Cubs living rent-free in Brewers’ star’s mind after winning World Series

The Milwaukee Brewers have finally won it all. For the first time in franchise history, they stand atop the baseball world after taking down the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series, four games to one.

Suffice to say that, as a diehard Chicago Cubs fan, I was pulling for the Rays to be the team that ended its title drought, but pretty much from the get-go, it felt like the Brewers had this thing on lock. Even Tampa Bay's incredible extra-inning win in Game 4 did little to persuade me the series was not essentially over.

But as the celebration ensued and champagne and beer chilled on ice in the visitor's locker room at Tropicana Field, Milwaukee's closer, Trevor Megill, who got the final out of the series, felt it was the time to bring up the Brewers' NL Central rivals which, weird, but OK, sure.

Trevor Megill can't help but think about the Cubs post-World Series win

It's wild to me that, even with a rivalry as heated as Cubs-Brewers has been in recent years, that when you and your team have finally done it, erasing generations of disappointment, you're focused on the club that you handily dispatched in the regular season (remember, Milwaukee won the division by 14 games) and was swept in the NL Wild Card Round.

There was a chasm between these two teams in 2026 and neither the Cubs, as an organization, or its fans have any leg to stand on (even prior to the Brewers winning it all this week) suggesting that Milwaukee doesn't have the Central in a stranglehold. They've won four-straight division crowns and five of the last six. Chicago, meanwhile, doesn't have an NL Central title in a full-length season, since 2017.

It's a rivalry, sure. But winning a World Series is bigger than that. Now if the Cubs and Brewers had gone head-to-head in the NLCS and Milwaukee came away with the pennant, sure, fire away. The 2026 season, which began with so much optimism on the North Side, now ends in a particularly painful way. Meanwhile, to the north, the Brewers will have to find a new identity because nobody will buy Pat Murphy's 'underdog' schtick next spring.

But hey, at least the Cubs have a nice vacation home in Trevor Megill's mind.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow