Meet the Brewers O ne of the world’s oldest jobs is brewing beer In fact the beverage was an important source of nourishment thousands of years ago Today adults everywhere enjoy beer And no city is ty is better known for its beer-making than Milwaukee Wisconsin n That is how the Brewers got their name Milwaukee is also famous for its baseball fans When they root for the Brewers they feel like they are part of a gigantic group of family and friends The players who wear a Milwaukee uniform know the city is a special place too This book tells the story of the Brewers They look for good players who are good people too That is important to the fans in Milwaukee Through all of baseball’s ups and downs no matter how the team is doing they know they will always have have something to cheer about when they go to the ballpark Ryan Braun and Corey Hart are all smiles after a Brewers victory in 2011 Braun was voted the league’s top player that season 5
Glory Days T he story of the Milwaukee Brewers actually began almost 2,000 miles away in Seattle Washington In 1969 four new teams joined the big leagues One of them was the Seattle j Pilots They were named after the harbor Pilot Pilo pilots who guided ships in and out of that ppi pp city’s busy port The Pilots had some good players including Marty Pattin and Tommy Harper However they did not attract enough fans to creaky Sicks Stadium which was in need of repair Just before wh w the start of the 1970 season Seattle’s owners t th gave up on the team and sold it to a young automobile dealer named Bud Selig He would later become commissioner of baseball Selig and his partners moved the club to Milwaukee and renamed it the Brewers The town was excited about its new team The Braves had played in Milwaukee from 1953 to 1965 The fans were sad when they left for Atlanta Georgia Even though the Brewers lost 6
97 games their first year almost one million people bought tickets to cheer them on The Brewers built an exciting team during the 1970s They found young players who blossomed into great stars Robin Yount Paul Molitor Darrell Porter Gorman Thomas Sixto Lezcano Charlie Moore and Jim Slaton all grew up together as Brewers George Scott Cecil Cooper Ben Oglivie Sal Bando Don Money Ted Simmons and Mike Caldwell joined Milwaukee from other teams Many of those players became All-Stars and Yount and Molitor would later be voted into the Hall of Fame In 1982 the Brewers were champions of the American League AL They were a hard-hitting bunch led by Molitor and Yount The fans nicknamed the team Harvey’s Wallbangers after manager Harvey Kuenn Newcomers Pete Vuckovich Rollie Fingers and Don Sutton gave the Brewers great pitching They met LEFT The team’s first mascot reminded young fans of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz ABOVE Paul Molitor led the league in runs scored three times as a Brewer 7
