NL DIVISION SERIES: BREWERS VS BRAVES

October 8, 2021

Mark Attanasio

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Opening Day this year you were thinking back to the playoffs against the Dodgers as the twilight zone. There was nobody there. It was just so weird. How much are you looking forward to a proper postseason atmosphere?

MARK ATTANASIO: I can't wait. I looked at -- actually on the MLB.com app, there were videos of prior playoffs. And actually I think I had forgotten what that atmosphere is like because as much as our fans have supported us this year, which has been awesome, there's nothing like a playoff crowd. I can't wait.

Q. Going off the fan question, with the reduced capacity, I think you're one of the last teams to get back to full, you still finished in the top 10 in attendance. Does it blow your mind that you're able to do that in this market?

MARK ATTANASIO: One of the reasons -- the question was on attendance in our market here -- I was interested in buying the team, besides it being such a wonderful community to live in, is the tremendous fan support.

So we're top 10 again even though I think due to being careful with health -- we were one of the five last teams to go to full capacity. So I think it would have been even better if we had fans in earlier, more fans in earlier. Wonderful support from our fans. Wonderful support from our sponsors. And it allows us to do what we do.

Q. We never hear much from the ownership group other than you; those guys kind of stay in the background. What's it been like with them these last years, that's kind of been the golden era with the team going to the playoffs? It must be great to be the principal owner to talk to them that, hey, we're in the playoffs again?

MARK ATTANASIO: We have a very supportive group of investors, as was discussed when we brought Giannis into the group. We haven't had a new investor in 17 years. It's a measure of terrific support we've had from our current group.

Look, we're all baseball fans and Brewers fans. So there's nothing better than this. We've talked about this being the golden age of Brewer baseball. It's hard to think -- you've all talked about that -- it's hard to absorb that in the moment. And I'm trying to enjoy that along with the typical anxiety before an opening game.

Q. We talked to Craig about the storylines of how much Henry Aaron would have enjoyed (indiscernible). Do you have any reflection or thoughts on that from with your time there as an owner?

MARK ATTANASIO: It's one of the things, I thought about. I hadn't realized we had never played the Braves in a postseason game. So obviously having Henry and Billy here would have been very special and/or seeing them in Atlanta. I'm sure he would have had mixed emotions about this.

But I think if you step back and just love baseball, I mean, what's better than these two franchises playing? What's better than the Dodgers and the Giants playing?

So the postseason is great. And Henry and Billy just sent me a note in the last month and Commissioner Selig and I talk about him a lot.

Q. Just going back to Giannis, how involved is he? Are you sharing texts daily? It seems like the guy only does things 110 percent. How's his commitment to Brewers baseball and what's the excitement level now?

MARK ATTANASIO: Giannis on social media had a nice post. A number of the Bucks did actually. And Christian has a post on social media where he has an overlay of Giannis' voice talking about preparing for championship play and showing Brewers highlights behind it. So I think it helped set a tone for us.

Obviously his first job is winning another championship. So that's his focus now. But I'm in touch with him and also some of his partners to talk about different things that we may do together.

Q. Regarding the Bucks, seeing what the city went through in July during their run to the title, how much did that whet your appetite for what could happen around here this month, (indiscernible)?

MARK ATTANASIO: It whet all our appetites. A number of us were there. We had a suite. We had 25 players in a suite and a couple of clubhouse people. I was there, obviously; Ryan Braun, who flew out for that.

I think we were all really excited about what the Bucks were able to achieve and I mentioned this before in interviews. It really struck me that when they had the postgame celebration on the floor, I could see up in the suite because I was sitting down near the court, all of our guys were still there watching. It's not like other games, oh, we're leaving. But it kind of sunk in.

We had a chance to celebrate clinching the division title. So I think you want to get to that moment again. But business comes first. They have to take care of business on the field. I understand it was a different level of intensity, workouts the last couple of days than maybe there was a week before, which you would hope for. And what are they saying, "claws up." (Laughter).

Q. You watch TV, you read the paper, you're on the Internet. Do you chuckle a little bit when you hear David's name get mentioned for this opening or that opening? It's got to be flattering at the same time.

MARK ATTANASIO: I think we have, with Craig and David, the best management in baseball. Now, there's others that have great management that we've seen. And all you have to do is look to postseason success and the teams that have been to the postseason consistently the last few years. Includes the Braves, includes the Dodgers, Rays. I don't know who else is in that group. But I think the Astros maybe. There's four or five of us that have been in the playoffs four years or five years in a row.

And you can't be consistent like that without great management and great supporting management. After we had the celebration, clinching the division, Craig pulled all the, the entire field staff onto the mound to take a picture. There were a lot of folks, if you think about trainers and everybody who is downstairs here in the clubhouse helping us get there.

And so I went out and just thanked all of them. I said everybody sees Craig on TV. We actually see Chris Hook when he's walking out to the mound. Every now and then they'll catch a picture of Murph or Andy Haines. But there's 20 people making this happen. And that's all the way down to the minor leagues.

There's been a lot written about how we have home-grown pitching here. Very rare to have three home-grown aces. And that starts in the minor leagues. And so it's a testament to the organization top to bottom.

Q. With Devin Williams out and now Suter is out, are you nervous a little bit about your bullpen or do you think you've got good coverage there?

MARK ATTANASIO: That's what Jake Cousins said: Next man up. That's what I like about this team. One of the other things that's defined this team, maybe versus some others, every night there's somebody different who helps us win a game. And, so, next man up. Obviously we're going to miss Devin. But I'm sure we'll cover the eighth inning just fine.

Q. Is that one of the things you like about this team, is the team concept? Like you're not going to have a league MVP. You might have a Cy Young. But you know what I'm saying, it's kind of the group that's done it?

MARK ATTANASIO: There's a lot of things to like about this team. I think the chemistry in the clubhouse is really as good as we've ever had. Maybe the best we've ever had. It cuts across age, race, experience, role player to star.

You don't have any kind of fiefdoms in this clubhouse. And that probably starts with the clubhouse leaders with Yeli and Lowe and Kolten. And I'm not really in there, there may be other guys -- Vogelbach. Vogey keeps everybody loose. Everybody is participating. Willy Adames came and he's brought a whole different energy.

And actually Josh Hader has told me that this is -- he would have a point of view -- that this is the best clubhouse we've had. And the other ones were pretty good, right?

Doug Melvin used to say what comes first, winning or good chemistry. So when you're winning you tend to feel good. But I think it's hard to win if there's not good chemistry.