Brewers bring World Series title to MLB's smallest market – THIRTEEN – New York Public Media

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Tap the kegs and break out the bratwurst, the Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions! Milwaukee is the smallest market in the major leagues. But this year, the Brewers dominated the regular season, and then rolled through the playoffs with ruthless efficiency. To break it all down, Stephanie Sy spoke with Jason Gay, a sports columnist at The Wall Street Journal.
ANNOUNCER: Two-one pitch, Palacios grounds one softly.
Unshakable, unstoppable, and champions at last, the Milwaukee Brewers!
(CHEERING) GEOFF BENNETT: Well, tap the kegs and break out the bratwurst.
The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions.
The win is the first in the franchise’s 58-year history.
And, as Stephanie Sy tells us, it capped a campaign that was as improbable as it was inevitable — Stephanie.
STEPHANIE SY: Yes, you can’t forget the cheese curds, Geoff.
GEOFF BENNETT: True.
STEPHANIE SY: The Brewers are the smallest market team in the Major Leagues, but this year they dominated the regular season and then rolled through the playoffs with ruthless efficiency, including an emphatic sweep of the defending champion Dodgers, a team with a payroll more than twice their size.
To break it all down, we’re joined now by Jason Gay, sports columnist at The Wall Street Journal.
What a night for Milwaukee, right, Jason?
I mean, you have called this World Series a triumph.
And it has, of course, the irresistible makings of an underdog story with the Brewers outspent, but never outplayed this whole season.
How did they do it?
JASON GAY, The Wall Street Journal: They did it by reverting to some old-school baseball.
They started playing what people know as small ball.
They were running.
They were hitting to opposite fields.
They were even bunting.
Bunting’s really frowned upon in 2026.
They could generate runs and they were relentless.
You saw in this World Series, you saw against the Dodgers Milwaukee was never down and out.
They were always coming back.
This was a team really without a weakness.
Their pitching was fantastic, and they were clutch all the way through.
STEPHANIE SY: And the series itself challenged the assumption that the highest paid players were necessarily going to always win, not only with the Dodgers being bested, but Tampa Bay beating the Yankees on their way through the World Series.
What does that say to you?
JASON GAY: It says that the high school Bullies were vanquished in the corridor before this World Series.
I mean, you had two powerhouse franchises with massive payrolls knocked out embarrassingly by, again, these sort of plucky, well-managed, smart, strategic teams.
And what was fun about this World Series, we didn’t get the seven-game trauma, which is always great.
But you had in the Rays and in the Brewers, of course, the opportunity to see a team that had never won this win this.
And that’s what we saw on Wednesday night.
STEPHANIE SY: For all the celebrations, no doubt happening in Milwaukee right now, there’s a storm brewing over the MLB, as you know.
The players and owners are headed toward a potential lockout with owners wanting these player salary caps.
How does this World Series outcome weigh in on either side of this debate over salary caps?
JASON GAY: Well, in a funny way, it’s kind of a nightmare for baseball ownership, which very much wants a salary cap.
They want the ceiling, they want a floor, maybe, but they definitely want a ceiling in the same way you have in basketball, football, other sports.
When a team like the Rays comes forward, when a team like the Brewers comes forward and does it on a shoestring budget, it gives ammunition to the players to say, hey, look we don’t need a cap.
You guys just need to be better managed.
You just have to be smarter with your money.
What do we need a cap for?
I still think that the ownership is going to be very, very adamant about getting that cap.
And we could see a lockout situation, which really would be a terrible setup for the league.
STEPHANIE SY: Well, I know this is a story you’re going to be following in coming weeks.
Jason Gay with The Wall Street Journal, thank you.
JASON GAY: Thank you.
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