October 10, 1982: The Milwaukee Brewers win their 1st Pennant, the 1st by any Milwaukee team since the 1958 Braves, beating the California Angels, 4-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium -- and on the 25th Anniversary of the Milwaukee Braves' 1957 World Series win, no less.
Founded in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, the team went bankrupt in its 1st season. During Spring Training of 1970, a used car salesman named Allan H. Selig Jr. -- Bud Selig -- bought them, and put them in County Stadium, to replace the Braves, who had moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season.
Late in the 1973 season, Robin Yount made his major league debut, and went on to become a star. It took the "Brew Crew" until 1978 to get into a Pennant race, but from then until 1992, the entire tenure in Milwaukee of Paul Molitor, the team was nearly always in the race.
In the strike-split season of 1981, the Brewers finished 1st in the American League Eastern Division in the 2nd half of the season, and played the 1st-half winners, the New York Yankees, in the AL Division Series, a format that would not be used again until the 3-Division setup began in 1995. The Yankees won the 1st 2 games, then the Brewers won the next 2, before the Yankees won the deciding Game 5.
In 1982, they won 95 games, tying their team record total from 1979. That time, they finished 7 games behind the Baltimore Orioles. This time, they nearly blew it: They led the Orioles by 4 games with 5 to play, with the last 4 in Baltimore. The Brewers lost 4 straight, so the winner of the October 3 finale would take the Division. But the Brewers took a 3-0 lead, led 5-2 after 8 innings, and put the game away with 5 runs in the 9th to win, 10-2, and win their 1st full-season Division title.
Managed by Harvey Kuenn, a Milwaukee native, and a former Brave who had won the 1959 AL batting title with the Detroit Tigers, they were known as "Harvey's Wallbangers": Shortstop Yount won the batting title with a .331 average, 1st baseman Cecil Cooper batted .313, 2nd baseman Jim Gantner .295; and Molitor and Don Money, who split the 3rd base and designated hitter duties, were .302 and .284, respectively.
Home runs: Center fielder "Stormin'" Gorman Thomas hit 39, left fielder Ben Oglivie 34, Cooper 32, Young 29, catcher Ted Simmons 23, Molitor 19, and Money 16. Runs batted in: Cooper had 121, Yount 114, Thomas 112, Ben Oglivie 102, Ted Simmons 97, Molitor 71, and Money 55.
They also had great pitching. Pete Vuckovich went 18-6, and would receive the AL Cy Young Award. Mike Caldwell, a lefthander with a nasty curveball, went 17-13. Bob McClure, Jim Slaton and Bryan "Moose" Haas filled out the starting rotation. Former Los Angeles Dodger ace Don Sutton turned out to be a good late-season pickup. And former Oakland Athletics star Rollie Fingers, the previous season's AL Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner, had 29 saves.
The 1st 2 games of the ALCS were played at Anaheim Stadium (now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim), and the Angels won them. But as the series shifted to Milwaukee, they blew the 2-games-to-none lead, the 1st time this had ever happened in an LCS. Sutton's pitching and a Molitor homer won Game 3, Haas won Game 4 with support from a Mark Brouhard homer, and McClure rode an Oglivie homer and Cooper's 2-run single in the 7th inning to win Game 5. It was the 1st Pennant for the Brewer franchise, and the 1st for a Milwaukee team since the 1958 Braves.
Despite having such veteran hitters as Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew, Fred Lynn, Bobby Grich, Don Baylor, Rick Burleson, Doug DeCinces, Bob Boone, Brian Downing, Juan BenÃquez, Bob Boone; young talent hitting talent like Gary Pettis; and strong pitching in Stan Bahnsen, Tommy John, Luis Tiant, Bruce Kison, Ken Forsch, Dave Goltz, Andy Hassler, Don Aase, Geoff Zahn and Mike Witt, the Angels had come within 7 outs of their 1st Pennant, and lost.
In the World Series, the Brewers played the St. Louis Cardinals, who had won their 1st Pennant in 14 years on the same day, by beating the Atlanta Braves, 6-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, to complete a sweep. The Cardinals won in 7 games.
The Brewers came within 2 games of an AL East title in 1988, and within 4 in 1992. They were switched to the National League in 1998. The won the NL's Wild Card berth in 2008. They won the NL Central in 2011, 2018 and 2021; won Wild Card berths in 2019, 2020; and reached the NL Championship Series in 2011, 2018. But, through the 2021 season, the Brewers have never won another Pennant.
UPDATE: The Brewers won the Division again in 2023, '24, '25 and '26. They reached the NLCS in '25. But it took them until 2026 before they won another Pennant.
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October 10, 1982 was a Sunday. In addition to the NL Pennant also being decided that day, there were 4 games in the NHL:
* The Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3 at the Boston Garden.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals, 6-4 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Hartford Whalers and the Buffalo Sabres played to a tie, 4-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.
But the NBA season didn't start until October 29. And this was during the NFL players' strike, so, despite it being an Autumn Sunday, there were no NFL games played.
