The Milwaukee Brewers win the first World Series title in franchise history

2 hours ago (cnn.com)

I live in the US, and have heard nothing at all about this. What surprises me is this never used to happen when I was a kid.

  • - Politics (in focus) others already pointed out

    - When sports do their major events has shifted in the last decades or so

    - There's no longer a common TV culture.

    That last point started more with Cable TV, but everyone still got 'over the air' so coverage on major TV networks usually provided a foundation of shared culture and events. It also provided major news summaries that most busy adults managed to see a bit of. As if any of us with jobs have time for that these days.

    There's also the war for everyone's attention on "Social Media" and the Internet generally.

  • All news is politics news now in the US. Didn't used to be like that. (Dear readers, go watch some old 80s-90s TV news broadcasts on youtube if you don't believe me)

  • I (an extremely casual fan) forgot the series was on until yesterday's game but enjoyed the final two. I think it doesn't help that these are two 'regional' teams (compared to the Dodgers or Yankees). Good baseball just the same.

    • Tuesday's game was definitely the highlight of the series in terms of good baseball. Monday's game sucked ass, and I missed the first two, but tonight was like Tuesday lite. Tuesday night was some of the best baseball I have watched. I wish Tampa Bay had won a couple of more to give us a full series, but it was clear by the 7th that this game was over.

      Context: I'm an adult fan of baseball that didn't like sports at all as a kid, so I developed no team loyalty. I'm all about good, exciting baseball whoever wins.

  • Both teams are small-ish markets. (Milwaukee is the smallest market.) Neither team has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani or Juan Soto. In other words, this was the series MLB didn't want, especially with the upcoming contracts talks.

Was fun to have a Series in which each team was the best in its league and in which each team was competing for its first championship. I’m a Red Sox fan, and I remember 2004. It’s a tremendous experience as a fan (of the team or just of baseball). Go Brew Crew.

That leaves just the San Diego Padres (1969), Seattle Mariners (1977), Colorado Rockies (1993) and Tampa Bay Rays (1998) left who have never won a World Series.

Since this is baseball, I might as well provide the other stats I just pulled up as that's very much in the spirit of the game:

21 teams have won more than once: Yankees (27), Cardinals (11), Athletics (9), Red Sox (9), Dodgers (9), Giants (8), Pirates (5), Reds (5), Tigers (4), Braves (4), Cubs (3), White Sox (3), Twins (3), Orioles (3), Phillies (2), Guardians (2), Mets (2), Royals (2), Blue Jays (2), Marlins (2), Astros (2)

5 teams have one exactly once: Angels, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Rangers, Brewers

The Mariners are the only team to never have even played in the Series.

It's been 78 years since Cleveland last won. (Most of my life it was the Red Sox and Cubbies who held that title.) Followed by Pittsburgh (47), Baltimore (43) and Detroit (42), not counting the two teams that have never won above.

And in case you're unaware, the first World Series was in 1903, and there have been 122 in total.