Penny Kelsey told her daughter Kirsten Schmitt, the assistant photographer for the Milwaukee Brewers, the same thing every time Schmitt left for work: "Go do your job."
"She didn't mean go make great photographs, she meant make the Brewers win," Schmitt said. "I would always laugh and say, all right, mom, thanks, I'll try my best."
And Scmitt thought of her dad Heinz Kluetmeier, who took some of the most iconic photos in American sports history, when she's helped photographers set up gear for remote overhead shots to document the World Series games this October at American Family Field.
Schmitt's parents passed away within two weeks of each other in January 2025, the same month baseball and Wisconsin lost legendary announcer Bob Uecker. She wishes they all could see her and the Brewers players both doing their jobs on the field for the World Series.
Schmitt isn't alone in her grief.
Countless Brewers fans now watching their team on a generational sprint in the World Series can't help but think of − and honor − their loved ones who have passed who would have loved to witness it.
Mariah Hovland walked into the Game 3 American Family Field watch party holding a sign that said, "My dad would have loved this! Go Brewers! Miss you dad."
Her father Scott Muche, with whom she grew up watching the Brewers, died unexpectedly in April. She joked that she'd see him inside the baseball stadium, or more likely, he's probably watching the game from Tampa Bay.
"I know he's up there, I know he's watching, I know he's excited," Hovland said.
Similarly, Christina Nowakowsi and Chris Atkinson wished grandpa Maurice "Mike" Atkinson could watch the game with them. He died earlier this week at 89 years old.
It's emotional, watching the Brewers go this far, Tammi Matson told a Journal Sentinel reporter outside American Family Field before entering the park for the Game 3 watch party. Her brother, who was killed in 1993, and her mom, who died in a car crash during the pandemic, "would be loving this."
"I just hope they're up there enjoying this just as much as we are," she said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'I know he's watching;' Brewers fans pay tribute to loved ones in World Series run