Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the Central Division of the National League. The team's name alludes to the city's association with the brewing industry and has been used by several other baseball teams that have called Milwaukee home. Since 2001, the Brewers have played their home games at American Family Field, which was named Miller Park through the 2020 season and has a seating capacity of 41,900 people.
The team was founded as the Seattle Pilots, an expansion team that joined the American League and began play in Seattle, Washington, as part of the 1969 MLB expansion. The Pilots played their home games at Sick's Stadium. After one season, the team relocated to Milwaukee and started playing their home games at Milwaukee County Stadium as the Milwaukee Brewers. They remained in the American League through the 1997 season before joining the National League in 1998.
From 1969 through 2025, the Brewers' overall regular-season win–loss record is . Since moving to Milwaukee in 1970, they have an overall win–loss record of through the end of 2025. The Brewers have qualified for the postseason 11 times, having won one AL pennant, seven division titles, and three wild card berths. They met the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 World Series, their only World Series appearance, losing 4–3. The Brewers are one of five current MLB teams that have never won the World Series. They and the San Diego Padres are the oldest MLB teams to never win the World Series; at 57 seasons, Milwaukee has the second-longest active championship drought in MLB behind the Cleveland Guardians.
History
Milwaukee had been an American League city, albeit briefly, when the original Milwaukee Brewers became an AL charter team in 1901 before moving to St. Louis to become the Browns the following season. Between 1902 and 1952, Milwaukee was home to the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association and the Milwaukee Bears of the Negro National League. Both clubs played at Borchert Field. It became a National League city when its team was the Milwaukee Braves.Today's Milwaukee Brewers originated as an expansion team in 1969, in Seattle, Washington. The Seattle Pilots played for one season in the American League West Division before being acquired in bankruptcy court by Bud Selig, who moved the team to Milwaukee. Renamed the Brewers, they played in the West Division for three years. Before the 1972 season, the Brewers agreed to switch to the American League East Division to make room for the Texas Rangers who, as the Washington Senators, had moved from Washington, D.C.
In 1981, Milwaukee won the American League East in the second half of the strike-shortened season. Rollie Fingers became the first Brewer and first relief pitcher in the history of the American League to win the MVP Award. In the playoffs, they lost the Division Series to the New York Yankees, three games to two. In 1982, Milwaukee, led by AL MVP Robin Yount, won the American League East Division and the American League Pennant, earning their first World Series appearance and only American League pennant. In the Series, they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. This would be the last playoff appearance for the team for the next two decades, during which they won 90 games just twice. In 1994, the Brewers moved to the new American League Central division.
In 1998, the Brewers moved to the National League. The 2007 season saw them miss out on the NL Central title by two games, their closest finish to a division title since 1988 and also their first winning season since 1992. In 2008, under interim manager Dale Sveum for the first time in the 26 years since their World Series appearance, the Brewers advanced to postseason play by winning the National League wild card. They were eliminated in the National League Division Series by the eventual World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.
On September 23, 2011, the Milwaukee Brewers clinched their first division title in 29 years. They won the National League Division Series in five games over the Arizona Diamondbacks, but lost the National League Championship Series to the eventual World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals in six games.
In 2018, the Brewers clinched a spot in the post-season for the first time since 2011 with a 2–1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on September 26, 2018.
On September 29, they tied with the Cubs for first place in the National League Central, with a record of 95–67; at the end of the day on September 30, the Cubs and Brewers were still tied. This tie was broken on October 1, when the Brewers defeated the Cubs 3–1 in the NL Central tiebreaker to improve to 96–67 and win the division by one game. They went on to defeat the Colorado Rockies 3–0 to win the NLDS, but in the following NLCS, they lost out to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 7 games.
In 2019, the Brewers returned to the postseason, where they were defeated in the National League Wild Card Game, 4-3, by the eventual World Series champion Washington Nationals.
In 2020, the club made the postseason for a third consecutive year, making the expanded Playoffs as the 8th seed losing both games to the eventual champion Dodgers.
In 2021, Giannis Antetokounmpo became a minority owner of the Brewers.
In 2021, the Brewers clinched the NL Central title with a 95–67 record. However, they lost to the eventual World Series champions Atlanta Braves in 4 games in the NLDS.
In 2023, the Brewers won the NL Central with a 92-70 record, but were swept in the best-of-three Wild Card series by the eventual NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks.
In 2024, the team won the NL Central again, with a 93-69 record, but lost the winner-take-all game three of the Wild Card series in Milwaukee to the New York Mets.
In 2025, the Brewers finished with a 97-65 record, the best in their history, and the best record in MLB that season. This secured them their third straight NL Central title as well as a bye to the best-of-five NLDS. They played their division rival Chicago Cubs in the NLDS, taking the series to a pivitol game five, which Milwaukee won 3-1, advancing to the NLCS. They would be swept in the best-of-seven series by the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Uniforms
1970–1977
The first Brewers uniforms were "hand-me-downs" from the Seattle Pilots. Because the move to Milwaukee received final approval less than a week before the start of the season, there was no time to order new uniforms. Selig had originally planned to change the Brewers' colors to navy blue and red in honor of the minor league American Association's Milwaukee Brewers, but was forced to simply remove the Seattle markings from the Pilots' blue-and-gold uniforms and sew "BREWERS" on the front. However, the outline of the Pilots' logo remained visible. The uniforms had unique striping on the sleeves left over from the Pilots days. The cap was an updated version of the Milwaukee Braves cap: solid blue, with a yellow block "M" on the front. Ultimately, it was decided to keep blue and gold as the team colors, and they have remained so ever since.The Brewers finally got their own flannel design in 1971, but only for their home jerseys. This design was essentially the same as the one used in 1970, but with blue and yellow piping on the sleeves and collar. Meanwhile, the road jerseys did not add the trim around the collar and kept the wide-banded striping on the sleeves from the Pilots era. Additionally, player numbers were added to the front of both jerseys for 1971.
In 1972, the Brewers entered the double-knit era with uniforms based upon their flannels: all white with "BREWERS" on the front and blue and yellow trim on the sleeves, neck, waistband and down the side of the pants; the uniform took on the form of a pullover jersey and an elastic waistband. The road uniforms remained blue, although a darker shade than those of 1970 and '71. In 1974, a yellow-paneled cap was added to the road uniforms, and the "sanitation sock" on the road uniforms were also changed from white to yellow. This is the uniform that Hank Aaron wore with the club in his final seasons and that Robin Yount wore in his first. During this period, the logo of the club was the Beer Barrel Man, which had been used by the previous minor league Brewers since at least the 1940s. The Brewers mascot, Bernie Brewer was introduced in 1973.
1978–1993 (ball-in-glove logo)
The Brewers unveiled new uniforms for the 1978 season. The uniforms continued to use the pullover jersey/beltless pants combo, and featured pinstripes with a solid-blue collar and waistband. The road uniforms continued to be powder blue, but for the first time the city name, "Milwaukee", graced the chest in an upward slant in script form.In addition, the Brewers introduced the ball-in-glove logo that contained an "M" and "B" in the shape of a baseball glove. The logo was designed by Tom Meindel, an art history student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The home cap was solid blue, and the road cap was blue with a yellow front panel. Additionally, their batting helmets had a white front panel. The club wore these uniforms in their pennant-winning season of 1982. Only minor changes were made until 1990; the color of the road uniforms changed to gray in 1985 while the blue-yellow-blue road cap and white-paneled batting helmets were abandoned at the same time.
In 1990, the Brewers made significant modifications to their uniforms, switching from pullover to button-down jerseys. Their individual uniforms showed other changes as well; at home, the blue piping was removed and the block lettered "BREWERS" was changed to a script version with a tail similar to the script used on road uniforms, while those outfits had their piping changed from blue-yellow-blue to blue-yellow. The road jerseys were the first uniforms in franchise history to feature player names on the back, introduced in the first year of this uniform set; names were added to the home jerseys beginning in 1993, the last year of this set.