SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Wisconsin is enjoying its first Major League Baseball championship since the Milwaukee Braves won it all in 1957. The Milwaukee Brewers won their first-ever World Series title by defeating the Tampa Bay Rays last night in five games. Chuck Quirmbach caught up with fans celebrating the end of a long drought.
CHUCK QUIRMBACH, BYLINE: It's the Brewers first championship after decades of fan frustration that included, 44 years ago, losing in the team's only other trip to the World Series. So after the final out of last night's victory, about 30,000 people at a watch party at Milwaukee's ballpark let loose.
(CHEERING)
QUIRMBACH: Brothers Edgard and Bennie Lopez said they were also together to watch the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team win the NBA title five years ago.
EDGARD LOPEZ: It's a family tradition.
BENNIE LOPEZ: Look, he invites me, and we win. So you can't go wrong (laughter).
E LOPEZ: Yeah.
QUIRMBACH: For 68-year-old Dave Gamble, the victory was a long time coming.
DAVE GAMBLE: Means a lot. I won't be around in 44 more years, so I'm happy. I get to see it in my lifetime.
QUIRMBACH: Fans and the team itself have invoked the memory of the late longtime Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker throughout their title run this year. Shawn Pecoraro wore a T-shirt that said, do it for Ueck, and says the team did do it.
SHAWN PECORARO: This was Bob Uecker, all him. This is for Ueck, man. We love you. God bless.
QUIRMBACH: Kelly Hickman says she hopes the win also means good things for the city, which has long struggled with challenges related to poverty and racial segregation.
KELLY HICKMAN: It's bringing a lot of Milwaukee people together, and we need that in these days and age. It's just bringing people together.
QUIRMBACH: And, says Valerie Schmitz, maybe Milwaukee, which is the smallest market in Major League Baseball, and a team with a payroll in the bottom half of clubs will get a little more respect from the sporting world.
VALERIE SCHMITZ: Well, I think, you know, we were dissed by the big, big city teams. Like, they all thought they were pretty important, and they are, of course. But we didn't get the respect that we deserve.
QUIRMBACH: Brewers fans will have a chance to continue their celebration during a victory parade Friday. For NPR News, I'm Chuck Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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