Some Milwaukee things come and go, while some become icons. Mandatory Milwaukee is all about the latter. This week (and potentially all of October): Planning your personal life around the postseason schedule of your Milwaukee Brewers.
File this in the “good problems to have” category. The Milwaukee Brewers are in the playoffs. Again. Yes, after playoff baseball not really being much of an issue during the vast majority of the franchise’s first 45-plus years of existence, the Brew Crew is enjoying an unprecedented epoch of regular season success that’s translated to postseason appearances.
Including this historic and altogether amazing season, Milwaukee has earned the right to play meaningful October baseball eight of the last nine years. We reiterate: this is a very good problem to have. We’re not complaining by any means. However, the team’s continued prowess has made it difficult for much of Milwaukee and Wisconsin as a whole to make or keep plans pretty much every single October since 2018.
Thankfully, the Brewers earned a Wild Card Series bye, meaning fans get a few days to carry on with their lives as usual until Milwaukee hosts either the Padres or the Cubs on Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4. The start times of those games aren’t yet known, which might complicate your weekend. A day game might prevent you from attending a fall festival or could shift outdoor plans inside. The Green and Gold hasn’t exactly been a treat to watch so far this year (plus it’s only Week 4), so maybe a potential Packers or Brewers viewing dilemma might not be as difficult as it has been in recent years, but a choice still might need to be made.
We also hope you didn’t make any plans on Tuesday, October 6 because they’re probably in the process of being changed as you read this so you can watch Game 3. Same goes for next Wednesday and Friday, if the series needs to go four or five games. And if you have tickets to any of the games (especially Game 5 in all its “if necessary” glory), not much is know until the Cubs and Padres finish doing their thing.
Even if you’re not a baseball fan, it’s likely you have friends, family members, work associates, and/or a significant other who are, meaning countless aspects of your personal and professional life will be disproportionately dependent on where, when, or whether the Brewers are playing a baseball game that given date. Concert tickets purchased months ago might need to be unloaded. Weezer is probably praying for a Brewers sweep for the sake of its October 7 show at Fiserv Forum.
Dinner reservations will be canceled or modified to now take place somewhere with a television that will be showing a potentially unforgettable game. Speaking of TV, we hope you have the networks that are showing Milwaukee’s upcoming games, or else it might be a few afternoons and evenings ahead of you that are spent watching at area bars or making plans with some of the more cable-inclined folks in your life.
The deeper Milwaukee advances, the longer the October uncertainty will extended. In the process, each additional game will be more crucial—and, as a direct result, less skippable—than the ones that preceded it. Each new series Milwaukee has will be the result of amazing moments and momentous wins that occurred the series prior. Without getting ahead of ourselves, the state’s collective need to circumstantially prioritize a baseball team above all else could hypothetically extend as far as October 31 and give us a Halloween night we’d remember for the rest of our lives.
Living this way for up to four weeks sounds mioghty stressful, exhausting, unsustainable, and unhealthy. And it absolutely is all those things, but we can’t wait to buckle in and stay on the ride as long as it lasts. One last time: this is the best problem a baseball fan could ask for. Bring it on.