This multi-part series talks about how the Brewers got to the World Series and offers a timeline of the 1982 campaign, including player profiles, game recaps, and other events that affected the season.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
The Series So Far
The 1982 World Series had its ebbs and flows, with the Brewers winning Game 1 by a 10-0 margin, and then two wins by the Cardinals, followed by two wins by the Brewers that resulted in a 3-2 lead for Milwaukee. The Brewers were tough at home during the playoffs, winning five of six contests at County Stadium, but struggled somewhat on the road, winning one while losing three entering the final two games of the Series.
Game 6: Stuper pitches a gem in Cards’ 13-1 shellacking
Milwaukee (Don Sutton) at St. Louis (John Stuper)
The middle part of the game was delayed twice due to rain, for more than 2 ½ hours in total, but it didn’t bother the Cardinals. They scored a baker’s dozen in a rout that tied the Series at three games each.
While Don Sutton clearly didn’t have his best stuff, allowing seven hits and seven runs in 4 1/3 innings, John Stuper was lights out for the Cardinals. The 25-year-old rookie right-hander pitched a complete-game four-hitter despite the two rain delays, which stretched the game to an even five hours.
Milwaukee’s defense didn’t help matters, as Robin Yount and Jim Gantner—normally sure-handed glove men—had two miscues apiece.
“I think the wet turf hurt them a little bit,” said manager Whitey Herzog with a chuckle. “We watered it down all day long.”
The Cards scored two runs in the second inning, highlighted by Tom Herr’s RBI double. In the fourth, Darrell Porter hit a two-run homer, and Herr’s squeeze bunt scored Dane Iorg to make it 5-0.
Keith Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-0, and heavy rain prompted a 26-minute delay. One inning later, Doc Medich came on and allowed one run on a sequence that looked like this: double, wild pitch, single, single, wild pitch, groundout. The game was halted by a downpour for a second time. It resumed at 11:40 pm Central, and Medich was greeted rudely, as St. Louis scored five more times with run-scoring singles by Hernandez (two RBI) and George Hendrick and a booted grounder by Gantner that allowed two more runners to cross the plate.
In the top of the ninth, the Brewers scored their lone run on a double by Gantner, a single by Paul Molitor, and a wild pitch that allowed Gantner to score. The talk after the game involved the rain, and the way baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn handled it.
“Kuhn took a risk, a chance that players could have [gotten] hurt and not been ready for the seventh game of the World Series,” Medich said after the game.
The commissioner was stubborn, all right.
“We’re going to play this game until it is completed—even if we have to wait a great many more hours,” Kuhn said in an interview during the game. They waited, then played, until past midnight, even though the result was beyond doubt much earlier.
Game 7: Andujar, Sutter shut down Brewers to win Fall Classic
Milwaukee (Pete Vuckovich) at St. Louis (Joaquín Andujar)
The Brewers had a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth, needing just 12 outs to win the franchise’s first World Series championship. Unfortunately for the Brewers, the Cardinals scored three times in the bottom half of the sixth and twice in the eighth on their way to a 6-3 victory, earning their ninth title in front of 53,723 screaming maniacs at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
The game was scoreless when the Cardinals came to bat in the bottom of the fourth against Pete Vuckovich. With runners on the corners and one out, Lonnie Smith beat out a groundball to shortstop, scoring Willie McGee.
Milwaukee answered immediately against Joaquín Andujar. In the top of the fifth, Ben Oglivie slammed Andujar’s first offering into the right-field stands to quiet the raucous crowd. Vuckovich allowed eight hits and two walks over the first five frames, but held the Cardinals to a single run.
The Brewers tagged Andujar for a pair of runs in the top of the sixth. Gantner ambushed his first pitch for a double to right-center. Molitor laid a bunt down the third-base line, but Andujar’s throw to first sailed wide, allowing Gantner to score and Molitor to go to second. Yount beat out an infield chopper that moved Molitor to third. Cecil Cooper hit a sac fly to left that scored Molitor, to extend the lead to 3-1.
In the bottom of the sixth, Vuckovich got the first out, but then allowed an Ozzie Smith single and a double by Lonnie Smith. That was all for ‘Vuke,’ who was replaced by Bob McClure. Pinch-hitter Gene Tenace drew a walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Mike Ramsey. Hernandez tied the game with a single to center that scored both Smiths. The Cards took the lead when Hendrick’s single to right scored Ramsey.
Haas began the bottom of the eighth by giving up a ground-rule double to Lonnie Smith. Ramsey struck out, Hernandez drew an intentional walk, and Hendrick flied out to center for the second out.
With lefthanders Porter and Braun coming up, Brewers manager Harvey Kuenn brought in Mike Caldwell, who had thrown 127 pitches in Game 5 just three days earlier. Caldwell allowed RBI singles to both Porter and Braun, expanding the lead to 6-3.
Bruce Sutter, who had retired the side in the eighth, repeated that feat in the ninth to earn his second save of the Series and give the Cardinals their first title since 1967. The city of Milwaukee, which had already waited 10 years longer, still hasn’t broken their drought.
The Brewers were led by Molitor, who had two hits. For St. Louis, Lonnie Smith had three hits, while Ozzie Smith, Hernandez, Hendrick, and Iorg each had a pair of hits. Andujar allowed seven hits and three runs in seven innings, coming back from the line drive hit off his leg in Game 3. Porter, who batted .286 (8-for-28) with two doubles, a homer, and five RBIs, was named World Series Most Valuable Player.
While St. Louis would return to the Fall Classic six more times and win two of them (2006, 2011), the Brewers have not returned. The closest they have come is losing three times in National League Championship Series, including to the Cardinals again in 2011.
But no matter their success, the 1982 Brewers team was one of the best Brewers teams in franchise history. Maybe, soon, the team can have another campaign as magical, but for now, Harvey’s Wallbangers remain the most memorable and beloved group ever to don the blue and yellow.
Are you interested in Brewers history? Then check out the Milwaukee Brewers Players Project, a community-driven project to discover and collect great information on every player to wear a Brewers uniform!