More Than 750,000 Fans Fill Downtown Milwaukee for Brewers World Series Parade and Rally

More than 750,000 people filled downtown Milwaukee on Friday, Oct. 30, for the Brewers’ World Series championship parade and rally, according to an estimate from the Milwaukee Police Department reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The parade moved through downtown streets in the morning and led to the Summerfest grounds, where a rally at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater began at 12:30 p.m. Players and the crowd left at nearly 2:30 p.m., the Journal Sentinel reported.

Police said in a Facebook post that preliminary research showed the crowd may have been the largest for a single-day event in state history, according to the Journal Sentinel.

A first title, 44 years after the last World Series trip

The Brewers won the first World Series title in franchise history with a 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday, Oct. 28, clinching the series in five games, according to the Associated Press. It was the team’s first trip to the Fall Classic in 44 years.

Players rode buses through downtown, waved to fans and took turns holding the Commissioner’s Trophy aloft, the Associated Press reported. Members of the 1982 team, including Hall of Famers Robin Yount, Paul Molitor and Rollie Fingers, also rode along the route. The parade passed a mural of broadcaster Bob Uecker and ended with a fan festival at Henry Maier Festival Park near Lake Michigan.

Milwaukee Public Schools canceled classes on Friday so fans could attend, the Associated Press reported.

Players thank the crowd at the rally

At the rally, manager Pat Murphy told the crowd, “There’s no way we would’ve done it without you,” according to the Journal Sentinel. Yount asked the crowd how good it was to say “World Champion Milwaukee Brewers,” the Journal Sentinel reported.

Reporting based on coverage by the Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.