BILLINGS — For Dan Dragan, watching the Milwaukee Brewers play in the World Series was about more than baseball. It was about a childhood dream, a promise to his grandmother, and years of believing that someday, his team would finally make it.
Listen to Dan's story of lifelong fandom and fulfilling a promise:
On Saturday night, Dragan was back in his hometown of Milwaukee, surrounded by thousands of Brewers fans as the team defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 in Game 2 of the World Series.
“The atmosphere, I can't even explain it. It's absolutely electric,” Dragan said. “Excited to be back for one of the greatest moments of my life. “
Dragan, an executive producer at Q2 News in Billings, has never been shy about his love for sports, but his connection to the Brewers goes back long before his career in television news.
"I grew up playing baseball," he said. "My major league dreams I think I gave up on at about the age of 10, but my fandom never left me."
Growing up in Milwaukee, Dragan often visited his grandparents in northern Wisconsin. They didn't have a television or internet access, but they had a radio, and when the Brewers played, they listened.
“I would literally sit in front of a radio with my grandma and grandpa just listening to the game,” Dragan said. "The love for sports came from my grandma and grandpa. And I'll never, ever forget that."
His grandparents loved the team, and their passion became his own. Dragan remembers his grandmother telling him that if the Brewers ever made it to the World Series, they would go to a game together.
He never forgot that promise.
Dragan was born in 1985, three years after Milwaukee's previous World Series appearance in 1982. For most of his childhood, a championship run was something he could only imagine.
After graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Dragan began building a career in sports broadcasting to chase his dreams of becoming a broadcaster for the Brewers. He spent nearly eight years at ESPN Radio, where that dream came true, covering the Brewers daily.
"I would go to almost all 81 home games every season," said Dragan.
He interviewed players, spent time in the clubhouse, and covered some of the team's most memorable seasons. For a lifelong fan, it was a dream job.
“It was a surreal experience,” Dragan said. “Sometimes in life, you just have to pinch yourself. Like, is it real?”
In 2014, Dragan moved to Billings with his now-wife, Megan, and joined Q2 News, initially working in sports before eventually becoming an executive producer. His work shifted from covering professional teams in Milwaukee to telling stories about high school athletes and communities across Montana.
The move west never changed his allegiance to the Brewers.
“That's what baseball is all about to me,” Dragan said. “It's a little life lesson in a way. Just keep going.”
When the Brewers' World Series run became a reality this year, Dragan was ready. He bought a ticket in June, months before knowing whether Milwaukee would make it that far. When the Brewers secured their place in the World Series, he booked a flight home within the hour.
“I knew there was no one going to stop me from getting on a plane to Milwaukee,” he said. "I gave a fist pump. I said, 'Grandma, we're going to the World Series!'"
The trip meant more than seeing his favorite team play on baseball's biggest stage. Dragan's grandmother is no longer alive to witness the moment, but the promise they shared remained with him.
“I always promised my grandma I'd make it back to Milwaukee if we made the World Series, that was my one promise,” he said. "When they won, like, that's why it meant so much to me, honestly, like to be a lifelong fan, that's one thing, but to be able to kind of look up to the sky and be like, 'Grandma, Grandpa, we finally got here.'”
After years of heartbreak, and a lifetime of believing the next season might be the one, Dragan finally got his moment in his hometown Saturday night.
“It kind of means the world to really love something for so long and actually never think you get to witness it," he said. "It's shocking. It's truly shocking.”
The little boy who once sat beside his grandparents, listening to every pitch on the radio, got to be there for himself. For years, he had told himself to wait until next season. It was a familiar refrain for a fan who had grown up watching a team that never seemed to reach the sport's biggest stage.
Now, after a lifetime of waiting, he finally had a different ending to the story.
“I no longer have to say, ‘Wait until next year,’” Dragan said. “And that is an awesome, awesome feeling.”
