Brewers schedule: Milwaukee beats Tampa Bay 3-2 in World Series Game 1
The Brewers opened their first World Series in 44 years with a 3-2 win over the Rays, and the next morning manager Pat Murphy got a FaceTime call from Bruce Springsteen.
Why "Brewers schedule" is trending
People are searching "Brewers schedule" because Milwaukee just played in it. The Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in Game 1 of the World Series, their first trip to the Fall Classic in 44 years, and fans are looking up what the team does next.
Milwaukee had to hold off a Rays comeback attempt to get the win, according to ESPN's recap of the game. The Brewers got here by beating the two time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, and manager Pat Murphy's clubhouse speech after that series has turned into its own story this week.
Murphy's Springsteen naming tradition
Murphy names his teams every year after a Bruce Springsteen song. This year's group is "Last Man Standing." When the Brewers clinched the NLCS over the Dodgers, Murphy cited that song in his speech to the clubhouse. "We have to be the last man standing," he told the team that night. Past Brewers squads carried titles like "Thunder Road" and "Prove It All Night."
Murphy's fandom is not new. He has "No Retreat, No Surrender," another Springsteen lyric, tattooed on his arm, and MLB.com has tracked the connection through the Brewers' whole postseason run.
The call from The Boss
Wednesday morning, Murphy saw an incoming FaceTime from a number with a 732 area code. Springsteen was on the other end. "Hey," Springsteen said, "I hear you and I have some connection." Springsteen had asked his assistant to track Murphy down after watching the NLCS clincher.
Murphy said the call did not rattle him. "It was easy as you and I talking here," he said. He told Springsteen directly what the music has meant to him: "I said, 'Bro, you have impacted me incredibly,'" Murphy said, adding with a laugh that he probably did not actually call him bro.
Springsteen, who is a Yankees fan by his own account in the piece, skipped the baseball questions entirely. "He didn't ask if Miz could sling his speedball by ya," Murphy joked, referring to pitcher Jacob Misiorowski.
A fan since 1980
Murphy traced his Springsteen fandom back to a show on the 1980 River Tour, the concert that turned him into a lifelong follower. He has had chances to meet Springsteen backstage over the years but passed, saying he wanted a real conversation instead of a quick handshake line.
This week he got it. The Brewers now carry a 3-2 Game 1 win into the rest of the World Series, and Murphy has the call he waited decades for, the one that, in his own words, finally let him tell the story the Brewers are chasing with "Last Man Standing."
Facts per MLB.com, ESPN box score. Opinion is the taproom's.