MILWAUKEE — Hall of Fame shortstop Robin Yount says he feels a different level of anxiety watching the Milwaukee Brewers now than when he was playing for them during their only other World Series run.
“It’s almost like watching your kids play,” said Yount, who was the American League Most Valuable Player when the Brewers reached the 1982 Fall Classic. “You’re a lot more nervous watching your own kids play than when you played yourself. And I kind of feel that way now.”
Yount and the rest of the 1982 Brewers are hoping this year’s Milwaukee team can settle some unfinished business by winning the franchise’s first World Series title.
The 1982 Brewers won the AL pennant and led 3-1 in the sixth inning of Game 7 of the World Series that year before falling 6-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Brewers are finally back on this stage 44 years later.
The Brewers swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL championship series to earn this matchup with the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays. Game 1 is Friday in Milwaukee.
“In my 80 years on this planet, I have never been more impressed with a team — the way they played against the Dodgers — in my entire life,” said Larry Hisle, who played nine games for the Brewers in 1982 before undergoing shoulder surgery that essentially ended his 14-year major league career.
Different types of teams
On the surface, this year’s Brewers don’t have much in common with the 1982 squad.
The 1982 team was known as Harvey’s Wallbangers, a nod to Milwaukee’s drinking culture, Brewers manager Harvey Kuenn and the fact that the Brewers hit an MLB-leading 216 homers that year. This year’s Brewers hit just 154 homers to match the second-lowest total in the majors.
But the two teams do share some traits.
Jerry Augustine, a pitcher on the 1982 team, said that squad “had respect for each other about going out and playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”
“This team is exactly the same,” Augustine said. “They respect each other. They go out and play hard. They don’t give up. When you play this team, you’d better be ready to play 27 outs.”
Cecil Cooper, a first baseman on the 1982 team, said he’s appreciated the Brewers’ approach at the plate during this playoff run.
“You watch every at bat, these guys are grinding,” Cooper said. “They’re not out there just wailing away at the first pitch. They’re grinding at bat after at bat. That’s what you do. That’s what winners do.”
That 1982 team’s star-studded roster featured five Hall of Famers in Yount, third baseman Paul Molitor, catcher Ted Simmons and pitchers Rollie Fingers and Don Sutton.
Panthers GM Zito was Brewers bat boy in 1982
The list of familiar names on that team isn’t limited to the players. Florida Panthers general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito was a Brewers bat boy and clubhouse attendant that year. He did laundry, rubbed mud on baseballs for better gripping and played catch in right field with outfielders between innings.
Zito brought the Stanley Cup into the Brewers’ clubhouse during the summer of 2024, after the Panthers won their first of two straight NHL championships.
Would his name be on the Stanley Cup twice if he hadn’t been a Brewers bat boy? Zito doesn’t think so.
“I’m guessing maybe some of the guys working there now realize what an unbelievable opportunity it is, to learn and to be around professional sports,” Zito said. “The lessons that you take away, maybe I didn’t understand them at the time. … But now, reflecting back, they were all so important.”
The 1982 squad remains beloved in Milwaukee and was a subject of a documentary, “Just a Bit Outside,” that came out in 2024.
Milwaukee started slowly that year until Kuenn took over and provided a spark after the June firing of Buck Rodgers. The Brewers clinched the AL East title by winning a winner-take-all game at Baltimore on the final day of the regular season. They rallied from two games down to beat the California Angels in the best-of-five ALCS.
Longtime Brewers fans continue to vow that the Brewers would have won the World Series if Fingers hadn’t injured his forearm that September, preventing him from pitching in the postseason.
“We got a parade when we lost the World Series,” Yount said. “How often does that happen?”
Yount, who is generally regarded as the greatest player in Brewers history, has called that 1982 postseason the greatest time but also the worst time of his career because of the way it ended. The pain of losing Game 7 sticks with him.
“Yeah, it stings,” the 71-year-old Yount said. “It hurts. I’m not going to lie, I’ll never get over it until the Brewers win one. So I’m hoping. I hope this happens more often than every 44 years, but I’m pretty excited this year. If it takes another 44, I’m not sure I’m going to be here for that one.”
