The Milwaukee Brewers announced Monday that they had sold 1 million tickets for the 2009 season, the earliest date in franchise history the club has reached that plateau.
The team reached that level before group tickets as well as single-game tickets were put on sale. "Typically, we do not reach the 1 million mark until group tickets are made available, but this year the pace has been extraordinary and we reached the milestone through selling multi-game packages alone," said Rick Schlesinger, the team's vice president of business operations.
"Fan enthusiasm was at an all-time high at the end of last season, and that has carried over to give us tremendous momentum in early 2009."
Last year, when the Brewers went above 3 million fans for the first time in franchise history, they didn't sell their 1 millionth ticket until Feb. 2.
Single-game ticket sales will begin in late February (the exact date is to be announced).
Braun on USA roster: Brewers leftfielder Ryan Braun was among the 43 players listed when Team USA released its provisional roster for the World Baseball Classic, to be played in March.
Final 28-man rosters will be released on Feb. 24 for each country in the tournament. To be on those final rosters, players must be listed on the provisional rosters. No other Brewers were included on Team USA's list.
If Braun plays in the WBC, he could miss much of the Brewers' spring camp. Team USA will compete against Canada, Italy and Venezuela in Pool C, set for March 5-12 in Toronto. If Team USA advances to the semifinals, it will play from March 14-19 in Miami.
The semifinals and finals are set from March 21-23 in Los Angeles. Japan won the inaugural WBC in 2006.
Figures exchanged today: Players remaining in arbitration will exchange salary figures for 2009 with their clubs today. The Brewers have four players remaining: first baseman Prince Fielder, second baseman Rickie Weeks, rightfielder Corey Hart and right-hander Seth McClung.
Hearings will be set for unsettled cases for the first three weeks of February, but the sides can continue to negotiate until then. A three-person panel will hear each case and choose the figure submitted by either the player or club.
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