ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Brewers center fielder Jackson Chourio, third baseman David Hamilton and right-handed reliever Abner Uribe stood side by side, put their arms around their shoulders and sang "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver. As the World Series champions swayed and sang together in the clubhouse, Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers stood off to the side, grinning ear to ear, and watched his teammates celebrate the biggest accomplishment of their careers. After Brewers closer Trevor Megill induced a ground out to Rays pinch-hitter Richie Palacios, and second baseman Brice Turang threw it to first, it was Bauers who secured the final out of Game 5 of the World Series to officially declare the 2026 Milwaukee Brewers first-time champions. The only thing running through his mind was that he needed to keep the ball safe. "I’m so happy," Bauers told me in Milwaukee’s euphoric, beer-soaked clubhouse. "I’m so happy for my teammates. I’m so happy for the entire staff. I’m so happy for the city of Milwaukee. We did it together. I’ll keep saying that until I die. It’s true. We found something together, and we just kept going until it was over." Bauers said he never wanted this to end. Winning 114 times this year was not enough. "I’m ready to start the next game," Bauers told me. "We can keep going until the world freezes over for all I care. Start the game." In the background, the soundtrack to the Brewers’ celebration appropriately featured "We Are The Champions" by the rock band Queen. On the carpeted floor, there were champagne puddles everywhere. Reporters who have been covering game-clinchers for decades remarked they had never before gotten that wringing-wet. No one was safe from being showered with whatever they could find. Champagne, beer, water, and even the Fanta that their rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt drinks. Pratt, who hit .421 (8-for-19) in the World Series, carried the championship trophy around the clubhouse like it was a newborn baby. "I’m taking this thing for a joyride!" Pratt said. Catcher and World Series MVP William Contreras stood in the corner of the clubhouse, eyeblack still on his face with goggles pushed up over his forehead, with the Venezuelan flag draped over his shoulders. Contreras helped Team Venezuela win the World Baseball Classic in March. Just seven months later, he understood what it felt like to hold three trophies: the WBC, the World Series, and MVP. "I was going to find one way or another to bring that trophy home with me for sure," Contreras said. "Very happy we're able to share this with the people in Milwaukee. Now we'll be written in history with them, and get to celebrate this with them." While the Brewers danced, sprayed champagne and guzzled bottles of beer in the over-capacity clubhouse at Tropicana Field, a member of the Brewers medical staff stood alongside the champagne-soaked wall and couldn't shake that someone important was missing. "It’s sad that Ueck’s not here," Dr. Yuka Kobayashi, a team physician, told me. "He always wanted to make sure everyone was included. Even when I started out here nine years ago, when I was a youngling, he always, always made a point to come talk to you. He made you feel like you were the center of the universe. "Right now, it’s all the emotions at once. We all miss him so much. He would’ve loved this." There was an undercurrent of heartache rippling through the celebratory clubhouse in the profound absence of Bob Uecker, the former Brewers catcher, pop-culture icon and Hall of Fame play-by-play radio voice of the Brewers for 54 seasons. Uecker passed away at the beginning of last year after a battle with lung cancer at the age of 90. Players insisted that Uecker had found ways to be a part of the Brewers’ championship run throughout this October. In Game 1 of the NLDS against San Diego, after Padres first baseman Ty France hit a high fly ball that struck a roof cable at American Family Field, Murphy joked that, "We had Ueck knock that ball down." Among the thousands of Brewers fans that traveled to Tropicana Field to watch the Brewers win the World Series on Wednesday, one individual standing behind the visitors’ dugout held up a sign that said: "UECK, WE DID IT!" The Brewers played hard for Ueck all postseason, and they partied hard for him, too, even popping champagne bottles with his name on them. Players snuck behind the plastic sheets hanging in front of their lockers and smoked cigars. There was no point in sneaking. The sharp smell of beer and cigars had long filled the room and escaped out into the tunnel. Always, at the center of all the commotion was 22-year-old Jackson Chourio, who was so ecstatic to be a champion that he hugged camera crew and media members before they asked him questions. At one point, Chourio paused the partying and had a long chat with Hall of Famer Robin Yount, who earned a shout-out from Brewers manager Pat Murphy in his postgame clubhouse speech for paving the way as a member of the 1982 AL-pennant-winning Brewers. A group of relievers found Brewers owner Mark Attanasio and poured three blue bottles of La Marca champagne over him. Wearing yellow, open-toed Brewers sandals, Attanasio was ready for it. His championship T-shirt was soaked through. "For so long, we were told that we can’t win the way we’ve played," Attanasio told me. "We can’t win by hitting singles, by not hitting home runs. They told us we need stars. We need Hall of Famers. We need expensive players. But we have extremely valuable players. With the players, we built this together. We didn’t just buy these players. Look at Cooper Pratt. Nobody knew who he was four months ago. They all know who he is now!" If there’s one Brewer player everyone did know four months ago, it was Brandon Woodruff. The homegrown veteran right-hander is the longest-tenured Brewer in the organization, and after battling a right shoulder injury this year that was so severe it could’ve ended his season, he made a surprise return and was added to Milwaukee’s World Series roster ahead of Game 1. Woodruff secured the final three outs of Game 3’s 10-1 victory over the Rays on Monday night at Tropicana Field, closing the book on one of the most memorable wins of this Brewers season. On Wednesday night, after Woodruff became a champion, the 33-year-old stood on a pile of blue and yellow confetti in the center of the outfield. Tears welled up in his eyes as he reflected on his career. Woodruff told me he doesn’t yet know if he’ll hang up his cleats and retire after this year. All he could think about was how grateful he was to Murphy, otherwise and forevermore known as "Murph." "I had a little moment with Murph after we won it and I just told him, ‘Thank you. Thank you for getting me into a game,’" Woodruff said. "It makes every bit of that stuff worth it. And it’s pretty cool to do it all in one place." After the Brewers won it all and fell on top of each other on the field, Bauers held onto the ball from the final out. He held onto it throughout their chaotic on-field celebration and kept it in his pocket during the trophy presentation. Once the team came down from the stage and spilled onto the field, Bauers looked around for his manager. The first baseman found Murphy and gave him the ball. "Last out," Bauers said as he handed it over. Murphy didn’t hear him. "Last what?" he asked. "Last out," Bauers said again. Murphy took the ball and put it in his back pocket. He shook his first baseman's hand before giving him a hug. The beloved Milwaukee skipper told Bauers, the NLCS MVP who is now officially a free agent, to remember what the Brewers did this year. As if any one of them could forget.
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