With apologies to friend and co-worker Marissa, and all other Los Angeles Dodgers fans out there, I am glad the Milwaukee Brewers are the 2026 World Series champions. And really glad they swept the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.
It always makes me feel good to see a team that has never won it all get that elusive world championship and when the final four teams were left standing this year in baseball, I knew that the ‘Brew Crew’ was the team I wanted to hoist that trophy.
Maybe some day the Giants will get back there; time will tell, but I was definitely happy to see the Brewers celebrating in Florida on Oct. 28 after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays in five games. It was bittersweet as well, with longtime broadcaster, the late Bob Uecker, having passed away in January of 2025 without getting to see the team win the championship. But players and fans alike made sure he was part of it, with signs for their beloved “Ueck” in evidence throughout the stadium.
He had a short Major League playing career as a catcher – five seasons with four different teams – and won a World Series as a player in the mid-1960s with the St. Louis Cardinals.
But he started his career as a catcher for the Milwaukee Braves, playing for his hometown team, and later returned to spend more than 50 years as the play-by-play man for game broadcasts, becoming synonymous with the Brewers.
There was plenty of talk this season about the ‘low budget’ and ‘small market’ team that the Brewers were, but none of that mattered to the players who put on the uniform and took the field. Highest payroll, lowest payroll, biggest market, smallest market; the Brewers fell somewhere in between but what came through was the team aspect. They controlled what they could; getting the most out of every at bat, players coming in for specific situations and doing the job … through 175 games and a season that started with a 14-2 win for Milwaukee over the Chicago White Sox way back at the end of March, it takes the full roster to get it done. They went 103-59 in their 162 regular season games, then 11-2 in the playoffs, including that 4-0 sweep of the Dodgers in the NLCS.
I also was glad that Milwaukee Public Schools closed down for the day on Friday, Oct. 30, so kids with their families had the opportunity to attend the World Series championship parade that day without getting marked absent from school. Parents missing work? Well, that’s a different story, but who can blame the fans for wanting to be a part of history.
Congratulations to the Brewers – and the city of Milwaukee – on a win they can savor throughout the winter in snowy Wisconsin.
With baseball behind us, there’s still plenty to focus on … for me that means hockey, football, and listening to Golden State Warriors basketball games on the radio. I enjoy the play-by-play call of Tim Roye, preferring listening to watching, and also love to hear Escalon High School alum and current KCBS Radio morning news anchor Steve Scott as the PA announcer, especially when a Warriors player knocks down a ‘Ttthhh-rrr-eee-eeee pointer!’ during the course of the game.
Welcome to November.
Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.
