How to Write a Screenplay About the 2025 Milwaukee Brewers
First, start in 1987.
April 19, 1987, to be exact, with Robin Yount and company at County Stadium in the bottom of the 9th, trailing the Texas Rangers 4-1.
The stands are filled with signs about George Webb and free hamburgers, held by 30,000 fans willing the Milwaukee Brewers to a 12th consecutive victory. The team is rallying with the combined energy of the crowd and the sheer feeling of invincibility, having started the season a perfect 11-0, already a franchise record.
But George Webb said the Milwaukee Brewers would win 12 games in a row, so the Milwaukee Brewers were going to win 12 games in a row…
The heart of the batting order is up, and the young Glenn Braggs and Free Agent-signee Greg Brock each reach base, with a walk and single. That brings Cecil Cooper, the team’s All-Star DH to the plate, less than a week after returning from the injured list, to represent the tying run.
Rookie Manager, Tom Trebelhorn, sends Rick Manning to pinch run for Brock.
The Rangers’ lefty, Mitch Williams, digs in to find the stuff he had used in the eighth to strike out the side - a side which included Robin Yount and Paul Molitor - and finds it. Sort of. Coop flies out to center field. But that is the end of the day for Williams, as Rangers’ manager Bobby Valentine replaces him with a righty to play the percentages against Rob Deer, who has already homered in the game.
Deer can only watch from the on-deck circle as the relief pitcher, Greg Harris, warms up; the anxiety in the stadium growing audibly with each pitch, until the ump signals for play.
It is deafening.
Harris silences everything with two overpowering fastballs and suddenly it’s 0-2. Deer is lost. However, in pursuit of the strikeout, Greg Harris hangs a breaking ball over the plate and Deer sees headlights -
He smashes it “way way way outta here and gone”.
The crowd goes nuts again. It’s suddenly a brand new ball game, except the Milwaukee Brewers and every fan in attendance already know the outcome. George Webb said they would win 12-straight.
BJ Surhoff strikes out. Number 12 might need extras. Maybe George Webb was wrong. But Jim Gantner draws a walk, leaving the fate of the team and entire city of Milwaukee in the hands of 23-year-old shortstop Dale Sveum. Sveum works the count full. Gantner runs on the pitch. Then…
“A swing and a fly ball, right field, and deep! Get up. Get up! Get outta here!! Goooone!!!! …for Sveum! And they’ve done it again! 12 in a row! On a two-run blast by Svuem to win it! OH my goodness!! HO-ly cow, do you believe it?!”
This would be the opening scene of Moneyball 2 if it was about the 2025 Milwaukee Brewers.
Does it work if they don’t actually win like in Moneyball? Probably not. Does that preclude it from being Moneyball 2 to begin with? Probably. Will they actually make a run this year? Maybe..?
I’m not betting on it though, and if they don’t win then no one will write this story, myself included. That’s why I had to at least start it now.
In memory of Bob Uecker (1934-2025).