So much can change over 44 years. And in the case of the Milwaukee Brewers, an equal and perhaps excessive amount can stay almost exactly as it was.
The biggest city in Wisconsin will host a World Series for the first time in 1982, when the Brew Crew tips off Game 1 of the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays Friday, Oct. 23 at American Family Field.
The ballpark is just across the lot but a generation removed from County Stadium, the city's multi-purpose ballyard that hosted the occasional Packers game and once witnessed the soon-to-be-crowned American League MVP pilot his motorcycle into the stadium to the delight of fans still mourning a loss in the 1982 World Series.
Since Robin Yount's ride in the wake of a crushing seven-game defeat to
the St. Louis Cardinals, the Brewers have switched leagues, left behind the ownership of the Selig family and established themselves as the most consistent postseason presence this side of Chavez Ravine.
And they've also brought an awful lot of lore with them to the new place.
From songs to slides, sausages to statues, Brewers culture is about to get a close-up thanks to its Fall Classic appearance. Here's a guide for what lore to look for:
Bernie Brewer and his slide
If Junior Caminero's extensive home run celebrations make you blush, a far quicker trip to glory is available in Milwaukee.
There are fewer more apropos mascots than Bernie Brewer, a keg of a man whose twirly mustache would've played well in Yount's era and seems destined to have a little beer froth flecked in it. He's got a little dugout looming high above left field where he just chills out, thinking Bernie Brewer thoughts, until a Brewer hits a home run.
Then, it's a windy, circuitous trip down his slide.
Fans can arrange to pay to take that trip down, but buyer beware: It can end painfully.
Then again, Bernie used to have a much frothier splashdown after his slides...
Bernie Brewer's Bavarian chalet
It doesn't get much campier than Bernie Brewer's Bavarian chalet, his little center field hideaway at County Stadium from 1973 through 2000, before the club moved into then-Miller Park. Back in the day, Bernie's slide would end with him disappearing into a gigantic beer stein.
The chalet did not make the cut when the Brewers moved to Miller Park, so the owner of Milwaukee's Lakefront Brewery posed a simple question to the ballclub:
"You, uh, doing anything with that chalet?"
The brewery purchased the chalet for somewhere north of $15,000 and it remains at the restaurant near the banks of the Milwaukee River. The interior of the chalet is available for dinner reservations and fans sign their names - and other messages - on the chalet, not unlike the fouls poles and interior of the Green Monster at Boston's Fenway Park.
The Famous Racing Sausages
Long before Racing Presidents and Beat the Freeze, the Brewers rolled out their sausage race, first in animated form, at County Stadium. On occasional Sundays, they'd do a real, live race involving humans at County Stadium until their final year there, when the racing sausages would emerge from the left field corner to home plate.
You never know who might be in those costumes; an occasional Brewer or an odd visiting media member might be tapped to play one of Brat, Polish, Italian, Hot Dog or Chorizo.
On the night of July 9, 2003, Italian was portrayed by Mandy Wagner, a 19-year-old Brewers seasonal employee. The sausages were hopping along as usual when they passed the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates dugout. That's when Randall Simon Jr., their slugging first baseman, decided to take a whack at Italian.
Wagner was knocked over by the bat swing/tap/whack, though as she recounted in the days and years to come, the sausage costume was so cumbersome that a stiff breeze might've knocked her over.
The news cycle vacillated between "serious matter" and "hilarious moment" for several days, with Simon getting questioned by police and fined and suspended by Major League Baseball.
Wagner was OK. And since, the great sausage race has largely stuck to the script.
'Roll Out the Barrel'
You don't need to listen to a Tony Robbins audiobook for life-affirming inspiration. Simply gather with 40,000 like-minded individuals and declare, "We've got the blues on the run."
So it goes every seventh-inning stretch at American Family Field, when the Brewers play "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)," the lyrics on the big screen even though it seems every Wisconsinite might've had that playing in the mobiles hanging above their cribs after they were born.
Nearby Marquette University got into the spirit last week, chiming "Beer Barrel Polka" from Marquette Hall's Gothic bell tower. Maybe a little less uproarious, but pretty outlandish for the Jesuits.
Regardless, few franchises come harder with their theme strong than the Brewers. From mascot to song to the original name of the stadium, it seems the average fan will walk out of the place with a 0.15 BAC simply by osmosis.
Bob Uecker's statue(s)
There are two of them and it still probably isn't enough.
Bob Uecker called Brewers games for 54 years, the final two while battling small cell lung cancer in 2023 and 2024. He passed away at 90 on Jan. 16, 2025, leaving a massive legacy within the organization, from longtime executives to manager Pat Murphy and players nearly seven decades his junior.
But that was just how it was for arguably the most charismatic man in baseball history, a light-hitting catcher who rose to national and eventually global fame thanks to campy Miller Lite beer commercials and then several star turns on screen, most notably as announcer Harry Doyle in Major League.
A Cleveland-Milwaukee World Series might have been too much; that was the matchup in Major League, and a Fall Classic pitting those two teams one year after Uecker's passing might have been life imitating art just a little too hard.
Instead, this matchup should provide the perfect window for Uecker appreciation, beginning with his pair of statues in and around American Family Field.
The first one is typical, outside and joined by Yount, Hank Aaron and Bud Selig. Inside, though?
It's all Ueck.
Uecker's likeness is not on a concourse or anywhere visible, but rather high in the sky, amid the obstructed view seats, an ode to the greatest of his Miller Lite spots, where he gets evicted from Yankee Stadium box seats and relocated to the upper deck.
"I must be in the front roooooow," says Mr. Baseball, irrepressible as always.
This week, Ueck and the city that made him famous most definitely will be.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: From racing sausages to Bob Uecker, get to know your Milwaukee Brewers lore
