Mary Spicuzza

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

I probably shouldn’t have been surprised when I stopped at a coffee shop Thursday morning and ended up getting teased for wearing a Green Bay Packers T-shirt by the man next to me as I waited for my coffee.

“You’re wearing the wrong shirt," he said. "Should be Brewers."

Frankly, I agreed with him. I'd been in a rush and couldn't find my Brewers shirt, so I threw on a Packers one instead and figured I might stop at home during lunch and switch before Game 1 started.

After all, there's something about the Milwaukee Brewers that feels like family.

My earliest memories of the team involve drinking orange soda out of our McDonald's commemorative glasses from 1982, complete with Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper, Gorman Thomas, Rollie Fingers and more. (Yes, we also had the matching placemats).

A few years later, I was thrilled when our family packed into our station wagon and headed to George Webb to get free hamburgers after the Brewers won 12 in a row. My brother Paul was away at basic training so we froze his instead. It had nearly reached drinking age when we finally threw it out.

As we lost my father to dementia, the team seemed to keep us together. Every weekend of the 2011 season, my dad, brothers and I watched the Crew together, cheering on Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo, John Axford, Carlos Gomez, Nyjer Morgan, Craig Counsell. We thought it was especially cool that Counsell, who grew up not far from us in Whitefish Bay, was on his hometown team.

This is the first time the Brewers have made it to the postseason since then.

And so there I was, wearing the wrong shirt in line at the coffee shop.

I laughed along with the man teasing me, and then he mentioned that he’d just dropped off the manager at Miller Park.

He was anxious, the man said.

“You drove Craig Counsell? Are you an Uber driver?" I asked.

“No,” he said. “I’m his father.”

As I chatted with John Counsell, himself a former Brewers employee, all I could think was: Man, I love this town.

Sure enough, Friday morning, I stopped for coffee and there was John Counsell again. Again, he had just dropped off his son Craig at the stadium.

This time, I was prepared. I was wearing my Brewers shirt.