Ryan Braun had a tremendous baseball career in which all of his 14 seasons were played with the Milwaukee Brewers. He was drafted in 2005 out of the University of Miami and made his MLB debut in 2007. His final game played was during the 2020 season. During that stretch, Braun had a huge impact on the franchise and will go down in history as one of the most influential players to wear a Brewers uniform.
Braun’s career accolades are astonishing. He accumulated six all-star seasons, five silver slugger awards, one MVP, and was the 2007 rookie of the year. When compared to other franchise players, Braun is the leader in home runs with 352. He is second in RBI’s (1,154), total bases (3,524), extra base hits (809), and doubles (408). He is third in runs (1,080), hits (1,963), triples (49), stolen bases (216), and walks (586).
Braun was a part of five Brewers teams that made it to the post-season including each of his final three seasons. Down the stretch of his career, he did not play to his 2011 MVP form, but he did come up with many big moments!
Overall, Ryan Braun is a big reason for the Brewers franchise turning things around.
He was the missing piece to the puzzle when he arrived in the league and helped end a long play-off drought. After 2008, he was the MVP in 2011 and lead the team to their first division championship since 1982. That 2011 team ended up making a deep play-off run including a thrilling game five victory at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS. Eventually, they lost to the Cardinals four games to two in the NLCS.
Following the play-off run, Braun tested positive for PEDs and had to serve a suspension. He came back after the suspension and still performed quite well. This included a 2015 all-star season and a 30 home run season in 2016. Unfortunately, the 2012-2016 Brewer teams were not play-off teams, In fact, many players came and went during that time frame but Braun stayed put.
In 2017 the Brewers established themselves as contenders again, but just missed the play-offs. Following that season, Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain became Brewers and the torch in terms of the “face of the franchise” was passed from Braun to Yelich. From there, the Brewers have made the post-season four consecutive years in a row. The biggest question now is if his number will be retired by the franchise.
Today, September 26th, 2021 is the last regular season home game for the Milwaukee Brewers. At the game, there will be retirement ceremony to honor Ryan Braun’s retirement. This represents a great time to remember just how big of an impact he had on the franchise and all the great memories that go along with it.
Follow me on Twitter @tylerkoerth. Follow us @WiSportsHeroics for more great content. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in Wisconsin sports, click here!
