Get hyped! It’s Opening Day, and we were born Milwaukee Brewers

Hope springs eternal!

Baseball’s Opening Day is the best day of the year, in my opinion. I am strongly in favor if it being officially recognized as a national holiday, especially so I don’t need to use PTO every year in order to attend the year’s initial contest. Starting today and for the next seven months or so, there will be a new game to look forward to and talk about just about every single day.

Like most of you who venture on to this website, I am passionate about the Milwaukee Brewers. I grew up in the area and my wife and I now own a home and are raising our young family within the city limits. I identify strongly with this city and this team.

And so does the manager, Craig Counsell.

CC grew up in Whitefish Bay not only as a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers, but as a boy whose father worked for the team. He was in the clubhouse and with the same players that many of you all admired during his formative years (I’m not quite old enough for that). He would go on to play a half-dozen years with the team he grew up rooting for before retiring and moving into a front office role, then later succeeding Ron Roenicke as the field manager.

Counsell spoke often about how he believes that he’s a steward of baseball in the city Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin while he was piloting his squad to a division title in 2018, and those feelings always hit close to the heart with me. As such, nothing gets me more hyped for a ballgame and for being a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers than the “Born a Brewer” commercial that Counsell and the Brewers recorded. The ad is some three years old now, but I still watch it often and feel all the same feelings that I did when I viewed it for the very first time. So I’m going to share it again.

I don’t know you, I don’t know your story, your background, what you do for a living.

And yet, I do know you.

I know how your eyes lit up the first time you walked into County Stadium. I know how as a kid, you dreamed of being Robin Yount, and wanted nothing more than to one day wear that Brewers script across your chest.

I know that every summer you stay up late listening to Mr. Baseball on the radio.

I know that you’ll never forget October 10th, 1982.

Or September 28th, 2008.

Or October 7th, 2011.

I know you, because I am you. You and me, we’re cut from the same cloth. This isn’t something we chose, it’s not a bandwagon we jumped on when it was convenient, it’s something we were born into. A piece of our identity passed down from generations before.

Just like you, I was born a Brewer.

This is my first love, my passion, my responsibility. It’s a torch I’ll carry with me always. Through the ups and the downs, the good times and the bad, no matter what, this will always be my team.

Brewers baseball, it’s part of who I am. It’s part of who we are.

I think it’s high time that the Brewers put together a re-recording of this commercial while adding the highlights and memories from October 1st, 2018, don’t you?

What videos, pictures, or .gifs get you hyped for Milwaukee Brewers baseball? Share them below in the comments!