PHOENIX — Hall of Famer Robin Yount knew that a luxurious 12-day cruise to Italy had been scheduled long ago by his wife, but it wasn’t until he was nearly aboard the ship that he realized the timing.
The Major League Baseball playoffs were underway and his beloved Milwaukee Brewers, were smack in the middle of it.
Damn. He wanted to be there.
At the least, he wanted to be able to watch on TV.
Well, you try catching a TV signal while bobbing along the waves in the Atlantic.
“I hadn’t paid attention to the timing of this cruise," Yount tells USA TODAY Sports. “I pulled up the schedule, and it was the start of the playoffs. The first two games [of the NL Division Series], I couldn’t
get the games on anything, but the ESPN app.
“So here I am, it’s 2:30 in the morning, and I’m lying in bed for three hours, watching stick figures of balls and strikes, and the lights where the ball was going until 6 in the morning. Then, I remembered, 'Hey, you idiot, you can use the Sirius app to listen.' Then I’m lying in bed all night with an earpiece listening to the broadcast.
“So what was supposed to be a nice, relaxing cruise with stuff going on all day long, and I’m getting about six hours of sleep the entire trip. When the cruise ended, I was beat up."
Yount, who had that iconic motorcycle ride into old Milwaukee County Stadium after the 1982 season, retreated with his wife, Michele, to their Phoenix-area home to watch Games 3 and 4 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium.
They watched every pitch of every inning, with the Brewers sweeping the Dodgers and winning the pennant for the first time in 44 years, when Yount won the American League MVP award. They fell in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals in that World Series, and haven’t been back, still seeking their first title in franchise history.
“When we lost in ’82, we all thought we’d be back to the World Series the next year," Yount says. “It took us 44 years. So when we won in LA, let’s just say I may have overserved myself a little bit. I guarantee you that every guy on that ’82 team was watching and celebrating, too."
This Brewers team reminds Yount of their ’82 team with the joy, passion and determination. Maybe they don’t stay in the clubhouse until 2 in the morning having a few pops and talking ball, with this new generation of Brewers going home to play video games. This team has a personal chef with a nutritional menu in the clubhouse and would be appalled at the notion of downing hamburgers and bratwurst before and after games like their ancestors. But, oh, does this team play the game hard with an emphasis on fundamentals, just like Yount’s.
“I love the way they play, but we may want this more than even they [the current Brewers team] do," Yount says. “We still believe we have some unfinished business to take care of. It’d be a huge relief to win this now with all of us still around to see it."
Yount, 71, robustly laughs. Hey, when you were drafted out of high school and raised as a Brewer, reaching the big leagues when you’re still a teenager, play your entire 20-year career with the Brewers, inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Brewer, and are widely regarded as the greatest Brewer player of all-time, that blue and gold stays in your bloodstream.
“Oh man, I live and breathe with these guys," Yount says. “I grew up in LA, but I was never a Dodger fan. We had so many years of disappointment and heartbreak against them. And then to beat them the way we did, it couldn’t have been a better script."
Now, 44 years later, here they are, playing in a different stadium, in a different league, and against a team that didn’t exist during Yount’s career, in the World Series beginning Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays at American Family Field.
“The fans, not just in Milwaukee, but the entire state of Wisconsin, they are all starving for this," Yount says. “They have as much passion as any fanbase in baseball. The city, all of Wisconsin, nobody’s missing this. The TV ratings won’t be low in Wisconsin, I guarantee you that."
Yount, who has been constantly exchanging text messages with his former teammates, certainly isn’t about to miss this World Series. He is taking 15 family members to Milwaukee where he will throw out the ceremonial first pitch Friday with Bud Selig, Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball, who brought the Brewers to Milwaukee in 1970 and made sure they never left.
Yount never left, either.
A two-time MVP and one of the most gifted all-around athletes of his generation, who even considered quitting baseball at one point to become a professional golfer on the PGA Tour or a Motocross rider, certainly had opportunities to depart. He twice was a free agent, heavily coveted by the Dodgers and Angels, but always came back to Milwaukee. He could have received more money on the free-agent market, gotten more fame, but his heart belonged with the good folks of Wisconsin, and particularly Selig, the Brewers’ beloved owner.
“It was the right fit for me," Yount says. “I was an extremely shy kid except for the baseball field and the motocross track. I was just always comfortable in Milwaukee. The smaller market was probably better for me. The only time I considered leaving is after that one taste of the World Series. That’s what motivated me, to have that shot again.
“But Mr. Selig was a car salesman before he bought the Brewers, and he did a pretty good sales job keeping me there. But you know something, he was absolutely right.
“If I had left, it would have been the biggest mistake I made in my career."
Yount, who amassed 3,142 hits, and joined Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg and Alex Rodriguez as the only players to win MVP awards playing two different positions (shortstop and center field), says the only regret in his career is not winning that World Series championship.
But, oh, did they ever come close.
They clinched the AL East on the final day of the regular season against the Baltimore Orioles when he hit two home runs off future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. They trailed 2-0 in the AL Championship Series to the star-studded California Angels, with Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew and Don Baylor, before winning the final three games. And, with Yount batting .414 with three doubles, a homer, six RBI and a 1.072 OPS in the World Series – becoming the only player to produce two four-hit games in a World Series – they lost the seventh and deciding game when they blew a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning.
The Brewers, a team with four future Hall of Famers, was built on power with Gorman Thomas and Ben Oglivie hitting more home runs than the entire Cardinals’ team. The irony now is that this Brewers’ edition is built like the ol’ Cardinals. They hit the second-fewest homer runs in baseball and ranked fifth in stolen bases, while back in 1982 the Cardinals hit just 67 homers and stole 200 bases.
“We played hard, we played to win, just like this team, but our team was a total different team than this one," Yount says. “We had a lot of power through the lineup. The lineup was unbelievable. We scored a ton of runs. But those guys, man, they can run and beat you in so many ways.
“I’m just hoping this year’s team brings the same results as that Cardinals team."
Who knows, maybe this time around, Yount will be riding his motorcycle into Great American Family Field proudly carrying the World Series banner instead of riding his dirt bike to a Brewers’ rally he wanted no part of, still livid over their World Series defeat.
The Brewers had already arranged a downtown parade and celebration at County Stadium before the end of the World Series, and two days after losing Game 7 in 1982, they still went on with the ceremony with beloved Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker as the MC.
“We came back from St. Louis just after losing the World Series," says Yount, who sobbed in the back of the plane on the ride back to Milwaukee, “and they told us they were going to have parade for us. In every players’ mind, the last thing we wanted to do is have parade after losing the World Series. We had to be there at 8 or 9 in the morning.
“So, the little bit of rebel in me, I had a dirt bike in the garage, and even though it’s not street legal, I didn’t care about anything at that point. It was my way of showing I was upset. I rode 10 miles, parked the bike by the dugout, and did the whole parade, with the fans celebrating like we won.
“We’re done with the parade, and I’m walking downstairs, [teammates] Pete Vukovich and Ted Simmons see the bike, and say, “Is this yours? You rode it here? What’s it doing here?"
Then, came the challenge.
Vukovich and Simmons: “Why don’t you ride it on the field?"
The center field gate opened, Yount, wearing a leather jacket, jeans and dark sunglasses, jumps on the motorcycle, roared around the warning track, with no helmet and his hair flying, riding right up to home plate.
The crowd roared, and the scene became such an iconic memory that the Brewers created a bobblehead with Yount atop the dirt bike.
“It was quite the celebration for losing," Yount says. “It went over pretty good. It certainly wasn’t planned on my part, so blame it on Vuk and Simba."
Yount, who still rides his motorcycles on the streets and surrounding mountains in Phoenix, and loves working on his bikes even more, will gladly ride his motorcycle one more time into a ballpark.
But only in a victory celebration at American Family Field in front of a euphoric Brewers’ crowd.
“You have no idea how bad I want this, and so does everyone else on that ’82 team,’’ Yount says. “We’ve waited such a long time for this.
“I just wish Ueck was around, but I guarantee he’s got a front-row seat watching this. He’s with us. We can feel it.’’
And, with four more victories, the spirit of Ueck, Selig and every single member of that ’82 team, will be celebrating, long and hard, making a Milwaukee winter seem downright balmy.
“I never had the courage to spend the winter in Milwaukee,’’ Yount says, “but I’d love see that parade. We’ve had to wait 44 years.
“I just want to see my team win, at last, while we’re still alive to see it."
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Robin Yount wants the 2026 World Series more than these Brewers do | Exclusive
