5 reasons why Chicago Cubs fans should root for the Brewers in the NLCS

I totally get why Chicago Cubs fans might be disinclined to cheer on the team that just booted them from the postseason chase. Freshly coming off a bitterly fought five-game NLDS loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, that’s a big ask.

But there are several valid reasons why – following a day’s good cry over a beer – it’s time to do exactly that. When the Brewers open play in the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Monday at American Family Field, it ought to be with the full, if not loud, support of Cubs fans everywhere.

There are at least five very good reasons why. Here they are.

5 reasons Cubs fans should cheer for the Brewers in the NLCS

The Brewers were the better team

As difficult as it is to admit, the Brewers deserved to beat the Cubs last week. They out-scored the Cubs 22-17, out-hit them 40-32, committed fewer errors (one to the Cubs’ four), allowed fewer unearned runs, put more runners in scoring position (36 to the Cubs’ 27) and did more when those runners got in scoring position (11 hits to just four for the Cubs).

Both teams committed heavily to their bullpens, but the Brewers pen was clearly better. In 30  innings of work, the Brewers relievers allowed just four runs. Cubs relievers gave Milwaukee nine runs in 29 innings.

Root for the division

One of the reasons why the Cubs gets so little respect, both in national media and more substantively among front-tier free agents, is that they play in the NL Central, which is widely perceived as a weak division.

That’s understandable. Between 2020 and 2024, NL Central teams lost nine postseason series without winning any. The Brewers are the only remaining NL Central team with a chance to alter that damaging image. Beyond that, it simply reflects better on the Cubs to have lost to a team that went on to win rather than to one that quickly fell out.

The Brewers are NOT the Cubs’ true rival - at least, not to me

I totally get that Brewers fans feel a particular thrill at dispatching the team from the big city to the south. If I was from a town and backing a team with as short a record of accomplishment as Milwaukee, I’d probably feel the same way, although I don't think I'd go so far as to fly the 'L' like some of them did.

But it needs to be kept in mind that as much as Milwaukeeans wish it were so, the Brewers are NOT the Cubs’ rivals. The Cubs rivals have for a long time been, still are and will continue to be the guys wearing red who live in a van down by the river.

The Brewers? They’re a nice bunch of upstarts from the distant suburbs.

Who else you gonna root for? The baseball superteam in LA?

In the NLCS, the Brewers will face the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball’s version of IBM. Talk about David against Goliath, the Brewers operate on a budget that is less than one-third what the Dodgers spend. Milwaukee's starting nine includes four players who work for the league minimum or close to it. When Max Muncy is healthy, the Dodgers have one

The Dodgers have five players taking down more than $20 million this season; the Brewers have one. Beyond that, the Dodgers are the defending champs, having won twice in the past five years. The Brewers have never – ever—won a World Series. In fact they’ve only played in one…and that was 43 seasons ago. Cub fans should be able to relate.

That means a Brewers win would be akin to Dorothy dropping a house on the Wicked Witch. Get caught up in the narrative, man. Root for the story, not for IBM.

The Brewers play real baseball

The Dodgers hit 78 more home runs this year than the Brewers. Their team OPS was 32 points higher, and they piled up 197 more total bases.

Yet the Brewers won 97 games, more than any other team and four more than the mighty Dodgers. And when the two teams met head-to-head this past summer, the Brewers not only beat the Dodgers they swept them, six games out of six.

And it wasn’t a matter of luck. Milwaukee out-scored Los Angeles 31-16, defeating Tyler Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan, Clayton Kershaw and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

How’d the Brewers do it? The same way they do everything. Without the raw talent to sling long balls, they ran rings around the Dodgers on the bases, out-played them in the field, pitched very well, employed superior strike zone judgment, and capitalized on the opportunities they were presented.

In short, they played like a team. And if you’d like to see a return to a time when money didn’t dictate absolutely everything in MLB, the Brewers are living your dream.

It can be hard for fans of a team that just had their hearts broken to pull for the heart-breakers. But that’s exactly what Cubs fans ought to be doing this week.