Special Brewers’ 50th anniversary section included

The original opening day for the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2020 season would have been this Thursday against the division rival Chicago Cubs at Miller Park. That scheduled opening, along with the continuation of all sports already in action, was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic that spread quickly through the U.S. as well as the rest of the world.

Before life as we know it, including major-league baseball, changed so dramatically, the Journal Sentinel planned a subscribers-only special section to commemorate the Brewers’ 50th anniversary as a franchise, which the team planned to celebrate throughout the season. Rather than delay publishing of that special section as we await the undetermined opening of the season, the Journal Sentinel is publishing it in today’s newspaper, with hopes that it might help fill the void during the shutdown of spring training and what would have been the opening of the season.

Keep in mind that there are advertisements from the Brewers in the section for games that won’t be played as scheduled before the coronavirus led to the postponement of the season. There was no way to foresee how things would be changed by the pandemic, including the baseball schedule.

Beyond the special section, the Journal Sentinel also is publishing a commemorative book (shown above) in partnership with KCI Sports titled: “Turning 50: The Brewers Celebrate A Half-Century in Milwaukee.” This is mostly a photo book, with many wonderful pictures from the archives of the Journal Sentinel, with copy written by Brewers beat writer Tom Haudricourt detailing the 50 years of the franchise’s existence. Haudricourt began covering the team during the 1985 season and has chronicled much of that history, originally for the Milwaukee Sentinel and then the merged Journal Sentinel.

With a release date of early April, the book can be ordered now at kcisports.com and Amazon Books.