Because of the Milwaukee Brewers’ run of success that is still borderline unimaginable to anyone over the age of 40, the worlds of superstitious baseball fans and business logistics collide nearly every September, when playoff tickets go on sale.
“Wait,” the superstitious folks say, “the Brewers haven’t clinched a spot in the postseason yet!” (Update: They did. More on that in a moment.)
True. However, likely due to all the things that need to happen behind the scenes in preparation for playoff baseball, tickets often go on sale before that wonderful development actually occurs. That brings us to the bluster of activity happening at American Family Field this Friday, when tickets for the wild-card round go on sale.
“Wait,” the superstitious/attentive folks say, “the Brewers might not even play in the wild-card round!”
Another astute observation. As of this writing, our hometown ball club can clinch the National League Central in two ways Wednesday: a win over the Philadelphia Phillies (update: done) or a loss by the Chicago Cubs (update: The Cubs lost! Thanks Cubs! Sorry Craig!). Even being division champions, their current position in the National League means they’ll play the lowest-seeded wild-card team in a best-of-three round.
However, with a couple weeks left in the regular season, there’s still a chance they’ll overtake either the Phillies or the Los Angeles Dodgers and skip the wild-card round entirely. If that happens, anyone with wild-card tickets will have the first shot at the divisional round (and get reimbursed for their now-useless tickets).
Whew. With all of that out of the way, let’s talk about how you can actually get tickets Friday. The first way is via something I’ve never heard of before: a drive-thru pep rally that will take place from 6-9 a.m. at AmFam Field. The first 5,000 people who show up (in their vehicle of choice) will get a Brewers car flag, a Johnsonville brat and a chance to buy playoff tickets before they go on sale to the wider world.
There will also be plenty of famous Wisconsin-connected athletes on hand (not in vehicles, I assume), including Brewers manager Pat Murphy and hall-of-famer Robin Yount; Donald Driver of the Packers, Bucks legend Sidney Moncrief; and University of Wisconsin stars Brian Butch (basketball), Tarek Saleh (football) and Casey O’Brien (hockey).
If your car’s in the shop and you can’t hitch a ride with a buddy, playoff tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. via the Brewers website. In addition to the ticket portal, that link also has more information about all the postseason-related activities happening this week.
Go Brewers!
