Milwaukee Brewers

▪ American baseball team

      American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wis. The Brewers play in the National League (NL), but they spent their first 29 seasons (1969–97) in the American League (AL).

      The team that would become the Brewers was founded in 1969 in Seattle as the Pilots. After an inaugural season that was unsuccessful both financially and on the baseball diamond, the franchise was moved to Milwaukee (which had been home to the Braves (Atlanta Braves) baseball franchise from 1953 to 1965), where it took on the name of a long-standing local minor league team, the Brewers. The Brewers struggled initially, posting a losing record in each of their first eight seasons in Milwaukee. The arrival of future Hall of Fame shortstop Robin Yount in 1974 heralded the beginning of a slow turnaround for the Brewers, which was further bolstered in 1978 by the debut of another future Hall of Famer, infielder–designated hitter Paul Molitor. The Brewers ran off three consecutive winning seasons before claiming their first division title in 1981. They won their only AL pennant the following year, advancing to the World Series, where they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

 After their World Series appearance, the Brewers entered a period of sustained mediocrity, during which they finished no higher than third in their division for nine straight seasons. In 1992 the Brewers won 92 games and finished second to the eventual-champion Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Eastern division, but 12 consecutive losing seasons followed. With the addition of two expansion teams in 1998, Major League Baseball asked the Brewers to switch from the AL to the NL, and Milwaukee became the first team in the 20th century to change leagues. The team began playing in a new stadium, Miller Park, in 2001. In 2008 the Brewers—led by sluggers Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun and dominant pitchers CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets—won 90 games and qualified for the postseason as the NL Wild Card (as owner of the best record for a team that did not win its division title), the team's first play-off appearance since 1982.

 

* * *