Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers are a professional baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The team is a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League and plays its home games at Miller Park. The team is so named because of the city's association with the brewing industry.

Franchise history
Originating in Seattle, Washington, as the Seattle Pilots, the club played for one season in 1969 before being acquired in bankruptcy court by current MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and then moved to Milwaukee. The Brewers were part of the American League from their creation as an expansion club in 1969 through the 1997 season, after which they moved to the National League Central Division. Milwaukee had previously been a National League city when its team was the Milwaukee Braves (1953–1965).

In 1982, Milwaukee won the American League East Division and the American League Pennant, earning their only World Series appearance to date. In the Series, they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, four games to three.

In 2008, the Brewers achieved their first postseason berth in the 26 years since their World Series appearance as the wild card team in the National League. They were eliminated in the NLDS by the eventual World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

On September 23, 2011, the Milwaukee Brewers clinched their first division title in 29 years. They won the National League Division Series in five games over the Arizona Diamondbacks, but lost to the eventual World Series champions St. Louis Cardinals in six games during the NLCS.

1970–1977
The original Brewers uniforms were "hand-me-downs" from the Seattle Pilots. Since the move to Milwaukee received final approval less than a week before the start of the season, there was no time to order new uniforms. Selig had originally planned to change the Brewers' colors to navy and red in honor of the minor league Brewers, but was forced to simply remove the Seattle markings from the Pilots' blue-and-gold uniforms and sew "BREWERS" on the front. However, the outline of the Pilots' logo was clearly visible. The uniforms had unique striping on the sleeves left over from the Pilots days. The cap was an updated version of the Milwaukee Braves cap in blue and yellow. Ultimately, it was decided to keep blue and gold as the team colors, and they have remained so ever since.

The Brewers finally got their own flannel design in 1971. These were essentially the same as the 1970 uniforms but with blue and yellow piping on the sleeves and collar.

In 1972, the Brewers entered the doubleknit era with uniforms based upon their flannels—all white with "BREWERS" on the front, blue and yellow trim on the sleeves, neck, waistband and down the side of the pants. This is the uniform that Hank Aaron would wear with the club in his final seasons, and that Robin Yount would wear in his first.

During this period, the logo of the club was the Beer Barrel Man, which had been used by the American Association Milwaukee Brewers since at least the 1940s.

1978–1993
The Brewers unveiled new uniforms for the 1978 season—pinstripes with solid blue collar and waistband. The road uniforms continued to be powder blue, but for the first time the city name "MILWAUKEE" graced the chest in an upward slant. In addition, this season saw the introduction of the logo that was to define the club—"M" and "B" in the shape of a baseball glove. The logo was designed by Tom Meindel, an art history student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The home cap was solid blue, and the road cap was blue with a yellow front panel. The club would wear these uniforms in their pennant-winning season of 1982. Only minor changes were made until 1990; the color of the road uniforms changed to grey in 1985, while the blue-yellow-blue road cap was abandoned the following year.

In 1990, the Brewers made significant modifications to their uniforms, switching from pullover to button-down jerseys (the last American League team to do so). Their individual uniforms showed other changes as well; at home, the blue piping was removed and the block lettered "BREWERS" was changed to a script version similar to the script that spelled their road uniforms, while those outfits had their piping changed from blue-yellow-blue to blue-white yellow.

1994–1999
In 1994, in collaboration with the Brewers celebrating their 25th year in baseball, the team did a radical makeover of their uniforms. The creative but outdated ball-in-glove logo was removed and replaced with a stylized interlocking "M" and "B" set on a pair of crossed bats and a diamond background. This change was derided by some fans as the "Motre Bame" logo. The royal blue changed to navy blue, while the yellow changed to a metallic gold. Forest green was added as a third color. The jerseys swapped pinstripes for retro-themed piping around the collar, buttons, and sleeves, following a trend that was very popular in the 90's. The uniforms' lettering had the same style of letters as the new cap logo with heavily stylized "BREWERS" lettering on the home jerseys and "MILWAUKEE" on the road grays. For the first time, an alternative jersey was introduced. It was navy blue with the home "BREWERS" lettering on the front and featured the Brewers' logo on the lower left side. These uniforms were also the first in franchise history to have the players' last names on the back. The home cap was completely navy blue, while the away cap featured a navy blue upper and a forest green bill.

In 1997, the uniforms were slightly modified, with the main logo removed from the caps and replaced with an "M" and the alternative jersey was removed. All navy caps were worn with both the home and away uniforms, while the away green socks were changed to navy blue.

2000 – present
Before the 2000 season, to coincide with the anticipated opening of new Miller Park, the Brewers changed their uniforms again. The block letters were removed and replaced with a flowing script "Brewers" on the front and green was removed as the third color. The cap logo was a script "M", similar in style to the Miller logo, with a head of barley underlining it, symbolizing Milwaukee's beer-making industry. The home uniforms also featured a patch on the left sleeve consisting of the cap logo with a gold outline of the state of Wisconsin behind it, showing the Brewers statewide appeal. The road uniforms would be grey and would feature the same script "Brewers" on the front, with a simple patch on the left sleeve with a script "Milwaukee" on it.

Although the uniforms were supposed to debut with the opening of Miller Park, an accident involving one of the cranes damaging the new ballpark, which cost the lives of three workers, delayed the opening of Miller Park one year, so the uniforms spent one year at County Stadium, the old ballpark's last year.

The uniforms also featured an alternative navy-blue jersey that had the same features as the home jersey and were many times favored by the players as the jersey is made with a lighter, more breathable fabric.

In 2010, the Brewers debuted a new alternative road jersey which, like the other alternative jersey, is navy-blue, but instead with a script "Milwaukee" in the front. They also added a gold jersey. This was the Cerveseros model worn on special occasions for the Spanish fans.

In 2005, new Brewers owner, Mark Attanasio, introduced Retro Sundays, where the Brewers would wear uniforms featuring the beloved "ball-in-glove" logo. The uniforms are similar to the uniforms worn from 1978–1989, but with some modern modifications, such as the uniforms being button-up instead of pullover, players last names on the backs of the jerseys, and a "ball-in-glove" logo patch on the left sleeve. In 2007, the Retro day was changed from Sunday to Friday, which continues to this day.

The retro uniforms have since been heavily favored by many Brewers fans and many continue to campaign to have them be once again the regular Brewers uniforms.

In addition, the Brewers have also worn special uniforms. The Latin Nights uniform is gold (originally blue) with a script "Cerveceros" in front, most recently worn on June 11 against the St. Louis Cardinals. On August 13, 2011, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Brewers also wore a special uniform to commemorate German Heritage Day. This jersey, which pitcher Zack Greinke accidentally wore during the previous night's game as well, is similar to the home blue alternates, but with the German "Bierbrauer" script lettering in front. The gold jersey was also worn on September 10 against the Philadelphia Phillies, except that the script features "Brewers" in front. This time they were worn for 'Gold-out Night'. For the 2013 season the gold alternates will be worn again, this time as a fourth home alternate uniform.

On July 1, 2012, against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Brewers wore green batting practice uniforms with red and white trim, a nod to the Italian flag, as part of "Italian Heritage Day". The front script reads "Birrai". They also wore red fielding caps.

During the offseason before the 2013 season, the Brewers allowed fans to design their own Milwaukee Brewers uniforms. Three finalists were chosen, with the fans allowed to vote on the Brewers website for their favorite. The winning uniform design will be worn by the Brewers for two spring training games.

Franchise individual records

 * Most Home Runs in a season: Prince Fielder, 50 (2007)
 * Most RBIs in a season: Prince Fielder, 141 (2009)
 * Most Hits in a season: Cecil Cooper, 219 (1980)
 * Most Runs in a season: Paul Molitor, 136 (1982)
 * Most Stolen Bases in a season: Tommy Harper, 73 (1969)
 * Most Strikeouts in a season, Pitcher: Ben Sheets, 264 (2004)
 * Most Wins in a season, Pitcher: Mike Caldwell, 22 (1978)
 * Best ERA in a season, Pitcher: Mike Caldwell, 2.36 (1978)
 * Most Saves in a season, Pitcher: John Axford, 46 (2011)

Franchise leaders
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; R = Runs; H = Hits; RBI = Runs Batted In; HR = Home Runs; * = current Brewers player

Baseball Hall of Famers
The following inducted members of the Baseball Hall of Fame spent part of their careers with the Brewers.

Retired numbers
The number No. 50, although it has not been retired, has been placed in the Brewers' Ring of Honor for Bob Uecker and his half-century in baseball.

Although Hank Aaron played only two seasons for the Brewers in the twilight of his career, he played in Milwaukee for twelve seasons with the Braves, from his rookie season of 1954 until their move to Atlanta following the 1965 season. Aaron won his only World Series in Milwaukee, with the 1957 Braves.

Championships

 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| American League Champions
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by:New York Yankees (1981)
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 1982
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by :Baltimore Orioles (1983)
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| American League Eastern Division Champions
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by:New York Yankees (1981)
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 1982
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by :Baltimore Orioles (1983)
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| National League Wild Card Winners
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by:Colorado Rockies (2007)
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2008
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by:Colorado Rockies (2009)
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| National League Central Division Champions
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by:Cincinnati Reds (2010)
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2011
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by :Cincinnati Reds (2012)
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by:Colorado Rockies (2009)
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| National League Central Division Champions
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by:Cincinnati Reds (2010)
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2011
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by :Cincinnati Reds (2012)
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2011
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by :Cincinnati Reds (2012)

Minor league affiliations

 * For a complete list of all-time affiliates, see List of Milwaukee Brewers minor league affiliates.

As of the 2011 season, the Brewers have the following minor league affiliates:

Radio and television
The Brewers' flagship radio station is WTMJ (620 AM). Bob Uecker, a winner of the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame, joined the Brewers in 1970, when the team moved from Seattle, and has been there ever since. Alongside Uecker is Joe Block, who joined the team's radio broadcast in 2012. Block replaced Cory Provus who had left to become the Minnesota Twins lead broadcaster on radio after the 2011 season. Provus, formerly of WGN radio in Chicago, replaced Jim Powell, who left Milwaukee for the Atlanta Braves radio network. Powell in turn replaced Pat Hughes, who departed to do play-by-play for the Cubs on WGN in 1996. The Brewers radio broadcasts usually feature a 2-2-2-1-2 format where Uecker does solo play-by-play for the first and last 2 innings, with Block does innings 3-4 and 7, and both doing analysis throughout and varied presentation for extra innings games.

Most of the team's television broadcasts are aired on Fox Sports Wisconsin (FSWISCONSIN). Brian Anderson, who has worked on The Golf Channel, took over as the Brewers' play-by-play announcer for the 2007 season. He replaced Daron Sutton, who joined the Arizona Diamondbacks. The color commentator is Bill Schroeder, a former major league catcher who played six of his eight seasons for the Brewers. As of 2011 Schroeder is in his 17th season as the Brewers' color commentator. The 2010 season was the first year where all of FSN Wisconsin's games are broadcast in high definition. Anderson (who also is a part of TBS's playoff coverage) also provided play-by-play for the 2011 NLCS due to Ernie Johnson stepping aside for the year due to a medical situation with his son.

From 2007-2011, the Brewers and FSN Wisconsin subcontracted to Weigel Broadcasting a package of 15 games and one spring training game over-the-air on WMLW (then-Channel 41/digital 13/58.2) in Milwaukee each season with FSN Wisconsin producing the telecasts and Weigel selling air time for each of those games and additional games added depending on weather postponements and pennant race standings (WMLW would air on the outstate FSN Wisconsin network for the remainder of the state).The deal was ended before the 2012 season in order to facilitate full-season HD coverage on FSN Wisconsin and distribution complications. Weigel continues to air a few Sunday home broadcasts per year with Spanish language play-by-play on Telemundo affiliate, WYTU-LD (Digital Channel 63/49.4), which produces their own broadcasts using FSN's camera positions.

Five of the six major network television stations in Milwaukee, along with WMLW, have carried game broadcasts over the years, with WTMJ-TV being the original broadcaster in the 1970s. WVTV carried the team for the bulk of the 1980s and early 1990's, with WCGV-TV following from 1994 until 2004, and WISN-TV carrying select Sunday games at the beginning of the 2000s. WITI is the only station not to have carried local coverage of the team through its history (though former WITI sports anchor Jim Paschke was the team's TV announcer during its time with WVTV), although it has aired national games from CBS and Fox involving the Brewers through the years.