PUT A PIN IN IT.

No sooner has the World Series beer been drunk than free agency begins.

The 2026 World Series was a long time coming for Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy. The 67-year-old got his start as a baseball coach in 1982 and didn't get a full-time managerial gig in the majors until 2023.

After such a lengthy climb to reach the pinnacle of the sport, Murphy was — understandably — a bit more willing to let loose following the Brewers' championship-clinching win in Game 5 on Wednesday.

He got that opportunity — and didn't disappoint — upon being presented with the final-out baseball from Game 5. That moment was captured on video, as Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers walked over to Murphy and gave the manager the baseball that secured the last out of the 2026 World Series.

Murphy embraced Bauers for the gesture, and then delivered one more piece of sage advice to his first baseman, one that came at the expense of the New York Yankees.

Jake Bauers, who went from baseball obscurity to most valuable player in the National League championships is a free agent as of right now, with a qualifying offer from the Brewers to consider, and his manager was his authentic self.  "You're going to be a rich f***er. Just remember when you're on that horses*** Yankees team and you're all playing for yourselves, just remember this is the way we used to do it."  Why the Yankees?  "The club could be in the market for a first baseman this offseason, especially one who can take advantage of the team's short porch in left field."

THE POWER OF COMPOUND INTEREST.

During the World Series, Capital One called up a commercial that I have long enjoyed.

It touches on two of my pet themes, financial fitness and life after college being the revenge of the nerds.  Even when the kiddos don't call on the astronaut.  Stay in school.

That's all for this month.  The Packers didn't get the most satisfying win on Thursday, but football on any Thursday that isn't Thanksgiving is a foolish idea anyway, and they have work to do, win or not.  Safety Xavier McKinney did get fined by the league for criticizing the officiating in Detroit and Packer spokesman Wes Hodkiewicz, who, note, speaks for the Packer organization, noted "McKinney spoke the truth, and his words were worth every cent it may cost him."  The officiating crew in question have been exiled, if not to Siberia, from Sunday prime time to a game between New England and Miami.  "If this reassignment is actually a sign that the league is finally taking those complaints seriously, great. But if it's just an attempt to keep bad officiating out of the primetime spotlight, fans aren't likely to be all that impressed."

So mote it be.  Yes, there is a fraught election coming up, yes, people continue to write foolish things on Common Dreams, and yes, higher education continues to be run by terminally stupid people.  Those things will still be true come November.

Enjoy your Hallowe'en, and your World Champion Milwaukee Brewers.

ACCUMULATE THOSE SMALL ADVANTAGES.

There is no booth review in baseball.  Managers have two challenges of calls on the field, which they retain as long as their challenges are correct.  In the recently completed World Series, challenges of calls at second base figured in the outcome of three games.

In the first game, at Milwaukee, the Rays, trailing 3-1, had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth.  Brewer closer Trevor Megill served a ground ball that resulted in two outs and the after-game festivities beginning.  Tampa manager Kevin Cash challenged the play.  Runner out at first, that was unambiguous; runner safe at second, for as long as I've been following baseball I've heard broadcasters carrying on about automatic double plays called when the infielder receiving the ball hasn't properly touched second base, and so it transpired after New York looked at all the video; runner at third and a run in.  The next batter struck out and the Fox Sports stage crew could haul the broadcast set onto the field.  First game to the Crew, 3-2.

DON'T MISS THE VICTORY PARTY STUCK IN TRAFFIC.

Saturday last, the East Troy Electric Railroad said thanks to its donors by operating a Conductor's Club dinner train.  (Want to be invited, dear reader?  Send money.  Preservation railroads welcome money.)

The museum's ticket office and gift shop includes artifacts of Wisconsin's electric railroads, including this sign salvaged from one of the stations where passengers could transfer between local rapid transit cars and the West Allis streetcars.

Imagine having that option at the baseball stadium, which is still close to where that shared trackage ran.

The vacant land in the foreground, which includes remnants of passenger platforms, is where the rapid transit cars between Milwaukee and the Lake Country, latterly stubbed at Hales Corners and Waukesha.  Imagine having a choice of city or rapid transit cars for downtown or West Allis or points beyond, rather than coping with expressway construction, which is currently ongoing immediately to the left, or south, of the treeline at left of the photograph.  Pray that construction doesn't go on for 44 years.  Or pray to the Patron Saint of Traction for the souls of Brewer fans heading to the stadium for tomorrow's victory party.

FISH ON!

It is the nature of Milwaukee sports fans to prepare for disappointment. Consider the professional basketball championships of 2019, where the Bucks took two games from Toronto's Raptors in Milwaukee, and the interviews Milwaukee radio picked up with Toronto fans before the third game started suggested the only people in Toronto who thought the Raptors had a chance were wearing Raptor uniforms. The Raptors won four straight games and then won the league championship.

In baseball, the 1982 Brewers, then in the American League were in a position to win the World Series with one win in St. Louis.  The Cardinals won both.

During the current century, the Cold Spring Shops transition from Festive Season to February more often than not chronicles the latest way the Packers fail to live up to the standard, which remains five titles in six attempts in eight seasons.

Thus, I held off on celebrating the outcome of the World Series until the last defensive out was recorded by a Brewer.

Not the Dodgers, the Brewers.  Never mind the Babylon Bee trying to be funny.  "Fans are reportedly more excited than ever for the 2026 World Series, eager to sit down and watch a compelling matchup between Not the Dodgers and Not the Yankees."

MAKING A JOYFUL NOISE.

The World Series is not yet decided.  We know who the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra roots for.

This rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at the Bradley Symphony Center 👏 📹: milwsymphorch / IG https://t.co/Ts3doIig2y

— MLB (@MLB) October 25, 2026

Go Brewers.

PASSING THE BATON.

The current standard for collegiate or professional championships won in the Great State of Wisconsin is the nine national titles garnered by Wisconsin's women's hockey team.  More than a few of those players also won Olympic gold (Team U.S.A.) or silver (Team Canada) in the days before pitchers and catchers reported.

Thus, it is fitting and proper for representatives of the Wisconsin skaters to participate in the festivities opening the World Series in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin's social media team posted that picture without a caption.

John Hinderaker liked Mickey Guyton's rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.

He was also impressed with players actually lining up for the Anthem, but less impressed with replay review.  Perhaps we'll take those things up another day.

Milwaukee Brewers from the 1982 World Series, when the Brewers were an American League team, were on hand to throw out the first pitch.  Robin Yount, who Christian Yelich acknowledged as the team's de facto initial captain, honored longtime play-by-play announcer Bob Uecker in his choice of attire.

The Brewers held serve at home.  Keep in mind, dear reader, that the batters listed toward the bottom of the lineup card are major league baseball players, and they can hit for power accordingly.

Game Three starts in about ninety minutes in St. Petersburg.

FRIDAY short TAKES.

Baptist Baseball Fans Torn Between Rooting For Team Named After Devil Or Team Named After Beer.

Friday is for fish fries in Wisconsin.  Just spitballin'.

Between the World Series and a communications upgrade at Cold Spring Shops (internet connected to the fiber backbone, landline phone number migrated to a mobile, old emergency mobile to be discontinued at the end of October) this compilation of Friday short takes is another emergency clearance of bookmarks.  Longer-form essays are likely to resume sometime next week.

LEADING OFF, DONALD BOUDREAUX.

There have been a few distractions at Cold Spring Shops headquarters, and in that spirit we'll put in a pinch hitter with Some Links.  A few of the linked posts over there are on the line-up of topics to be dealt with later.  For now, hop on over there, read and understand them, and Go Brewers.

THE BETTER ORGANIZATION WILL PREVAIL IRRESPECTIVE OF OTHER INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS.

That's the title of a post from a summer ago, when the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Dodgers during regular season play, and Reason's Jason Russell, contemplating some sort of job action in organized baseball, engages the argument in "MLB's Salary Cap Fight Isn't About Competitive Balance, It's About Limiting Labor Costs."

In 2025, baseball fans wanting to avoid a lockout, a salary cap, or both, were rooting for the small market, small payroll Milwaukee Brewers to beat the goliath Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series (NLCS). The Brewers got swept. Now it's 2026, and guess what? Baseball fans wanting to avoid a lockout, a salary cap, or both, are rooting for the small market, small payroll Brewers to beat the goliath Dodgers in the NLCS. (At least the Brewers aren't getting swept this time!)

But what if none of that matters at all to the salary cap fight?

A small market World Series victory for the Brewers (19th in MLB payroll), the Tampa Bay Rays (28th), or, yuck, the Cleveland Guardians (30th) helps boost the theoretical argument that MLB doesn't need a salary cap for small market teams to succeed. But labor negotiations are not decided by debate club rules—you don't win with a better policy argument. It's all about the power dynamics and leverage of what is essentially a business negotiation between employees and employers. The policy argument might matter to public opinion, but it makes hardly any difference to leverage.

Competitive balance may not matter to the owners at all (in fact, some studies have found that salary caps don't create more balance, but revenue sharing does). The owners are almost certainly focused on keeping down their labor costs. A salary cap would likely give an immediate boost to team values—when Formula 1 teams recently agreed to a broad cap on their expenses, valuations shot up.

Tampa Bay will play the first two games of the World Series in Milwaukee, after Milwaukee returned the favor to the Dodgers.  The scholarly findings don't surprise me: a salary cap constrains the bidding for a productive resource, the players, and ceteris paribus the residual claimant, the owner, stands to do better; on the other hand, revenue sharing changes the bidding thinking of an owner, who now bids against other owners whose budget constraints might have been loosened.

I KNEW SOMEBODY WOULD GO THERE.

Somebody did.  "Brewers Playoff Hero Jake Bauers Makes Accidental Case for Medicare for All."

There's nothing like a Common Dreams contributor to turn a feel-good story about a nearly accidental most valuable player in the league championship series into tendentious leftist propaganda.

While generating headlines throughout the pennant race due to his outstanding hitting and field play, Bauers journey to the top of Major League Baseball has Cinderella elements. Just two years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Bauers was ready to retire from the sport’s highest level.

“He had been playing professional baseball since he was just 17, spending more than a decade bouncing across seven different organizations with little success,” the paper reported. “After batting .199 for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2024, he was frustrated, burned out, and ready to move on.”

Life outside baseball intervened, but in a way familiar to millions of American families, not just pro athletes who can earn millions in lucrative contracts and endorsement deals.

“Bauers’ wife, Lauren, learned she was pregnant with the couple’s second child,” the WSJ explained. “Suddenly, Jake’s plan to become a stay-at-home dad while Lauren returned to her teaching job no longer seemed viable. They needed health insurance—so Bauers begrudgingly decided to give his floundering athletic career one last chance.”

It's not as though a journeyman player who has been in the Cleveland and Tampa Bay organizations as well as with the Brewers has the lucrative contracts or endorsement deals of a Shohei Ohtani or Francisco Lindor.  And didn't the so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act obligate school districts to provide health insurance coverage, and didn't the triumphantly-titled Family and Medical Leave Act ensure maternity leaves?

MAKING A JOYFUL NOISE.

A carillon is a challenging instrument to play, as the performer is activating armstrong levers to ring the bells.  None-the-less, Marquette carillonneur Mark Konewko is up to the occasion,  getting into the post-season spirit with Marquette University’s carillon bells.

Let Roll Out the Barrel and Take Me Out to the Ball-Game ring out.

SOUND UP! Bells atop Marquette University tower play "Roll Out the Barre... https://t.co/3vd5nnMwfL via @YouTube

— Stephen Karlson (@StephenKarlson) October 16, 2026

Next week Friday and Saturday,  Brewer Nation is at the World Series.

FRIDAY short TAKES.

The World Series field is taking shape.  No Braves.  No Dodgers.  No Yankees.  No Red Sox.  Hey, Chicago, whaddaya say?  No White Sox.  No Cubs, no.  What the heck is a uniqlo, anyway?

The entire three-peat dream was built on the idea that this rotation was unbeatable in October. In 48 hours, Milwaukee solved it.  "They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we've got a bunch of gamers.  And the gamers won this week."

The following meme is not authorized by the Milwaukee Brewers or any sports broadcasting outlet.

The compilation of pithy elaborations on traditional Cold Spring Shops themes is a way of clearing out assorted bookmark entries.  I do not intend to resume weekly Friday short takes.  By all means follow the links.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE.

Los Angeles Dodger catcher Will Smith almost had a feel-good story someday to tell his new child.  "Smith, and his wife, Cara Martinelli Smith, announced the birth of their third child just hours before the first pitch on Wednesday."

Then came the game.  Jackson Chourio hit a lead-off home run against onetime Cy Young honoree Blake Snell, and Robert Gasser left the game with five innings of shutout ball.

Uribe followed rookie starter Robert Gasser and he loaded the bases on walks to Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani. Smith, who came in hitting .043, doubled to left-center for his first hit of the NLCS.

DL Hall took over from Uribe, allowing one hit and striking out two before turning it over to Trevor Megill in the eighth.

That double got between Brewer outfielders that the broadcasters have been comparing with ball-hawking strong safeties, and it sounded and looked like it was going out.  "The day you were born, Daddy hit a grand slam" didn't happen, but the double he did hit did give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.  What that clip doesn't tell you is that the hit off Hall was not in the sixth inning.

COMMUTER TAXES.

Brewers postseason has an economic benefit, but not for the reason you may think.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) estimates that Brewers postseason games contribute roughly $3.5 million to the local economy. But there’s another economic benefit beyond ticket sales or new “Take October” merch: income taxes.

Appearing on Wisconsin’s Afternoon News, Dale Kooyenga, president of the MMAC said, “when we have teams here, we get more income tax revenue from that.”

“If you’re a musician or an athlete, or really any job, you pay income taxes where you work,” Kooyenga said. So when “Lebron James plays here, … say he plays five of 80 games here in Wisconsin, [he] pays 5/80ths of his income in Wisconsin.”

The article does not explain whether that's the standard state income tax rate, or if Wisconsin's rules require players to keep track of "duty days" for calculation of taxes, in the manner of California's notorious jock tax that can more than exhaust the bonus a player earns in a postseason tournament.

THE TEAM PLAYING ATLANTA ALSO WON.

The Milwaukee Brewers will have at least one more opportunity to thank their fans.

It is now a race to eight wins.  Fittingly, Aaron Ashby, who recorded double-digit wins in relief, highlighting his team's ability to break ties or come from behind in the middle or late innings, pitched three innings for the win, and the baseball gods showed their sense of humor, with Garrett Mitchell taking a game-tying home run away from Manny Machado, perhaps the current Padre and former Dodger most disliked by Brewer Nation.

There's Sprecher as well as some Oktoberfest beers chilling in the 'fridge.

JUST A LITTLE BIT OUTSIDE.

The Milwaukee Brewers hosted the first two divisional round playoff games Saturday and Sunday.  Milwaukee's Oktoberfest was also in progress, with the Hoan Bridge illuminated in Brewer colors.

A fireworks display launched from the breakwater went into its Grand Finale at almost exactly the moment that Brewer catcher William Contreras hit a go-ahead home run.  Nobody at the stadium saw it, though, as the roof and side panels were closed.  Something about not making adjustments to the playing conditions during a playoff game.

THE RACE TO ELEVEN WINS.

David Manney's "From Uecker on the Radio to 103 Wins: What a Season" celebrates the Milwaukee Brewers path to the playoffs.

Some of my favorite Brewers memories don't begin at a ballpark.

They begin on a hot Wisconsin summer night with my dad, my brother, and me fishing on Half Moon Lake in Carson Park while Bob Uecker called the game on the radio. You could hear the water, the insects, maybe somebody fumbling with tackle, and Ueck describing baseball as only he could.

Those nights became part of what the Brewers mean to me.

There were ballpark memories, too. I remember going to the Met in Minneapolis and watching Larry Hisle hit two home runs against the Twinkies, including one off the fair pole.

Years later, sitting in the left-center field bleachers at the Metrodome, I had binoculars on home plate while Paul Molitor stole home while Robin Yount stood at the plate. It remains one of the greatest baseball moments I've ever seen in person.

And I know what some of you are thinking: the MLB lost some of you as a fan. I respect that. For me, however, baseball is part of me.

Growing up in Eau Claire, Wis., it meant it was easier to see the Brewers play the Twins than to drive three hours to Milwaukee County Stadium.

Until 1971, I was able to listen to, and suffer through, Brewer games on WTMJ, with Merle Harmon, and later Bob Uecker, on the play-by play; for the last forty years I've been able to enjoy the day games, but must make do with, or without, a scratchy radio broadcast of the night games, including much of that season-ending series win in Philadelphia and the sweep of the Cardinals.

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS IS A YOUNG PERSON'S GAME.

The Milwaukee Brewers last night secured their fourth straight division championship.  "Yelich, Woodruff relish standing as last ones left from 2018 division champs."  That's Christian Yelich, 2018 Most Valuable Player, and Brandon Woodruff, the last pitcher not named Shohei Ohtani to hit a home run in a playoff game.

The Chicago Cubs will likely be a playoff team, although for the third straight season since they recruited Craig Counsell away from the Brewers, their coaching staff and their big payroll has not won the division.  There has been a Central Division for years, with good Cardinals or Reds teams being all over the record books, and yet, neither of those teams put together four straight division wins.

There's still a lot of playoff baseball coming, and we'll see how well the Brewers, with a roster of relative newcomers, fare.  There is Sprecher chilling.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.

Venezuela might be better known for exporting baseball players than exporting oil.  Recently, Eugenio Suarez, of the Cincinnati Reds, passed his citizenship test.

His team changed his walk-up music the day he returned to the lineup.

🔥 THIS is how you become an American.

Cincinnati Reds slugger Eugenio Suárez fled Venezuela, missed two games to take the citizenship test, passed, and came back to the ballpark as a U.S. citizen.

His teammates changed his walk-up song to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”…

— Louis Montoya (@montoyalouis1) September 6, 2026

Tomi Lahren spent way too much time carping about Colin Kaepernick rather than the music and the home runs.