On opening day, here is what the Milwaukee Brewers love about baseball
It's the best day of the baseball season.
Opening day, with all its pomp, brings about all the reasons we love the game, from the excitement of a day at the park to the renewed optimism of a fresh season.
Those feelings aren't only reserved for fans. Players share in the anticipation of a new season and all the possibilities on the horizon. For them, it’s no longer just a game, it’s also a job. But that doesn’t mean that baseball doesn’t still engender some of those same feelings that made them fall in love with it in the first place.
The Milwaukee Brewers' opener is scheduled for 1:20 p.m. Thursday against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
This spring, we asked members of the team what it is about baseball that they love. Here were their answers.
Craig Counsell
“What do I love about baseball? Look, just watching the World Baseball Classic, it’s moments like that – being in moments like that. I think opening day can provide really close to moments like that. We’ve had examples of that recently on opening day. That’s probably just from an on-the-field perspective, it’s those great moments.
“The game tends to give you that at some point every day – maybe not every day, but most days at the field you get some kind of feeling like that. And that’s fun. You’re anxious for the outcome and that’s fun to be a part of.
“I think off the field, it’s still the clubhouse. It’s still just a special, special place where we get to come together as a group and then take this eight-month journey with each other and hopefully help each other, make each other better, laugh and cry with each other. That’s a lot of fun. That’s why you do it, really, is for that kind of journey. That’s probably the other part. You put a lot of work in to be able to have those moments with staff, with players. That’s still a lot of fun.
“Nobody’s job is all glory. There’s nobody that has that. I don’t know if you can find somebody whose job is like that. That’s alright. That’s part of it. The grind is fun sometimes, too. You can bond in the grind for sure, the commonality of it with all of us. You can enjoy that part, too.”
Mike Brosseau
“I think the cool thing about baseball is that there’s something a little bit different every day. I think there’s moments where you realize that baseball gods are a real thing.
“There’s days where you just enjoy coming to the park with your brothers, your teammates and enjoy the camaraderie in the clubhouse and on the field. There’s just something about working toward a greater good and a greater purpose, whether that’s affecting other people’s lives as fans or just the camaraderie of everyone coming together and working toward one, single goal of winning a World Series.”
Brandon Woodruff
“I think it all starts as a kid, growing up playing with my dad, my brother. Going to the field, going to practice with him every day. I think that I naturally fell in love with the game that way. I think about the kid’s game and playing park ball and you get your red Gatorade after the game, you get your candy bar, you’re playing with your buddies. I just go back to that.
“But at this point in time in my career, I love the competition part of it. Going out and competing, playing with the guys in this clubhouse and trying to win baseball games is the best thing ever. It’s changed over the years; you still try to keep that kid mindset, but it’s more of the competition part. And a lot of guys, including myself, thrive off the competition part. That’s the fun part.
“Then just being in the clubhouse with the guys shooting the crap. That’s some of the fun stuff and some of the best stories you can get throughout your playing career.”
Eric Lauer
“The thing I love about baseball the most is getting to be outside playing a kid’s game with my friends. Just playing around, having a good time. It’s the time where we get to go do something we excel at and it’s fun, it’s competitive. That’s really my favorite thing about baseball is you get to compete, you try to get to show your stuff, show how good you are. That’s fun and that’s exciting.
“Hanging out with the guys, trying to beat them at everything you do, trying to get better with them. Having that friendly competition – sometimes not so friendly.”
Christian Yelich
“What do I love about baseball? Probably the friends and the relationships you make along the way. A lot of lifelong friends and you get to meet people from all over the world. Some of my best friends have come through this game.”
Peter Strzelecki
“What made me fall in love with baseball was the connection between me and my dad. That really helped me growing up. It kept us close.
“And then just growing up watching baseball, playing with my friends, playing travel ball, you create relationships that last a lifetime. I would say those things and then with my brothers, my brother playing travel baseball with me.
“I can’t imagine a life without baseball. That’s why I love it.”
Garrett Mitchell
“I think it’s just the freeness, being that it’s still a team sport but it’s super individualized still. That’s more of a thought now than when I was a child, but I remember as as kid being like, ‘Man, it’s just a fun game to play, it’s exciting and it’s what I want to do.’ I remember telling my mom that all the time when I was a little kid: ‘I want to be a major-league baseball player.’”
Owen Miller
“I think back to when I fell in love with the game. Growing up in Wisconsin, it was the first year I started playing select travel baseball when I was 12 years old. That was the first time getting out of my little town of playing baseball just in Little League. I remember we went to Cooperstown, New York, when I was 12, me and my family and our team, for a tournament at the end of the season.
“I remember right then and there, I had a great year and did well in that tournament, going to the Hall of Fame and just being around baseball for that whole season, by the end of that year, when I was in Cooperstown, I remember being like, ‘Man this is really, really what I love.’ Because, probably up until that point, I liked Brett Favre and the Packers and stuff like that. I almost wanted to be a quarterback. But after that year and after going to Cooperstown, I think it really instilled a love of baseball in me and it never went away.
“When I think about what I love about baseball, it all comes back to that time and when I first fell in love with the game that I still love now.”
Hoby Milner
“The first thing I loved doing was throwing guys out from the outfield. That was my favorite thing to do back in high school, just making long, accurate throws is kind of what got me excited. Now, it’s executing a pitch. It’s just the best thing ever. It’s a great feeling.”
Willy Adames
“I think it’s the fans. The fans would be my answer to that, what keeps me going, what reminds me that I love baseball. The energy that they bring to the field every day, that’s what keeps us motivated to come to the field every day. Obviously, our families are the most important thing and push us to keep getting better every day. The reason that we come to the field happy every day is our family and the fans.
“Baseball in the Dominican that’s just what we do. As soon as you’re born, they give you a bat and a ball. It’s like, ‘You’re going to be a baseball player.’ My family, they love baseball. My uncles, my dad. They always played the game. They were never a pro, but they always played the game and brought me to the field since I was a baby.
“I think I’ve had that in my blood since I was a little kid.”
Tyrone Taylor
“I think what I loved about the game at first was obviously having success. Now, it’s mainly just everybody, all the people that I meet. The teammates, staff and just the experience of being in the big leagues with them, man, it’s amazing.”
Freddy Peralta
"As a kid, I played because I loved the game. I had no idea what I was going to do playing baseball. I only started playing because I loved it and I had passion for it. Later, as years went on, I was learning and seeing that I could begin playing as a professional, but still, I was 13, 14 years old and it was the same: I was playing for the passion I had for the game. When I began as a professional, I still had that same love. It was really only because of the passion that everything began.
"As a professional, I have more responsibilities, to want to win, to want to win a World Series, that I have a family. At the same time that I love the game and still play because of my passion, it’s also a job."
Jesse Winker
“Honestly, it’s the competition, really. I know it’s cliché, but winning. If you look at winning, there’s winning the game itself and also winning whatever the game presents to you. I think it’s a game that nobody will ever be able to figure out, and I think that’s the beautiful part of it. That’s what makes you keep coming back, is because you’re always after that feeling of competition and that feeling of winning.”
Corbin Burnes
“I just love to compete. I love to get out there with these guys and get after it every five days. That’s kind of what brings us back at the start of the season every year is going out and competing and doing something we love.
“For a lot of us, that’s what we’ve done our entire lives and might be the only thing we do our entire lives. We’ve got a short period of time to play this game so we cherish any moment we can get.”
More: What national writers are saying about the Brewers' chances in 2023
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Opening Day 2023: What the Milwaukee Brewers love about baseball
