Back in Action on the Court, Straßburg Trip, Exploring Southern Germany, Oktoberfest & Brew Crew - Blog #58 (September - October 15 '26)
Basketball Update:
It's been a busy month getting back in the swing of things for me. I have been back from my back issues and am overall playing pretty well. The club has been great about booking me appointments for rehab and providing me with a bunch of resources to make sure I am feeling good. My first game back was our first official game of the year which was a cup game versus a Pro A (second league Germany) team, Kirchheim. We handled business, and I played limited minutes to get me back in the swing of things. Big 25-point win for us to advance to the Round of 16 in the cup.
Our next game was a tough loss at Ulm. We started poorly, made a good comeback, but fell short and dropped our first game. Ulm is a good team, so we weren't too discouraged, especially because of our comeback effort. The next week we had two games. Our home opener against Rostock got us our first BBL win of the year. We came back again and won a close game in front of our fans. Then, we had a quick turnaround from Thursday to Sunday for another road game at Bamberg. They had a great environment, and we got down in the first half again. It was a good back-and-forth game, and we went on a crazy run in the 4th quarter. We were raining 3s like crazy and silenced the ruckus crowd. It was great to get one on the road, and I think it gave us a lot of confidence.
Our next game was at home against Trier. This was a very rough one for us. We came out terribly and got down by up to 25 points in the first half. Seeing a trend here? Our starts have been really bad thus far, and we can't really figure out why. It often takes us at least a quarter to really get into the flow of the game and start playing our brand of basketball which is fast and aggressive. Our 2nd half was much better. I played a lot at the 5 in the 2nd half which I hadn't done yet this season. I played well, we moved the ball better, and cut the lead to 4 at one point. We ran out of gas though and ended up losing by 14 points. We definitely still have some work to do as a team to continue to gel together and become a cohesive unit. We are working very hard and should continue to improve as the season progresses.
Then, we beat an undefeated Braunschweig team on the road. They didn't have their best player which was a surprise for us. We had a much better start to the game, controlling the game from the outset. We led for most of the game until late in the 4th quarter. It felt like we had choked away the game when we fell down 6 points with 2 minutes left. But, we showed great character like we have so many times this season and were able to force overtime. Overtime was ours, and we won the game by 9.
Instead of a Leadership Lesson for this blog…
A Love Letter to the Milwaukee Brewers:
What a run for the Brewers this has been. Growing up, the Brewers were my favorite Wisconsin sports team. I used to watch almost every game, memorizing the different batting stances of all the players, living and dying with every pitch, as most seasons would end fairly sadly in early playoff rounds. Since probably around my high school years, I fell out of love with the Brewers. A growing love for basketball and football manifested itself in my sports fandom as the Packers, Badgers, and Bucks took priority as I became a fairly casual Brewers fan compared to my early years. I give all of this backstory not to give an unnecessary telling of my own Wisconsin sports fandom history, but instead, to say that this recent iteration of the Crew has brought back my love for baseball in a fiery way like it has for so many other Wisconsinites. Now, does the fact that this team is headed to the World Series, which they haven’t done since Harvey’s Wallbangers in 1982, have something to do with it? Of course. However, for me and countless other Brewers fans across the world, the resurgence in a love for baseball has not simply been because this team has won some games.
Last year’s Brewers team (which has obviously bled over into this season) credited their success to “the power of friendship”. I mean, how awesome is that? Relationships, connection, and shared accountability (all things that I have written about in this blog before) have carried this team all the way to the World Series. The power of friendship is so cheesy and corny yet so perfectly fitting for a small market team like the Brewers. In a time in sports where billionaires like Mark Walter, Stan Kroenke, and Josh Harris think they can pay for championships. Where private equity has slowly reared its disgusting face into the sports industry, causing organizations to focus only on making a profit or boosting their owners’ net worth rather than providing a city or a state with a team they are proud to watch. The Brewers are currently the 17th-ranked payroll in the MLB, so why have they had this success? The entire organization is all in on winning baseball. The front office brings in winning players & developing, the coaching staff coaches winning baseball, and the players themselves, led by captain, Christian Yelich, have committed to sacrifice, togetherness, and a scrappy, anything-it-takes style of baseball. Stealing bases, bunting, hitting for contact, grinding long at-bats, etc. are not flashy ways to play baseball and are the opposite of the direction the MLB has been going the last decade or so. It isn’t just what the Brewers are doing. It is how they are doing it.
It’s not just about a game. It’s about a story. A story of the little guy triumphing over evil (ok, maybe not evil, but against the odds). Not just the one overarching story, but all of the little stories leading to this moment. Jake Bauers, the NLCS MVP, wanted to quit baseball this offseason to let his wife teach. Well, his wife got pregnant, and Bauers & his wife decided that they needed good insurance for the pregnancy, so he came back for another season. Now, he’s an icon in Milwaukee along with the rest of his teammates. It is just a different feeling watching this team. Baseball brings a level of nostalgia back. It’s a slow sport where anything can completely change in one pitch.
Many of you may say, Patrick, you’re being dramatic. Patrick, you’re seriously doing an entire five-paragraph love letter about a sports team? And to those people, I would say the same thing that the legendary Billy Beane said in Moneyball… how can you not be romantic about baseball?
So… thank you, Milwaukee Brewers! I love you, the city of Milwaukee loves you, the state of Wisconsin loves you, and Brewers fans all across the world love you and love what you are all about. Good luck in the (still can’t believe I get to say this) World Series.
Fear the Beer!
Love,
Patrick
What Else Did I Do This Month?
We had a two-day break just once during the preseason, and Nikki and I took advantage of it by doing a little trip to Straßburg. It was just a 1:45 min drive from where I am, so it was pretty easy to get to. The city is in France but used to be part of Germany before WW2. The city has a very German vibe, which you will understand from the pictures I add below. A really cute town, and it is notorious for its Christmas market. It's deemed the capital of Christmas which would make me want to go visit in December, but it is probably just a zoo. Germany itself has a bunch of great markets from what I've heard. Nikki and I didn't really do any specific activities, but we were able to walk around the entire city, hit up different cafes/restaurants, and play a bunch of cards. We started playing Gin Rummy which we had a lot of fun with. Great trip for us.
Nikki and I also got the chance to go to a carnival that was in town for a couple of weeks. The show was great and some of the acts were insanely impressive. One of the things I have loved about being in Ludwigsburg so far Is that there Is always something going on. There are festivals or events happening all the time, and it has made these couple of months a lot of fun.
During our road trip to Bamberg, we stayed in a pretty historic city 20 minutes away from the arena we played at. The city is Herzogenaurach, and it is home to two global shoe & sports apparel super companies. Adidas and Puma are both headquartered in this tiny city no one outside of Germany has ever heard of. Adidas was founded by Adi Dassler and his brother. Well, the brothers got into some disagreement, so Adi's brother founded Puma in the same city. It was cool to drive through the city and see the two monster headquarters in such a small town. A couple of my teammates and I walked to the Adidas outlet store, and I picked up a German national team soccer jersey. It was on heavy discount, and I had been wanting one since the World Cup. We will see how often I actually wear it. It was definitely cool to see.
I went solo to the Mercedes-Benz museum which is just 20 minutes away from me in Stuttgart. The very first thing you see on the museum tour is the first car ever made. I never knew cars were invented in Germany, but it makes sense when you think of all the car manufacturers in Germany (Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Volkswagen). It was cool to read a lot of the information about how the company came to be and its history. However, the best part of the museum was honestly just seeing all the different cars. There were some interactive exhibits, but the highlight to me was seeing the car evolve over time and looking at the retro cars progress all the way to modern race cars. Great museum, and I definitely recommend it.
We went as a team to Oktoberfest in Stuttgart, and I went with Nikki. I will talk a bit more about that later in the culture section of the blog. But speaking of Nikki, she has visited three times already this year. It has been amazing having her a bit closer and more easily accessible with direct trains running from Stuttgart to Amsterdam. Although she has to bear the load of the difficult travel way more times than not, being in Germany compared to Poland has definitely been a bit easier for us.
On her most recent visit, we went to this lookout point to watch a nice sunset at a winery and also finally went inside the Ludwigsburg castle grounds for Kürbisaustellung or the pumpkin festival. I knew the castle gardens were big but didn't realize they were as big as they turned out to be. There are pumpkin-themed drinks and foods. There are figures made out of pumpkins. It is a beautiful park to walk around. I would love to do it more, but the 16 EU entry fee is a bit steep to justify going a lot. The gardens have a mini kids park with a lazy river, a bird enclosure, and more.
Top Meal of the Month:
I am going to cheat a little bit because this technically wasn't a meal, but I have had a borderline addiction to this bakery apple cinnamon roll (Apfel-Zimt Schnecke) in Stuttgart. The bakery is Zeit für Brot, and it's about a five-minute walk from my back rehab place in Stuttgart. Because it takes me 40 minutes to drive there from Ludwigsburg and 40 minutes back for a 30-minute appointment twice a week, I am able to justify getting a cinnamon roll at least every other appointment to make the long trip worth it. I miss the Polish donuts bad, but these have been a decent replacement.
Cultural Difference in Germany:
Oktoberfest was in full swing in Southern Germany, and contrary to popular belief, the festival is actually primarily in September and not October. The event's roots stem from a Bavarian wedding a few hundred years ago in October that was so fun, they decided to have a celebration on that day every year. Must have been a heck of a party! The date was moved several years later once it became a festival to ensure better weather. Technically, the Stuttgart version of Oktoberfest is not called Oktoberfest. It is called Wasen Bad Cannstatt. It's a mini version of the festival in Munich with far fewer tourists and less expensive beers. It isn't really a celebration of anything in particular, which makes it that much more awesome. The point of Oktoberfest is just to drink, sing songs, enjoy German culture, and have a good time. We don't really have anything like that in the US. All of our festivals or holidays are centered around music, sports, or something specific. Oktoberfest is awesome, and I do want to do the Munich one at some point. Thanks for reading!
Comments