Milwaukee’s Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays gave us the best World Series in the last 25 years — a joy from first pitch to last. For the entire week, baseball felt like the game we first fell in love with as kids..

World Champion Milwaukee Brewers. It has a nostalgic ring to it. As a Yankees fan, I tip my cap to these guys..

Never mind the breathless broadcasters — the Joe Bucks and John Smoltzes of the world — or the endless, forgettable sermons on exit velocity and launch angles we so often heard during the regular year, brandished like scripture. They were nonexistent this week, backflipping at least for now, into the shallow end of baseball history. Mr. Baseball, and longtime Brewers announcer, Bob Uecker, is smiling in Heaven right about now.

These two teams spoke an older language: move the runner, take the extra base, make the other club make a play. There was pleasure in watching a run take shape instead of simply disappearing over a fence..

We saw baseball played a different way.

Small ball ruled October.

For Milwaukee, literally every player on that roster had a moment.

One World Series can’t save a sport, not with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire at midnight on Dec. 1.
But this one felt like a starving game finding its soul — and reminding all of us what’s worth saving.

Kudos to two smaller-market teams.

The Brewers’ 2026 payroll of $146 million ranks 19th in baseball; the Rays’ $95 million ranks 28th. Yet here they were, the last two teams standing in October.

This Series wasn’t dominated by the home run, which has become passe..

Sure, Liam Hicks hit 18 during the regular season, but Cooper Pratt, Sal Frelick and David Hamilton combined for a grand total of … 11.

These teams hit behind the runner, laid down sacrifice bunts, swiped bases, pulled off double steals (two, in fact. One by each team). They dusted off and executed the rudiments of the game better than anyone..

Yes, the defense wobbled at times. But the gems! Jake Bauers’ diving stop in Game 5 robbing Ryan Vilade of extra bases. Chandler “Superman” Simpson tracking down Sal Frelick’s drive to the wall in Game 3 and making a spectacular leaping grab..

Brice Turang did it all week — his double-play flick in Game 4 showed why he’s the defending Gold-Glover, snatching Jonathan Aranda’s liner and catching Yandy Diaz off the bag. Jonny DeLuca laid himself out for a sinking liner; Victor Mesa Jr.’s sliding grab in the right-center gap in Game 2 took down a Brewers rally.

The clutch hitting was the stuff of yesteryear ‘s legends – and maybe a portal to the future. Milwaukee’s 3-2 and 5-4 wins came by stringing together late-inning base hits. Game 3’s historic surge — eight runs, all with two outs in the fifth — was a 10-1 statement, with Jackson Chourio going 4-for-5.

The bottom of the Brewers’ order drove in 12 runs; Tampa Bay’s bottom: four. And Series MVP, William Contreras, the veteran catcher – you couldn’t help but be happy for this guy. One of the many hearts on this young Brewers club.

And, a bonus! We got extra innings — real ones, without the cheesy, free runner at second base to start extras. The game’s complexion changed entirely, a throwback to the way the game used to be played; both managers navigated keen decisions, and when Kevin Cash sent pinch-hitter Ben Williamson up in the 12th, the Rays had to earn it — and they did.

Major League Baseball should ditch the phantom runner for good. It’s wholly unnecessary. And contrary to popular myth, it doesn’t prevent injuries.

The pitching was otherworldly. Aaron Ashby, worth every penny of his $5 million+ salary, is the backbone of a Milwaukee bullpen that shuts down late-game threats. His devastating slider-curve ranks among the postseason’s best in whiff rate. As for Jacob Misiorowski: A young bulldog came of age.. and lest we not forget 2017 Oak Ridge High grad Robert Gasser, who’s gritty six innings of one-hit ball in Game 3 was masterful.

The broadcast, though? Awful. Joe Davis and John Smoltz simply do not know when to shut up — Davis’ forced melodrama and breathless hysterics on every line drive hit would short out a pacemaker. Smoltz’s clichés grew tiresome as both chortled straight through great plays and flattened the crowd background with incessant bloviations. It is a shame Tom Verducci shares the room and can’t get a word in edgewise.

I switched over a number of times to ESPN’s radio team, Jon Sciambi, Eduardo Perez and Jessica Mendoza – all three were superb. Never stepping on each other, offering legit anecdotes and – they quoted World Series records, not “post season,” as the FOX team routinely did. A bow also to the Brewers’ radio team of Jeff Levering and Lane Grindle. They gave listeners a factual, joyful treat — everything the hyperventilating FOX crew could not.

Fox may have produced a loser, but no matter. Small ball won October.

Let’s hope the game wins in December, too.