SCHEDULE|MERCH|WATCH PARTIES|TICKETS|FORECAST|UECKER’S LEGACY|POP CULTURE IN 1982|VIRAL SONG|PAINTING THE FIELD|AVOIDING SCAMS
The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays will play in a World Series that will produce a first-time champion and likely baseball’s first all-indoor championship.
Watch Pat Murphy during World Series Media Days in the video player above.
The best-of-seven showdown between the two top teams in MLB opens Friday night in Milwaukee.
This will be only the sixth time since the start of the wild-card era in 1995 that teams with the top records in each league meet in the World Series.
Schedule
First-pitch times for the series:
- Game 1 | Friday, Oct. 23: Guardians or Rays at Brewers | 7 p.m. CT (pregame at 6 p.m. CT)
- Game 2 | Saturday, Oct. 24: Guardians or Rays at Brewers | 7 p.m. CT (pregame at 6 p.m. CT)
- Game 3 | Monday, Oct. 26: Brewers at Guardians or Rays | 7 p.m. CT
- Game 4 | Tuesday, Oct. 27: Brewers at Guardians or Rays | 7 p.m. CT
- Game 5 | Wednesday, Oct. 28: Brewers at Guardians or Rays | 7 p.m.
- Game 6 | Friday, Oct. 30: Guardians or Rays at Brewers | 7 p.m. (if necessary with pregame at 6 p.m. CT)
- Game 7 | Saturday, Oct. 31: Guardians or Rays at Brewers | 7 p.m. (if necessary with pregame at 6 p.m. CT)
He hasn’t missed a game since 1981, now he’s hoping for a World Series win
Tickets
Brewers fans eager to secure tickets for a World Series game were met with unexpectedly high prices, both online and in person.
Some Brewers fans are following their team and the savings south to watch the World Series.
Resale tickets for the playoffs can be bought and prices compared on the following sites:
104-year-old Brewers fan hopes for World Series win as 105th birthday gift
Watch Parties
The Brewers will host watch parties inside American Family Field for World Series Games 3 and 4 on Monday, Oct. 26, and Tuesday, Oct. 27. Both games start at 7 p.m., with gates opening at 5 p.m.
Brewers World Series watch party tickets go for more than $100 on resale sites
Tickets were sold out within 30 minutes. Parking costs $10 for general lots and $15 for preferred lots. Concessions, merchandise and fan activities will be available.
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Merchandise
Brewers stores at American Family Field closed Thursday to restock
Fans can now commemorate the historic moment with exclusive merchandise at American Family Field and online. Scroll through some of the merchandise below.
Pregame Concert
The Brewers announced Wednesday that Milwaukee rock band Violent Femmes will perform a special pregame concert inside American Family Field before Game 1 on Friday. The team said the concert will be from 4:45 to 5:15 p.m. and is open to all fans with a valid Game 1 ticket.
Gates will open at 4 p.m. Friday.
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New World Series foods at American Family Field
The Brewers are celebrating the Fall Classic with three new playoff dishes and a special beer brewed at the ballpark.
Walk-Off Burger: Two beef patties topped with American cheese, bacon, hash browns and hollandaise sauce.
- Prime Rib: A Wisconsin-inspired carved prime rib served with mashed potatoes and au jus.
- Beef Wellington: Tenderloin with mushrooms, prosciutto and Dijon mustard wrapped in puff pastry.
- “Worth the Wait” beer: A Kölsch brewed at Leinenkugel’s Barrel Yard inside American Family Field.
Firsts
A title
It’ll be the first World Series between titleless teams since the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Kansas City Royals in 1980 and just the second since 1910.
Just five of the current 30 teams have never won a title, with Colorado, San Diego and Seattle also ringless.
Brewers fan redeems 12-year-old ‘Timeless Ticket’ for World Series game
Low player spending
Milwaukee had MLB’s 19th-highest payroll as of Aug. 31. Tampa Bay was 25th.
Not since 1991 had both pennant winners been among the bottom 50% in player spending. Minnesota was 15th among 26 teams when it beat Atlanta (19th) in seven games.
Watch air traffic controllers congratulate the Brewers in the video player below.
Ceilings
Tampa Bay’s ballpark has a fixed roof, and Milwaukee’s is retractable and will probably be closed with game-time temperatures predicted to be in the upper 40s or low 50s.
When all World Series games were played at retractable-roof ballparks in 2020 (Texas) and 2023 (Texas and Arizona), there were three open-air games each year.
The roofs of both ballparks came into play this postseason.
Connections
Greg Vaughn, Willy Adames and Matt Garza are the most prominent players with lengthy stretches on both teams, and Jake Bauers made his big league debut with the Rays in 2018.
Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold worked for the Rays for nine years before Milwaukee hired him as an assistant GM in October 2015.
A history lesson
The teams
The Brewers started as the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969, then were bought by Bud Selig’s group in bankruptcy court and moved to Milwaukee for the 1970 season. The team’s only Series trip was a seven-game loss to St. Louis in the 1982 Suds Series, back when the Brewers were in the American League.
Tampa Bay launched as the expansion Devil Rays in 1998 and dropped the “Devil” ahead of the 2008 season. The team’s two Series appearances ended with losses to Philadelphia in 2008 and the Dodgers in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Cherished baseball signed by Bob Uecker survives Mississippi fire
The ballparks
The 1982 Series was played at Milwaukee County Stadium, home of the Braves from 1953-65 before they moved to Atlanta, and then the Brewers from 1970-2000.
This year’s championship will be played at American Family Field, which was known as Miller Park when it opened. The ballpark is adjacent to the County Stadium site.
It was host of the 2002 All-Star Game, which ended in a 7-7, 11-inning tie after both teams ran out of pitchers.
Milwaukee’s ballpark is known for its Racing Sausages in the middle of the sixth inning, with the Brat, Polish, Italian, Hot Dog and Chorizo competing.
Watch the grounds crew paint “World Series” in the video player below.
It also has the Uecker Seat in the last row of section 422 in the left-field upper deck and includes a bronze statue of Bob Uecker.
<img src="https://kubrick.htvapps.com/htv-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com/images/gettyimages-1342536960-1-67f3d6cdda4a1.jpg?crop=1.00xw%3A0.846xh%3B0%2C0&resize=136%3A*" alt="'That day has come': Bob Uecker's family releases statement to team, fans”>
‘That day has come’: Bob Uecker’s family releases statement to team, fans
Tampa Bay’s home, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, is on its third name. Known as the Florida Suncoast Dome from 1990-93 and the ThunderDome from 1993-96, the stadium got its current name about 18 months before the Rays’ first game in 1998.
Its only prior World Series games were in 2008, when the Rays split the first two games against Philadelphia before the Phillies won three straight at home. Tampa Bay’s other Series appearance was in 2020, when, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the entire series was played at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
The Trop reopened this season after repairs to damage caused by Hurricane Milton. The Rays plan to move to a new stadium across the bay in Tampa in 2029.
Remembering 1982
It was 1982. The era of rock. The year of “Thriller” and “E.T. phone home.” It was also the last time the Milwaukee Brewers were in the World Series.
It was 1982 the last time the Brewers were in the World Series. These were pop culture hits.
In 1982, Milwaukee Brewers fan Bob Cummings secured two tickets to Game 5 of the World Series at Milwaukee County Stadium, where the Brewers faced the St. Louis Cardinals.
“You can’t imagine the excitement that I went through when I got these tickets,” Cummings said.
For 44 years, he has held onto his original ticket stubs, which cost just $18 apiece.
A teenager at the time, Waukesha native Bob Vitalehad the coveted job as the Brewers’ bat boy alongside his brothers. He said he mainly worked in the visitors’ dugout.
“I was a bat boy for the Brewers in 1980, ’81 and ’82,” Waukesha native Bob Vitale told WISN 12 News on Monday. “What an experience!”
Warren Bohn, a Milwaukee native, has kept a chocolate bar from the Brewers’ 1982 World Series run frozen for 44 years, surviving moves, power outages and curious kids
“You’ve owned this candy bar longer than you’ve owned this house,” he said. “A lot of times I didn’t even remember that it was here.”
Bohn, who describes himself as a collector, said, “I like collecting things.”
October baseball is back in Milwaukee, and WISN 12 News is covering every inning, in the stands and across the community. We’re following the Brewers’ postseason run to the World Series, bringing you the biggest moments, the players driving the story and the traditions that unite fans. From tailgates to watch parties, see how the excitement is playing out across southeast Wisconsin. Follow along on air, atWISN.comand on the WISN 12 app.
