JANESVILLE The Bates family refers to it as the Golden Ticket, the voucher Willy Wonka hid in his chocolate bars.
But it is far sweeter to a Brewers fan.
The one-pound brass Timeless Ticket was given to Alan Bates by his daughter and son-in-law, Emery and Brian Terwilliger, for his birthday, Fathers Day and Christmas, back in 2015. His ticket, and 999 others like it, were limited editions issued for $1,000 apiece by the Brewers organization good for any future game.
Its been an act of faith that Bates has held on to the ticket ever since.
His patience finally paid off. On Friday, Bates, 76, his wife, Jessica Southworth Bates, and Terwilliger will be sitting in the terrace section of the Milwaukee stadium, American Family Field, for the first game of the World Series.
The ticket allowed him to buy two more seats for $1,000 apiece.
Terwilliger will fly from Los Angeles on Thursday nights red eye. She will leave at 5 a.m. Saturday back in time for her sons soccer game.
Bates, of Janesville, a longtime Rock County attorney and judge, has had season tickets on the terrace level since the stadium opened in 2001.
Some of Bates fondest memories involve baseball. He has been a Milwaukee baseball fan since he was young, when his parents took him to games for his birthdays. He was in college when he attended the first game after the Brewers moved to Milwaukee in 1970. They lost 12-0.
As a young attorney, Packers games were too expensive, but the family could afford baseball tickets. My daughter grew up a baseball fan with us, he said.
Terwilliger, 43, even worked for the Beloit Snappers for two years and was once the bratwurst in the sausage race. I got second, she said. Its really hard to run in those things.
To me, it was never about winning, Terwilliger said. It was quality time with my dad, the whole family getting to spend time together, this passion he had and passing it on to me.
I think thats what people like about the Brewers, she added. Its never about winning. Its about the memory and the life you share.
Bates has high hopes for the Brewers the next couple of years as well, noting that many of the players are under contract.
Weve got two remarkably good starting pitchers, maybe four really good relief pitchers, he said. And while the team doesnt really have a star, everybody contributes and does their part.
Bates noted that the Brewers dismal home run numbers are more than made up for when players hit the singles and doubles needed to bring their teammates home. He also lauded the teams defense.
The Brewers slogan right now is Win Our Way, Bates said.
The speedy Brewer win over the Dodgers helped the Bates family catch up on some sleep. Theyve watched every gamethose West Coast games got lateand were able to attend a few in Milwaukee.
There, they carried on the family tradition of calling their daughter during the seventh inning stretch, singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame and dancing to the Beer Barrell Polka.
Terwilliger does the same when she attends Brewers games in Los Angeles, no matter how late.
Bates still doesnt know how the Terwilligers managed as a young couple to scrape up the money to buy his ticket. And father and daughter werent sure theyd ever get to use it.
The Brewers payroll doesnt compare to other teams. The Brewers, for example, have an active player payroll of $146.2 million compared to the Dodgers $339.3 million.
You dream for this every year at spring training, and you know its probably not going to happen, and all the sudden it probably will, Bates said.
Bates had been assuming he would pass the ticket down to Terwilliger in his will. Terwilliger struck a home run either way.
I hoped that I would be able to go, she said with a laugh.
I wasnt so sure about my dad.