\n\tDear readers, today we are going to take you back to 1982, when the Milwaukee Brewers reached the World Series for the first and only time in franchise history. It seems like only yesterday that this 22-year-old sat intently before the television, watching every minute of every game of that exciting Series.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThis multi-part series talks about how the Brewers got there and offers a chronological timeline of the 1982 campaign, including player profiles, game recaps, and other events that affected the season.\n<\/p>\n
\tThe 1981 Brewers Season, Complete With a Work Stoppage<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 1981, the Milwaukee Brewers reached the postseason for the first time in franchise history, albeit during a strike-shortened campaign. The stoppage began on June 12 and lasted until the players and management reached an agreement on July 31. An All-Star game was played on August 9, and the regular season resumed the next day.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe season was split into two halves, with first-half winners playing second-half winners in both leagues for the right to advance to the League Championship and the World Series. The Brewers finished three games behind the New York Yankees in the first half, and it looked like the second half was going to be more of the same, with Milwaukee trailing the Detroit Tigers by three games with only 17 games to go in mid-September. But the Brewers got hot and won 11 of those games and edged both Detroit and Boston by 1 \u00bd games to win the second-half title in the American League East.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSadly for Milwaukee, the Yankees took three of five games to end the Brewers’ season. After the final game, Brewers manager Bob Rodgers said, \u201cWe came a long way. This was Step One. Step Two will be in spring training\u201d (Wisconsin State Journal, October 12, 1981).\n<\/p>\n
\n\tReliever Rollie Fingers<\/a> was rewarded for his major league-leading 28 saves, 333 ERA+, and 0.87 WHIP season by winning both the Cy Young Award and the Most Valuable Player Award in the American League, one of only 11 hurlers to claim both honors in the same season.\n<\/p>\n \tThe Brewers Offseason and the Beginning of Spring Training 1982<\/p>\n \n\tThe Brewers made few moves in the off-season. Their biggest deal was when they traded pitcher Rickey Keeton<\/a> to the Houston Astros for reliever Pete Ladd<\/a>. (The pitcher nicknamed \u2018Bigfoot\u2019 spent most of 1982 at Triple-A Vancouver but was promoted to Milwaukee in mid-July when pitcher Jamie Easterly<\/a> went on the disabled list.)\n<\/p>\n \n\tAlso, just before Thanksgiving, Lorn Brown stepped down from the Brewers radio team when flagship station WISN announced that Bob Uecker<\/a>\u2019s workload would be increased to six innings, while Brown would be the play-by-play broadcaster for only three innings (Wisconsin State Journal, November 20, 1981).\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn December, Paul Molitor<\/a>\u2014who played only 46 games in the outfield and 16 at designated hitter due to ankle surgery\u2014and Brewers management discussed a potential move to third base for the 1982 season (Capital Times, December 4, 1981).\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe Baseball Hall of Fame called Hank Aaron<\/a> in January, along with outfielder Frank Robinson<\/a>. The former Milwaukee Brave and Brewer was named on 406 of the 415 ballots cast. Wonder why nine people left him off their lists\u2026\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn more broadcast news, it was announced in early February that former Brewer Mike Hegan<\/a> would join Steve Shannon to do broadcasts for WVTV. The Milwaukee station planned on airing 60 games during the regular season (Wisconsin State Journal, February 4, 1982).\n<\/p>\n