Sports
Brewers’ first World Series since 1982 opens at American Family Field Oct. 23
Milwaukee is set to host the opening two games of a best-of-seven World Series against Tampa Bay, with the first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23. Neither team has won a championship, and the matchup brings two of baseball’s lower-payroll clubs to the sport’s biggest stage.
MILWAUKEE — The Brewers will begin their first World Series appearance in 44 years at American Family Field on Friday, Oct. 23, opening a best-of-seven series against the Tampa Bay Rays. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. Central, with Game 2 set for the same time Saturday.
The series shifts to Tampa Bay for Games 3 through 5, scheduled for Oct. 26-28. If needed, Games 6 and 7 would return to Milwaukee on Oct. 30 and 31. The Brewers’ last trip to the World Series ended in a seven-game loss to St. Louis in 1982.
The matchup guarantees a first championship for either club. It will be the first World Series between two teams without a title since Philadelphia beat Kansas City in 1980, and only the second such meeting since 1910. It is also just the sixth time since the wild-card era began in 1995 that the teams with the best records in their respective leagues have met in the Series.
The Brewers and Rays reached the championship despite spending less than many rivals on player payroll. Milwaukee ranked 19th in Major League Baseball payroll as of Aug. 31, while Tampa Bay ranked 25th. The last time both pennant winners ranked in the bottom half of payroll spending was 1991.
High resale prices have made attending games in Milwaukee difficult for some fans, while others have looked toward Tampa Bay for lower-cost tickets. The series is also expected to bring watch parties and other gatherings across southeastern Wisconsin, though no specific event details were included in the available information.
Cool late-October weather is likely to keep the retractable roof closed at American Family Field, where forecasts call for game-time temperatures in the upper 40s or low 50s. Tampa Bay’s ballpark has a fixed roof, meaning the championship could be baseball’s first played entirely under closed roofs.
The Brewers have played in Milwaukee since 1970, after the franchise began as the Seattle Pilots. Their 1982 Series was played at County Stadium, near the site of today’s American Family Field. The Rays began play in 1998 and have appeared in two World Series, losing to Philadelphia in 2008 and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.
American Family Field, originally known as Miller Park, opened in 2001. The stadium’s familiar traditions include the Racing Sausages, which compete during the sixth inning, and the Uecker Seat honoring longtime broadcaster Bob Uecker.