Gorman Thomas on Brewers’ change of manager during 1982 season
Gorman Thomas and producer Kelly Kahl, both part of the ‘Just a Bit Outside’ documentary on the 1982 Brewers, recall a midseason manager switch.
“Baseball fever. Catch it! It lasts forever.”
In October 1982, Milwaukee Journal staff writer Mike Kupper used that Major League Baseball advertising slogan to summarize the mood of the city’s baseball fans. The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers had won the American League pennant on Oct. 10, 1982, and were in the midst of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals when Kupper wrote that in the Journal’s Oct. 16, 1982, edition — the same day the Brewers would beat the Cardinals to even the series at 2-2. Baseball fever was back, and it was “kind of fun to watch a whole community — heck, a whole state — come down with it again,” Kupper reported.
The Journal sent 15 staff members, including five photographers, to the final game in St. Louis on Oct. 20, 1982. The Brewers lost the game and the series, but for a city with baseball fever, celebrations were still aplenty before and after. Here’s what it looked like when those celebrations erupted for the team’s pennant win and its World Series loss.