For grieving Green Bay fans distressed by the poor play of quarterback Brett Hundley and the suddenly mediocre Packers, good news: Milwaukee Brewers pitchers and catchers report to spring training in just 85 days.
The Brewers have announced their 2018 spring training schedule, which begins Feb. 23 with a split-squad opener against the Chicago Cubs at Maryvale Baseball Park and a road game vs. the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium. The spring training slate consists of 33 games, 15 at home and 18 on the road, and concludes at Minute Maid Park in Houston with a pair of exhibition games against the defending World Series-champion Astros on March 26-27.
The 2018 season marks the 21st spring for the Brewers at Maryvale Baseball Park in Phoenix, where OnMilwaukee spent a week last year and – among other things, including the painful and hilarious – found the tailgating scene remarkably similar to that of Miller Park. Earlier this month, the Brewers announced an agreement with local officials that will keep the team at Maryvale Baseball Park – one of the older spring training stadiums in Arizona – for another 25 years, with the club investing up to $63 million into an extensive renovation project for the venue.
Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to camp on Feb. 14, with position players arriving by Feb. 19. The first full-team workout is set for Feb. 20.
Milwaukee is coming off an unexpectedly successful 2017 campaign, in which it went 86-76, was in contention all season and was only eliminated from the playoff race on the penultimate day, finishing in second place in the NL Central. The young and ostensibly still-rebuilding squad saw several players have breakout years, and finished 10th in the major leagues in attendance. Here are the top 10 moments from last season.
Tickets for spring training games at Maryvale Baseball Park will go on sale at 9 a.m. CT on Dec. 4 at Brewers.com and by phone at 1-800-933-7890.Sales at the Maryvale Baseball Park Box Office will begin on Feb. 5. Home games at Maryvale are scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. local time.
The spring training broadcast schedule will be announced at a later date. Please note that, while home games at Maryvale are set to begin at 1:05 p.m. local time, games and times are subject to change.
Click here for the Brewers’ full 2018 spring training calendar.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
