The Milwaukee Brewers have the best record in all of Major League Baseball. They have a six-game lead in the National League Central over the second-place Chicago Cubs and have won nine consecutive games. At 73-44, they are going to be hard to stop. Could they potentially win the World Series this year? Only time will tell.
The Brewers themselves have never won a World Series title. The only time they've even been to the World Series was all the way back in 1982, and they were still in the American League back then. They lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.
However, teams like this year's rendition of the Brewers have won titles. Let's take a look back at some historical reasons for optimism as Milwaukee heads toward the postseason.
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When was the last time a team like the Brewers won it all?
The most recent example was probably the 2019 Washington Nationals. They were a perpetually loaded team, with Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Juan Soto and Trea Turner. Those are some pretty big stars, but outside of those guys, there weren't really any household names. They also didn't hit a lot of home runs and had just lost Bryce Harper.
So, obviously, we know that it's possible for teams like this to win the World Series. Like the Brewers now, the Nationals had never won a World Series title, but they made history that October.
And if we want to look at teams without a lot of power and household names, we can also look back at the last time the Brewers were in the World Series. The Cardinals had a solid ballclub in 1982. They had Ozzie Smith, Keith Hernandez, Bob Forsch, Bruce Sutter, and Willie McGee. That's more household names than the Nationals had in 2019, but the bread and butter of that team was not its power. In fact, what made that team so special was the speed it possessed and their ability to run the bases and play defense. Those Cardinals teams could really steal bases.
The Brewers have stolen 129 bases. That's the most in the National League. But they've also scored the third most runs in the NL. So, like the '82 Cardinals, their bread and butter is their speed. Teams like this are often overlooked, but they can surprise you when October comes around.