Mark Attanasio watched the end of the 2001 World Series from a field box in Arizona, cheering for his hometown team, the Yankees, to win. He expected the ballpark to go silent as soon as Mariano Rivera finished off the Diamondbacks.

“It didn’t go that way,” Attanasio said on Friday, with a smile. “They say, about baseball, the only thing certain is uncertainty.”

Take this season. Attanasio, who bought the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005 and lives primarily in Southern California, arrived in the Bronx on Friday with his team well over .500, assured of entering the All-Star break in first place in the National League Central. He watched the game with a new friend, the musician Paul Simon, whom he met in Milwaukee last month.

There is something so right about these Brewers, but few could have seen it coming. Their neighboring division rivals, the Chicago Cubs, are the reigning champions. The Brewers had lost 183 games the previous two seasons, tearing down much of their roster after a division lead went slip slidin’ away down the stretch in 2014.