ST. PETERSBURG -- About 23 hours before the Brewers won the World Series, Cooper Pratt stood conflicted at his locker. Pratt had just contributed the hit of his life in Game 4 against the Rays, but the celebration did not last.
That moment was over, Pratt stressed. It was time to move on. There was another game to go, another chance to play hero.
Twenty-three hours later, Pratt moved chaotically around the Brewers’ clubhouse, cradling the Commissioner’s trophy in one arm while clutching his favored Fanta soft drink in the other. As beer and champagne dripped off him, he shook his head in disbelief.
“I don’t even know what to say, man,” Pratt shouted after the Brewers’ 4-1 win in Game 5 of the World Series sealed their first title in franchise history. “How awesome is this?”
On a loaded Brewers roster that had five or more legitimate candidates for Series MVP, it was lesser-known players like Pratt and David Hamilton who chose this week to announce themselves to the world. After Pratt’s leadoff homer in the 12th inning of Game 4 proved indecisive, he came back the next day and set a World Series record for consecutive hits by a rookie, with six. When Hamilton’s game-tying homer in Game 4 went unrewarded, he returned the following night to drive home another run.
“There were no holes in that team,” Rays closer Bryan Baker said. “They did everything they needed to do to win a World Series.”
They all did, sure, but there is perhaps no better example of the Brewers’ conviction in their roster than Pratt. A 2023 sixth-round Draft pick who was their fourth-ranked prospect entering the year, Pratt batted just .238 over 120 games at Double-A Biloxi last season. The Brewers looked past those numbers to see an elite defender and baserunner who would develop at the plate. They handed him a controversial eight-year, $50.75 million contract before he had played a Major League game.
“I remember when I did it and everyone was like, ‘What the heck? Who is this guy? Who the heck is this?’” Pratt said. “I’m like, ‘Dang, guys. OK.’ And then I came up and I started performing and everyone was like, ‘OK. Maybe he doesn’t suck.’”
For additional evidence to the contrary, Pratt singled home the Brewers’ first run off Drew Rasmussen in the second inning Wednesday, then singled again to spark another Milwaukee rally in the fifth. The latter was his sixth consecutive hit, breaking Brian Doyle’s 48-year-old World Series rookie record and making Pratt the first player -- rookie or no -- to contribute six straight Series hits since David Ortiz in 2013. With a sacrifice fly in his next trip to the plate, Pratt fell one shy of Billy Hatcher’s all-time record of seven in a row in 1990.
In five World Series games, the rookie hit .421 (8-for-19) with two doubles, one massive homer and seven RBIs. His postseason OPS was .852.
“Coop is special, man,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “You chart that kid and how he lives his life, you see what he’s about. … I know guys listening to this will chuckle; he’s got a ton to learn. But they trust him because he is undaunted and he’s focused, and he’s focused on the right stuff. You can’t replace that.”
“He’s so young, man,” Hamilton said, echoing his manager’s thoughts. “He’s so gifted. He’s so talented. I can’t wait to see where he is 10 years down the road.”
Early Thursday morning, neither Pratt nor Hamilton were thinking much about life down the road. As Hamilton stood behind a massive bucket filled with beer, Pratt bounced around the room, clutching his trophy with a comical grin plastered across his face. Hamilton linked arms with a group of relievers to bellow an off-key rendition of “Country Roads.” Pratt offered his own vocals to a scream-singing version of “We are the Champions.”
“I’m a world champion,” he said. “I might add that in my bio: world champion.”
At one point, Brewers legend Robin Yount approached Pratt to tell him, “You’re one heck of a shortstop.” Murphy and president of baseball operations Matt Arnold focused more on Pratt the human being, the Fanta-slugging role model he is becoming for Wisconsin. At age 22, with a title already under his belt and a contract that runs through 2034, Pratt’s ambitions are limitless. In the on-field chaos following Milwaukee’s clinch, Pratt walked up to Arnold and joked about his middling performances earlier this year at Triple-A.
“Where were we four months ago?” Pratt quipped to his boss’s boss.
“It took me 26 years to do this, buddy,” Arnold shot back. “It doesn’t happen every day.”
For Pratt, who has already authored some of the most significant moments in Brewers history, it probably feels like it could.
“To do this in this year, it’s so special, man, especially for this city, this state,” Pratt said. “I don’t have any words. I’m going to be here for … eight more years. So maybe we’ll win one or two more.”