“What a Story!” - Rich on Brewers’ NLCS Dodgers Sweep to Reach 1st World Series in 44 Years

The team that was supposed to be breaking baseball just got broken by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Rich opened the show genuinely happy for Brewers fans, with an apology to everyone listening in Los Angeles on ESPN LA. Milwaukee swept the two-time defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS, and Rich couldn't stop marveling at how it happened. "What a story."

The roll call was long. Jake Bauers was the NLCS MVP. Jackson Chourio played baseball. William Contreras "was awesome." Christian Yelich makes his way to the World Series "finally." And manager Pat Murphy, a Springsteen fan, earned Rich's highest praise as "just an outstanding leader and button pusher and manager," who invoked Bob Uecker in his clubhouse speech.

Rich's favorite line belonged to Murphy, too. The Dodgers, Murphy said, have Hall of Famers. The Brewers have "a bunch of gamers."

That contrast is the whole story for Rich. This was supposed to be the year baseball was broken, with the Dodgers adding Tarik Skubal to the biggest collection of stars and money in the sport. Instead they didn't win a single game, including Game 4, when Shohei Ohtani finally homered, a three-run shot that had the normally even-keeled star barking after weeks of pent-up frustration. Los Angeles led that game 4-0. The Brewers responded, as the studio put it, with a collective "cool, cool, cool."

No three-peat. And Rich turned the obvious question around. If the 103-win Brewers win it all, does that mean they are now the team that broke baseball? Because if a small-market club can win the whole thing, what exactly about the current system needs fixing? If owners decide it's too expensive anyway and stop the sport, Rich joked, "maybe the Brewers will break baseball. Because they won and they were the best at it."

The crew pushed back on the idea that any of this was a shock. Milwaukee won 103 regular-season games, after all. The point, one voice in the studio clarified, is how they did it. Down 4-0 with the place rocking, they never felt like it was a wrap. They got two back, then another, then another, until the game was tied. Strong bullpen, gritty, taking their personality from their manager. And a roster built on guys who bought into the culture after arriving by trade, Yelich, Bauers and Contreras among them.

They did all of it with The Miz, Jacob Misiorowski, yet to get out of the fifth inning in any postseason start. Now Milwaukee gets to put its feet up while the Rays and Guardians fight it out in what feels like a seven-game series.

Rich sees possibilities either way. The Guardians feel destined, the Rays are the best team in the American League, and an all-Midwest World Series would be "gamers versus gamers."

Wisconsin was all in. Matt LaFleur stepped to the Packers podium wearing a Brewers cap. "It's a little big on my head, but I want to support the Brewers," LaFleur said, calling it a first-class organization and adding that something Yelich said postgame "certainly resonated with me in terms of just what it takes to be successful."

As for the Dodgers' collapse, the show had a theory. Del Tufo, the studio's real Dodger fan, was at the game. Maybe it's everything Del Tufo touches.

Bob Uecker, Rich said, is smiling wherever he is.