ST. PETERSBURG -- When they beat the Padres in the NLDS, the Brewers popped bottles bearing the names of every incorporated city in Wisconsin. When they won the NLCS, they popped bottles bearing the names of every player in franchise history who’d appeared in a postseason game.
And when they won the World Series, they popped bottles of bubbly for those who made the moment possible.
Family.
“I was trying to find my kids,” said Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff, the team’s longest-tenured player. “They’re in here somewhere. You know what, that is so cool. Because it’s not only us, it’s everyone who helped us get here. They included everyone.”
Brewers director of team travel and clubhouse operations Dan Larrea led the group that customized bottles throughout the Brewers’ run to a championship with help from director of clubhouse operations Tony Migliaccio, equipment manager Jason Shawger, visiting clubhouse manager Phil Rozewicz, manager of team operations Joe Swanhart and home clubhouse manager Ben Wilkes, who are all veterans of the club. Woodruff didn’t need a team directory to tick them off by name.
“Those guys grew up here,” he said, “and it’s incredible how thoughtful they are to put those nice touches in it.”
Speaking of nice touches, nine of the bottles bore the name of the Brewers’ late radio broadcaster, Bob Uecker. He wore No. 9 during his playing career.
Christian Yelich tucked his bottles in a safe place before the party got out of hand.
“They’re in my locker,” Yelich said. “Dan and those guys do such a great job of taking care of us, and they did just a good job all season of honoring different chapters of the club and our history and our families. It felt right. I think that was a great touch.
“It takes a lot of people in your life to get you to this point, and I’m glad that they get to celebrate with us, too.”
Larrea knows all about that, because since 1997 he’s been in charge of getting the Brewers and their families where they need to be during the baseball season.
During this year’s postseason, that was a monumental task, since the Brewers chartered five planes to travel the bulk of the front office to St. Petersburg for Games 3-5. Those who had to remain back in Milwaukee to handle the 31,000 fans who attended watch parties for all three games attended the NLCS.
“This means something special, because we want them to feel part of the Milwaukee Brewers organization,” Larrea said. “They all contributed to bringing us where we are now. We brought it finally home.”