MILWAUKEE -- Happy birthday, Brewers.

Wednesday marked 50 years since a bankruptcy judge ordered the Seattle Pilots to be sold to a group in Milwaukee led by Bud Selig, who renamed the team the Brewers after the city’s rich brewery heritage. Six hectic days later, players took the field at County Stadium against the California Angels.

A 12-0 loss that day didn’t dampen the enthusiasm. Baseball fans in Wisconsin had endured so many disappointments -- from the departure of the Braves for Atlanta five years earlier, to unsuccessful bids for American and National League expansion, to a near-deal to acquire the Chicago White Sox in 1969 -- that many were simply happy to have Major League Baseball in Milwaukee again.

“I was in eighth grade,” said Mario Ziino, who grew up to work in the Brewers’ front office and became a walking encyclopedia of club history. “We decided to call in sick and we took the bus to the ballgame. We didn’t know any of the players. None of them. We just wanted to be at the ballgame.”

Wendy Selig-Prieb was 10 years old when the Brewers were born. She later ran the team in the 1990s and early 2000s while her father served as MLB Commissioner, but first she was a fan whose favorite player was Marty Pattin, a starting pitcher who wore No. 33. On days Pattin pitched, Selig-Prieb found a seat in Row 33 somewhere in the stadium for luck. Maybe it helped. Pattin led the 1970 Brewers in victories, complete games, innings and strikeouts.

“To think that 50 years have passed, it’s just remarkable,” she said.

During those first five decades, 877 players from Henry Aaron to Eddie Zosky wore the uniform. Seven of them are in the Hall of Fame (Henry “Hank” Aaron, Rollie Fingers, Don Sutton, Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Trevor Hoffman and 2020 electee Ted Simmons). Selig was also inducted into the Hall of Fame, and a former light-hitting catcher Selig hired as a scout before sending him up to the broadcast booth has a spot in the Hall of Fame as a Ford C. Frick Award winner. Bob Uecker earned that honor in 2003.

Countless others didn’t make their way to Cooperstown, but they did find a home in fans’ memories.

“The best years of my career were right here,” said sweet-swinging first baseman Cecil Cooper. “It’s pretty incredible to think about 50 years of the team here. Pretty special place.”

Here are some of our picks for the best of the Brewers’ first five decades:

1970s

In about 50 words
It took the Brewers nine years to post a winning record, but it was worth the wait. Aaron returned to finish his career in Milwaukee and help mentor a teenage shortstop named Robin Yount, who was coming into his own when general manager Harry Dalton and manager George Bamberger took over in 1978 and the Brewers became a contender.

Player of the decade: Don Money
One of the best defensive shortstops in baseball, Money slashed .277/.342/.420 for the Brewers in the 70s, led the way with 22.6 fWAR and 24.7 bWAR and became the first player in franchise history to start an All-Star Game in 1978.

Pitcher of the decade: Jim Slaton
The Brewers’ all-time leader in starts, shutouts, wins (and losses) and innings helped the club on and off the field. After Slaton’s first stint in Milwaukee from 1971-77 culminated with a spot in the ’77 All-Star Game, Dalton traded him to Detroit for Ben Oglivie. Then Slaton re-signed for 1978 and pitched five more years in a Crew uniform.

Season to remember: 1978
They won more games and finished higher in the American League East standings in ’79, but ’78 was a turning point for the franchise. With Dalton as the architect, Bamberger pulling the strings, and Yount joined by a rookie named Molitor on the infield, “Bambi’s Bombers” went 93-69 for a remarkable 26-win improvement over the previous season.

1980s

In about 50 words
The teams of the early 80s were quintessentially Milwaukee, and they gave fans plenty to cheer about with back-to-back postseason runs in ’81 and ’82, including a World Series appearance. It was the decade of Yount, Molitor, Fingers, Sutton, Cooper, Oglivie, Caldwell, Jim Gantner, Gorman Thomas, Pete Vuckovich and so many more fan favorites.

Player of the decade: Robin Yount
Yount led the Majors for the decade with 1,731 hits and twice won the American League Most Valuable Player Award -- in 1982 at shortstop and in ‘89 in center field after a shoulder injury forced a move. Every list of the best players in Brewers history begins with Yount.

Pitcher of the decade: Teddy Higuera
What might have been had Higuera not been struck by injuries? When healthy, he was one of the best left-handers in baseball, including a 1986 season in which he went 20-11 with a 2.79 ERA and 207 strikeouts and finished second in AL Cy Young Award balloting.

Season to remember: 1987
Of course, the ’81 and ’82 seasons were among the best in franchise history, but for pure drama, it was difficult to top “Team Streak.” This single season began with an AL-record 13-game winning streak, followed by a 12-game losing streak in May. Juan Nieves threw the only no-hitter in franchise history on April 15, 1987. Molitor put together a 39-game hitting streak that ended with him in the on-deck circle in the bottom of the 10th inning on Aug. 26, when fans booed Rick Manning’s game-winning hit. That same night, Higuera began a club-record streak of 32 scoreless innings pitched.

1990s

In about 50 words
It was a decade of change. Molitor left via free agency following the ‘92 season, and Yount and Gantner retired a year later. In ‘98, the Brewers moved to the National League. And as the decade came to a close, Miller Park rose beyond County Stadium’s center-field wall.

Player of the decade: Jeff Cirillo
Cirillo was a pitcher at the University of Southern California, but he turned himself into a third baseman and became one of the toughest outs in Brewers history. He is the franchise’s all-time batting champion, the Brewers’ leader for the decade in on-base percentage at .384 and their runaway leader for the decade in fWAR and bWAR over runner-up Greg Vaughn.

Pitcher of the decade: Cal Eldred
It was not a strong decade for Brewers pitchers, but Eldred was a steady hand from 1991-99, leading the Brewers in innings and strikeouts while going 64-65 with a 4.51 ERA.

Season to remember: 1992
It was a changing of the guard, with Yount, Molitor and Gantner playing their record-setting 15th and final season together for a team that had a new GM (Sal Bando), manager (Phil Garner) and the AL Rookie of the Year Award winner (Pat Listach). Yount punched his ticket to Cooperstown when he joined the 3,000-hit club on Sept. 9, 1992, the same day Selig was named acting Commissioner of MLB. The Brewers were two games out of first place entering the final weekend of the season but couldn’t catch the eventual World Series champion Blue Jays.

2000s

In about 50 words
After the Brewers moved into Miller Park and endured a rebuild, their renaissance was fueled by homegrown hitters like Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Corey Hart, Rickie Weeks and J.J. Hardy. They also had a new owner; Mark Attanasio’s purchase was finalized in 2005, the year Fielder debuted and Braun was drafted.

Player of the decade: Geoff Jenkins
Not even the players who moved with the franchise from Seattle to Milwaukee experienced as much change as Jenkins, who saw the Brewers switch leagues, logos, stadiums, owners, GMs (twice) and managers (four times) -- all during a 13-year tenure with the organization beginning in 1995. Choosing Jenkins over Fielder is in part a matter of timing; Fielder was a force whose tenure happened to straddle decades, while Jenkins was already established as the 2000s began. He led the team with 182 home runs while slugging a respectable .496.

Pitcher of the decade: Ben Sheets
Sheets made four All-Star Games and pitched more than twice as many innings than any other Brewers pitcher (Dave Bush was runner-up), departing as the franchise’s all-time strikeout leader.

Season to remember: 2008
The Brewers played to within two wins of the World Series three years later, but 2008 is the “what if?” season for players like Craig Counsell, who said the team was built to win a championship. Manager Ned Yost was dismissed with 12 regular-season games to go, but the Brewers won the NL Wild Card with a huge lift from July pick-up CC Sabathia, the lefty who went 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA and seven complete games down the stretch. He went the distance in Game 162 and Braun homered for an epic win over the Cubs that sent the Brewers to the postseason for the first time in 26 years.

2010s

In about 50 words
The only decade in franchise history with three trips to the postseason began with the sunset of Fielder’s Brewers tenure and ended with the rise of a new face of the franchise in Christian Yelich. Leading the way was a hometown manager in Counsell and a new GM in David Stearns.

Player of the decade: Ryan Braun
Braun hit 241 of his franchise-record 344 home runs from 2010 on and remained dangerous deep into his 30s, well after returning from a 2013 PED suspension. Braun capped the decade with a pair of signature moments -- grand slams against the Cardinals and Reds down the stretch in ‘19 that helped clinch the NL’s second Wild Card berth.

Pitcher of the decade: Yovani Gallardo
Gallardo delivered four straight seasons of 200-plus strikeouts from 2009-12 and eventually surpassed Sheets as the franchise’s all-time leader. No Brewers pitcher has topped 200 innings since Gallardo in ‘12.

Season to remember: 2018
“Too many outfielders” was the charge when Stearns traded for Yelich and signed free agent Lorenzo Cain on the same day in January 2018, but it turned out to be just right. The Brewers caught fire in September, winning their final eight regular-season games including a thrilling NL Central tiebreaker at Wrigley Field to clinch the third division crown in club history. Then they kept winning, sweeping the Rockies in the NL Division Series before falling to the Dodgers in a seven-game NL Championship Series, one win shy of a return trip to the World Series.