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 the earlier entries in his World Series diary here.

WHAT IS GOING on?

That was me, on Monday night, every five minutes or so between 8.20pm and 8.50pm local time: hands on my head, turning around to face thousands of strangers inside Miller Park baseball stadium, as we watched the frankly unbelievable scenes from Game 3 of the World Series unfold on the big screens before us.

Nearly 1,800 kilometres away in Florida, our beloved Milwaukee Brewers were on a scoring spree against the Tampa Bay Rays, putting up eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning in a 30-minute spell of unbridled joy, while back at home, I joined 30,000 of my new best friends in realising that we were on the brink of a commanding 3-0 series lead.

What. Is. Going. On?!

I wasn’t supposed to write today. The agreed plan was that I would watch Games 3 through 5 – the three away games – and reflect on them as a whole afterwards, but all rules went out the window thanks to this unique baseball moment and this head-shaking fairytale of a World Series run this goofy Milwaukee Brewers team is on, taking me and everyone else with them.

I also wasn’t supposed to be in Miller Park on Monday night. While my friends and I had plans to go to a watch party there, we were looking at Game 4 on Tuesday, or even Game 5 on Wednesday, until my friend Zak’s wife Katie scored tickets via her friend at work. At 4pm, she came bounding into the house screaming, “We’re going to the game!” Within 30 minutes, we went from couch potatoes planning to watch together at his house, to being packed up back in the same minivan that took us to Game 2, with the back full of coolers, grills, and cured meats, racing down Interstate 41 to tailgate and experience the Brewers live again.

For the away games in Florida, the Brewers invited fans to buy $15 tickets to come and watch at Miller Park – now American Family Field – on the stadium’s Jumbotron. Not only did the fans come, they sold it out, and treated it like another home game: tailgating, flags waving, chants screaming, merch store bursting, and every other matchday experience came through regardless of no players being on the field. Even the stadium announcer treated it like a home game, announcing the Brewers batters when they came to the plate. Music played and flags were waving. What a cool way to watch a game.

The stadium was electric, and the roof was nearly blown off when the Brewers, who have been edging out wins by a run or two during this playoff series, dominated from start to finish in a 10-1 win.

Sal Frelick (10) hit an RBI double during a remarkable fifth inning. AP Photo / Morry Gash / Alamy AP Photo / Morry Gash / Alamy / Morry Gash / Alamy

– Unprecedented –

I’m running out of ways to explain why this entire run has been unique and so unexpected, so it might be a good time to explain that it’s not supposed to happen this way, you know.

Baseball is a cruel mistress. Of all the American sports, it is the one that never follows a script. The nature of the game, combined with an elongated best-of-seven playoff format, allows for chance and luck to show their faces at any time and turn what once seemed like an inevitable title favourite into a deer caught in headlights.

The postseason is riddled with stories of teams who won the most games in the regular season, but either ran out of gas, caught a team on a hot streak, or had a few bounces or calls that didn’t go their way. Before you know it, they’re done, five months of daily games for what amounts to a participation trophy. Thanks for playing, now go home with your regular season victories while we play for the championship.

While the Los Angeles Dodgers – a traditional big-win, big-city, big-budget team – have been the dominant force with three World Series wins in the past six years, you also had teams like the Texas Rangers, who won their own first World Series in their franchise history, coming out of nowhere to win it. The Washington Nationals, another team who had never won it and went into the playoffs as a wild card (the longest shot team), won it all in 2019. The Arizona Diamondbacks, one of the newer and smaller franchises, got to the World Series two years ago after having the least amount of wins of all the playoff teams that year.

The point is, the playoffs can be a crap shoot, and the best team on paper doesn’t always get their way.

But this year, the Brewers were that team. Thanks to 103 regular season wins, they rolled through the regular season to the best record in baseball, giving us the right to home field advantage for all of our games throughout the postseason, as long as we kept winning.

Fans watch the action on a big screen in Miller Park. Matt Steerman Matt Steerman

However, we’ve been here before. The last few years have seen the Brewers finish either first or second in season wins, only to run out of gas in the playoffs and get beaten in numerous memorable ways.

As fans, we knew nothing was guaranteed – but then weird things started to happen. Things that tend to happen against us rather than for us, things that lead you to start asking: is this our year?

Things like Monday night. Game 3, Brewers up 2-0 in the fifth inning with runners at first and second, and two outs. Christian Yelich, the Brewers captain, was originally called out only for the Brewers to have the play reviewed and overturned; Yelich, who had busted his backside, had in fact beaten the throw and was safe.

The Brewers lived to fight on in the inning, and with it came history.

Over the next 30 minutes – with two outs, remember – the Brewers strung together a record seven straight hits, scoring eight runs, with 12 batters coming to the plate, all without a home run. Single after single after single with a double or two mixed in. It was relentless, it was epic, it was historic, it was breathless, and it will likely go down as a defining moment of this crazy postseason run.

Or to put it another way: my Whoop measured the bottom of the fifth on Monday night as an ‘activity’ because my heart rate was elevated for 30 minutes of non-stop cheering and jumping, with over 100 calories burned – which was helpful considering, on this occasion, unlike Game 2, I did have a few beers.

When I got home, I spent over 30 minutes watching it back just to see it all again. It happened so fast the first time around, I needed help remembering it all.

– Work to do –

Listening to the radio on the way home from the game, as the commentators reeled off  the baseball records that were broken last night, I realised that if you were to let me write a script of how I wanted this World Series to go, and I had a magic wand to wave to counter all the unpredictable stuff that usually happens against us and avoid being just another 103-win team that is forgotten, this is nearly the script I would have written.

Close games that are enjoyable to watch but won by us.

A blowout to calm the nerves and give us some historic moments of joy we can watch back again and again.

Beautiful weather to allow for tailgating.

Different matchday experiences with friends and fans that get us off the couch and into the moment in ways we’ve never experienced as a fan.

Getting the breaks on the 50/50 calls and moments that we never seemed to get before.

And above all, winning, and winning in a way that hasn’t seen the state of Wisconsin smile collectively like this ever.

Selfishly, I’d love to see the Brewers close it out on Tuesday or Wednesday in Games 4 or 5. Family and real-world responsibilities are calling me home to Ireland on Thursday, so if the series goes to Game 6 or 7, I’ll be back home and up at 1am again. I’ll do it, of course, but God it’d be nice to have the moment here at my old home instead of my new home.

I’m conscious that there’s still work to do. It’s not over until it’s over. While there has only ever been one comeback from 3-0 down in the history of baseball, my scared mind of 30-plus years of Brewers playoff pain won’t let me fully get to embracing the impossible just yet. The Rays are a good team. You can’t rule them out, especially with two more home games in their park. Baseball is fickle and funny and never goes how you think it will.

But there is some magic in this Brewers team. Something that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet or the box score. It feels like this year we have ‘it’. The secret sauce. The bounce of the ball, whatever you call it.

I don’t know how long these goofy moments will keep happening to us and spin us into fan pandemonium, but I hope we have at least a few more to go.