Living in Ireland since 2007, Matt Steerman is making a pilgrimage home to see his beloved Milwaukee Brewers play in baseball’s World Series for the first time in 44 years, hoping to see the Brewers finally win it all for the very first time.
THURSDAY’S TRAVEL DAY went off without a hitch: Dublin to Chicago, and then a two-hour drive north to a friend’s house to stay the night, beers and bratwursts in the garage, and plenty of talk about the weekend ahead.
The airport experience was different in one way though: for the first time in my life, I saw multiple people wearing Brewers hats and shirts travelling with me. Bear in mind that in two decades, I’ve never seen a Brewers hat in the wild in Dublin, never mind multiple ones heading Stateside.
A few were Americans like me, living here and going home to be part of the experience. One gentleman was from Ireland but lived in Milwaukee for three years decades ago. He fell in love with the Brewers, and is travelling now to be there for the World Series.
That is cool.
I bumped into another fellow Sconnie (as Wisconsin residents often refer to ourselves) who was travelling back with his son. He had only made the call and bought tickets the night before, although he’s not planning to tell his wife how much the tickets had cost. Only the Brewers in the World Series would make you risk your marriage to get home to experience a silly game, but as someone in the same position, I can relate!
- Game Day -
Sunrise on Friday morning is as great as I remember. The leaves changing in Wisconsin are nearly as good as they are in the famous northeast, and it makes me feel like home. It’s a seasonably warm 22 degrees when I land, perfect baseball weather for the “Fall Classic”.
Watching the news, it’s wall-to-wall in a way that I’ve never seen before, even when the state’s beloved Green Bay Packers were battling for Super Bowls. The friends I stay with on Thursday night are both teachers and all week, the school has allowed kids to wear Brewers swag, while the mayor of Milwaukee has issued permission slips for kids to miss school to get behind the Brew Crew.
Workers stock World Series merchandise ahead of Game 1 in Milwaukee on Friday night. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The World Series merchandise is sold out at the stadium due to unprecedented demand, and only ticket holders will be allowed in now to purchase. Even the watch parties have sold out. With Games 3 and 4 being played in Tampa, the Brewers are opening Miller Park so that fans can come together and watch the games in the stadium. That’s 40,000+ fans wanting to sit together in a stadium to watch a big-screen TV and pay for it, with these tickets now selling on the open market for $400.
As for the games themselves, ticket prices are still… high. We have some lines in the water, to use a fishing term, but for now, we’re sticking to the plan: get together for Game 1 on Friday night and find a watch party in the city, and then play the long game on ticket prices in the hope of getting into Game 2 on Saturday.
Two more friends are due to fly in from Atlanta later on Friday, so most of the day is spent planning logistics: where’s the best watch party, are there any bars taking bookings (the answer is a firm no), and what is traffic going to be like trying to get into the city knowing that half the state is coming.
Other than that, the rest of the day is just daydreaming of Brewers victories.
- Do It For Ueck -
When you finally make it this close to the pinnacle of sport for the first time in what seems like eternity, it’s hard not to think of who this would mean the most to. Everyone has a story of parents or friends who have been ride or die for years, or relatives who have never experienced this.
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However for Brewers fans and players, there is one person above all who they’re thinking of, and unlike most teams, the first name that comes to mind isn’t a former player or manager or owner. For the Brewers, it’s the man who spent more than half of his life as the voice of the Brewers on the radio, the man who was the ‘sound of summer’ for hundreds of thousands of fans across five decades.
That man is Bob Uecker.
Uecker salutes the crowd in Miller Park in the summer of 2024, a few months before his death. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Uecker was the Brewers’ play-by-play announcer for over 50 years, joining the media team only a year after they moved to Milwaukee in 1970. He was unique for so many reasons; a former player himself, albeit not so successful on the field, he transcended his Brewers fame to feature in advertising campaigns for Miller Lite as well as the biggest television shows of the time like Mr Belvedere and the iconic late-night Johnny Carson Show.
Baseball has long been a sport enjoyed through the medium of radio. In the days before TV, the voice on the radio was what connected you to your team, pitch by pitch, play by play. The pace of the game, the ambient noise of the stadium coming through, and the art of killing time with stories, combined with baseball insight when needed, was a skill held by very few, and Uecker was one of the best.
His humour and quick wit, combined with his baseball knowledge, storytelling abilities and unique tone made him not only the voice of the Brewers, but the voice of baseball for many fans nationwide. He featured in one of the most beloved baseball movies ever made, Major League, and more than once worked nationally for World Series calls.
Uecker’s nickname was Mr Baseball and everyone loved him. He was a favourite in the clubhouse, always celebrating with the team when they won and being there when they needed a lift. To a man, every player to a man that passed through his world speaks glowingly of him, and every fan thinks of him as a friend or father figure because we spent so many afternoons and nights with him, his voice painting the picture of the game.
Uecker sadly passed away two years ago at the age of 90 after he was diagnosed with cancer. His 54 years as the voice of the Brewers was the second-longest single team relationship for a commentator in baseball history. He never got to experience a World Series win as a player or as a broadcaster, something that came so tantalisingly close in the past few years.
Uecker's legacy is honoured in a 100-foot tall mural in Milwaukee. AP Photo / Steve Megargee / Alamy Stock Photo
AP Photo / Steve Megargee / Alamy Stock Photo / Steve Megargee / Alamy Stock Photo
His final call in the 2024 playoffs, when the Mets came from behind to beat the Brewers in the last inning, is still one of the most painful things to listen to. Listening that night, nobody knew what Uecker knew, that his time was short and that this was his last shot at getting to the promised land before. It was hidden in the tone of his voice after the final pitch ended the dream for another season, telling us “that one… had a bit of sting in it”, words which carry more weight now, knowing what he knew: that that was the last call, the last out, his last game, the last time he’d experience the Brewers.
Uecker passed a few months later. Listening back to that commentary, it still brings a tear to the eye that the man who gave so much to the Brewers, the state and to baseball itself will never get to enjoy the top of the mountain.
Flash forward to today, and Uecker is a rallying cry for the team and the fans. After each win in the playoffs, Coach Pat Murphy writes and reads ‘a letter from Ueck’ to the team, filled with the euphemisms and turns of phrase that became his calling card, a nod to the legend of the club.
Uecker’s family released a stirring letter this week to the fans of the Brewers that has given everyone misty eyes heading into Game 1. The letter starts off with the words:
“Some moments are worth waiting for. Generations of Brewers fans have held hope in their hearts, season after season, that some day this city would have its chance at another championship.”
“That day has come.”
As usual, a Uecker is the one who says it best on behalf of all of us.
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A day spent dreaming of Brewers wins – and remembering a legend who is no longer with us
Living in Ireland since 2007, Matt Steerman is making a pilgrimage home to see his beloved Milwaukee Brewers play in baseball’s World Series for the first time in 44 years, hoping to see the Brewers finally win it all for the very first time.
You can read his first World Series diary entry here.
THURSDAY’S TRAVEL DAY went off without a hitch: Dublin to Chicago, and then a two-hour drive north to a friend’s house to stay the night, beers and bratwursts in the garage, and plenty of talk about the weekend ahead.
The airport experience was different in one way though: for the first time in my life, I saw multiple people wearing Brewers hats and shirts travelling with me. Bear in mind that in two decades, I’ve never seen a Brewers hat in the wild in Dublin, never mind multiple ones heading Stateside.
A few were Americans like me, living here and going home to be part of the experience. One gentleman was from Ireland but lived in Milwaukee for three years decades ago. He fell in love with the Brewers, and is travelling now to be there for the World Series.
That is cool.
I bumped into another fellow Sconnie (as Wisconsin residents often refer to ourselves) who was travelling back with his son. He had only made the call and bought tickets the night before, although he’s not planning to tell his wife how much the tickets had cost. Only the Brewers in the World Series would make you risk your marriage to get home to experience a silly game, but as someone in the same position, I can relate!
- Game Day -
Sunrise on Friday morning is as great as I remember. The leaves changing in Wisconsin are nearly as good as they are in the famous northeast, and it makes me feel like home. It’s a seasonably warm 22 degrees when I land, perfect baseball weather for the “Fall Classic”.
Watching the news, it’s wall-to-wall in a way that I’ve never seen before, even when the state’s beloved Green Bay Packers were battling for Super Bowls. The friends I stay with on Thursday night are both teachers and all week, the school has allowed kids to wear Brewers swag, while the mayor of Milwaukee has issued permission slips for kids to miss school to get behind the Brew Crew.
The World Series merchandise is sold out at the stadium due to unprecedented demand, and only ticket holders will be allowed in now to purchase. Even the watch parties have sold out. With Games 3 and 4 being played in Tampa, the Brewers are opening Miller Park so that fans can come together and watch the games in the stadium. That’s 40,000+ fans wanting to sit together in a stadium to watch a big-screen TV and pay for it, with these tickets now selling on the open market for $400.
As for the games themselves, ticket prices are still… high. We have some lines in the water, to use a fishing term, but for now, we’re sticking to the plan: get together for Game 1 on Friday night and find a watch party in the city, and then play the long game on ticket prices in the hope of getting into Game 2 on Saturday.
Two more friends are due to fly in from Atlanta later on Friday, so most of the day is spent planning logistics: where’s the best watch party, are there any bars taking bookings (the answer is a firm no), and what is traffic going to be like trying to get into the city knowing that half the state is coming.
Other than that, the rest of the day is just daydreaming of Brewers victories.
- Do It For Ueck -
When you finally make it this close to the pinnacle of sport for the first time in what seems like eternity, it’s hard not to think of who this would mean the most to. Everyone has a story of parents or friends who have been ride or die for years, or relatives who have never experienced this.
However for Brewers fans and players, there is one person above all who they’re thinking of, and unlike most teams, the first name that comes to mind isn’t a former player or manager or owner. For the Brewers, it’s the man who spent more than half of his life as the voice of the Brewers on the radio, the man who was the ‘sound of summer’ for hundreds of thousands of fans across five decades.
That man is Bob Uecker.
Uecker was the Brewers’ play-by-play announcer for over 50 years, joining the media team only a year after they moved to Milwaukee in 1970. He was unique for so many reasons; a former player himself, albeit not so successful on the field, he transcended his Brewers fame to feature in advertising campaigns for Miller Lite as well as the biggest television shows of the time like Mr Belvedere and the iconic late-night Johnny Carson Show.
Baseball has long been a sport enjoyed through the medium of radio. In the days before TV, the voice on the radio was what connected you to your team, pitch by pitch, play by play. The pace of the game, the ambient noise of the stadium coming through, and the art of killing time with stories, combined with baseball insight when needed, was a skill held by very few, and Uecker was one of the best.
His humour and quick wit, combined with his baseball knowledge, storytelling abilities and unique tone made him not only the voice of the Brewers, but the voice of baseball for many fans nationwide. He featured in one of the most beloved baseball movies ever made, Major League, and more than once worked nationally for World Series calls.
Uecker’s nickname was Mr Baseball and everyone loved him. He was a favourite in the clubhouse, always celebrating with the team when they won and being there when they needed a lift. To a man, every player to a man that passed through his world speaks glowingly of him, and every fan thinks of him as a friend or father figure because we spent so many afternoons and nights with him, his voice painting the picture of the game.
Uecker sadly passed away two years ago at the age of 90 after he was diagnosed with cancer. His 54 years as the voice of the Brewers was the second-longest single team relationship for a commentator in baseball history. He never got to experience a World Series win as a player or as a broadcaster, something that came so tantalisingly close in the past few years.
His final call in the 2024 playoffs, when the Mets came from behind to beat the Brewers in the last inning, is still one of the most painful things to listen to. Listening that night, nobody knew what Uecker knew, that his time was short and that this was his last shot at getting to the promised land before. It was hidden in the tone of his voice after the final pitch ended the dream for another season, telling us “that one… had a bit of sting in it”, words which carry more weight now, knowing what he knew: that that was the last call, the last out, his last game, the last time he’d experience the Brewers.
Uecker passed a few months later. Listening back to that commentary, it still brings a tear to the eye that the man who gave so much to the Brewers, the state and to baseball itself will never get to enjoy the top of the mountain.
Flash forward to today, and Uecker is a rallying cry for the team and the fans. After each win in the playoffs, Coach Pat Murphy writes and reads ‘a letter from Ueck’ to the team, filled with the euphemisms and turns of phrase that became his calling card, a nod to the legend of the club.
Uecker’s family released a stirring letter this week to the fans of the Brewers that has given everyone misty eyes heading into Game 1. The letter starts off with the words:
“Some moments are worth waiting for. Generations of Brewers fans have held hope in their hearts, season after season, that some day this city would have its chance at another championship.”
“That day has come.”
As usual, a Uecker is the one who says it best on behalf of all of us.
Game 1 can’t come soon enough. Let’s go.
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