious concern about this team.
Power.
Milwaukee has spent much of the season at or near the bottom of Major League Baseball in home runs.
That matters more in October, when the mediocre fourth and fifth starters disappear, bullpens get shorter and rallies consisting of three singles, a walk and a stolen base become much harder to manufacture.
Axisa noted, however, that the Brewers have shown more power late in the season. He also pointed to what Milwaukee can put on the mound.
Misiorowski and Henderson give the Brewers the kind of one-two October punch they did not have a year ago.
That may be the most important difference between this team and recent Brewers playoff teams.
Misiorowski is not an interesting young pitcher anymore.
He is an ace.
Henderson is not merely organizational depth that turned into a pleasant surprise.
He has become the guy Milwaukee expects to hand the ball to right behind Misiorowski.
Then comes one of the uncertainties.
Who starts Game 3?
MLB.com noted that Misiorowski and Henderson are locked into the first two spots but that Milwaukee’s plan after that is less settled. Dustin May is in the projected postseason rotation, while the Brewers could again make creative use of openers and their bullpen. Personally, I’m keen on Robert Gasser. But who starts Game 3 and 4 of the NLDS?
That is a legitimate October question.
So is the offense.
Mike Petriello devoted an entire MLB.com analysis in August to the strange and fascinating way Milwaukee scores runs.
The Brewers wait for pitches. They use the opposite field. They run. They put runners on base. They make defenses work. They have built an offense that operates differently from almost everyone else in baseball.
And it clearly works.
“What Milwaukee does works for six months; that’s been proven beyond argument,” Petriello wrote.
Then comes the part Brewers fans should not dismiss.
Postseason baseball is different.
Teams that outhomer their opponents have historically dominated postseason games. Milwaukee knows that firsthand.
I’ve tried to put this out of my memory, but let’s revisit for the sake of this column. Last October, the Brewers reached the National League Championship Series and then scored four runs in four games while being swept by the Dodgers.
Petriello pointed out that Milwaukee hit .118 in that series, and that is the challenge the Brewers must overcome in the next month..
Not proving the Brewers can win. They have proven that hundreds of times.
Not proving they can develop players. They have, for a decade now.
Not proving Pat Murphy can manage. He is the best in the league.
Not proving Arnold and his baseball operation can build a roster. Look at the standings while recognizing the cupboard in the minors is busting with talent as well.
The remaining question is whether the things that make the Brewers so miserable to play against from May through September can finally survive three rounds of postseason baseball.
That is a much higher standard than we used to apply around here, as it should be. Excellence in the new standard.
The Brewers have earned the right to stop being treated like a surprise.
They have a first-round bye. They will open the NLDS at home. They have one of the most overpowering pitchers in baseball at the front of the rotation. They have young players, most of whom are no longer prospects learning on the job. They also have veterans who know what October disappointment feels like.
This team has spent much of the second half looking down at the rest of baseball in the standings.
Maybe the Dodgers beat them. Maybe Atlanta does. Maybe some wild-card team like the Padres gets hot for two weeks, because baseball has a cruel sense of humor and October has never promised justice.
That’s baseball.
But our expectations should change when circumstances change.
In 2018, getting within one victory of the World Series felt like an extraordinary run. In 2026, reaching the postseason is no longer extraordinary in Milwaukee.
Winning the division is no longer extraordinary, neither is winning 90+ games. This organization has made those things routine.
Which brings us back to 1982. I assumed there would be another World Series soon enough. Well it wasn’t soon, and like all fans of this team, we’ve had enough of futility.
These Brewers have as good a chance to change that as any Milwaukee team ever. They are no longer merely baseball’s charming little small-market story.
The Milwaukee Brewers are one of the best teams in baseball, and everyone knows it.
We’ve waited decades for this.
October is almost here.
I can’t wait.
