Description
The 1982 World Series matched the St. Louis Cardinals against the Milwaukee Brewers, with the Cardinals winning in seven games.
The Cardinals won the National League East division by three games over the Philadelphia Phillies, then defeated the Atlanta Braves by 3 games to none in the National League Championship Series. The Brewers won the American League East division by one game over the Baltimore Orioles, then defeated the California Angels by 3 games to 2 in the American League Championship Series. The 1982 World Series represented the last time (until the Giants won in 2010 and the Cardinals in 2011 respectively, both defeating the Texas Rangers) that the National League won back-to-back World Series; they had, in fact, won four straight, starting in 1979.
Though the teams had never met, the cities had an existing commercial rivalry in the beer market, as St. Louis is the home of Anheuser Busch while Milwaukee is the home of Miller Brewing. This led to a few minor references to the Series being nicknamed the “Suds Series.”
The cities previously had a rivalry in the National League when the Braves called Milwaukee home from 1953-65.
Notably, due to the Brewers’ move to the National League, this matchup (Cardinals vs. Brewers) at the World Series will not happen again (unless one of the teams switches leagues). In 2011 the Cardinals and Brewers did meet for the National League Pennant, the latest possible postseason series now possible for the two franchises to play each other in.
This was the first of thirteen consecutive World Series over fourteen years that did not include the New York Yankees(during that time, a player’s strike wiped out the remainder of the 1994 regular season games, postseason and World Series and delayed the start of the 1995 season); to date, it’s their longest such drought since 1923, the year of their first World Series championship.
