Kirsten Schmitt / Milwaukee Brewers
Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick.
Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick has taken over as the team star.
We all know “sportsball” people. They make a bit of a show about how they don’t follow, enjoy, or care in any way about sports. When a big game is drawing a lot of attention, they’ll pop up in the text group or on social media with a “Yay! Sportsball!” quip.
Well a sportsball friend of mine recently admitted that she followed the action of an exciting Brewers victory by watching the MLB app’s gamecast on her boyfriend’s phone. Do you know about the gamecast? Pitch-by-pitch, it charts balls and strikes and baserunners on a diagram of the field with written commentary: “Frelick singled to right, Turang scored, Ortiz to third.”
The gamecast is great for a quick check-in at work or during your nephew’s birthday party. It’s not ideal for watching several innings and it’s definitely something a sportsballer would loudly mock. “Cute! It’s like a video game over which you have no control!” they might scoff.
But this is the kind of behavior the 2025 Brewers are causing among not just casual fans, but sworn baseball avoiders. With the best record in baseball and a manager who has been known to carry pancakes around in his pocket, they’re driving a real bandwagon and there’s no shame to those jumping on late.
At the opposite end of the spectrum from a sportsballer is a seamhead. Named after the red seams stitched on a baseball, a seamhead is the kind of baseball sicko who has played several seasons of fantasy baseball, quotes advanced analytics like WAR and BAbip, and travels great distances to check off visits to stadiums in other cities.
As recently as mid-June, a seamhead friend was proudly writing off this year’s Brewers. “I don’t know anybody on this lineup and I don’t care about any of them,” he texted one night.
Two months later, he’s providing pitch-by-pitch commentary on a weekday afternoon game. “This team just capitalizes if you play poorly,” he texted. “Just keeps dunking you in the pool.”
Brewers baseball has provided a welcome escape in a summer of not-great weather and not-tolerable current events. The team started August leading the National League Central Division by one game over the Chicago Cubs, before setting a club record with 14 straight wins. Over the course of the month, during which they had just two days off, they stretched that lead to 6.5 games.
It’s worth noting that they accomplished this success without the services of a couple of injured players, star center fielder Jackson Chourio and solid first baseman Rhys Hoskins. Right fielder Sal Frelick, in just his second full season in the majors, has taken over as the team star, hitting .298 and making spectacular catches in the field. He’s joined in the outfield by Isaac Collins. Batting .276, Collins has been mentioned in the rookie-of-the-year conversation.
Recent difficulties in series against Arizona (2-2), San Francisco (1-2) and the Cubs (2-3) are cause for concern as we look ahead to October and the postseason. And though the Brewers have qualified for the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons, they haven’t advanced out of the first round since 2018.
But because of its everyday presence in the lives of fans, a winning baseball team can change the trajectory of the summer, and that has been true for these Brewers. Little stories along the way, like Madison artist Emily Balsley’s T-shirt design, the debut of hard-throwing rookie pitcher Jacob “The Miz” Misiorowski, or the unexpected theatrics produced by utility infielder Andruw Monasterio have fueled the ongoing conversation about the team.
Can they keep the attention of fans in a football-obsessed state once the Packers start their season? Who knows? At least they’ve got the sportsball crowd watching and talking.
