Kathryn Behling recovered a piece of her late father's life after a fire. A U-Haul storage unit in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood held the Milwaukee Brewers memorabilia collection her father, Dan Siettmann, built over a lifetime of devotion to the team. Among the items she recovered after the fire was a ticket stub from the 1982 World Series.
Siettmann was, in his daughter's words, a devoted Brewers fan who spent years assembling the collection now in Behling's care, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee. The U-Haul facility at 1500 S. 1st St. suffered a five-alarm fire on January 21, 2026, that tore through the 340,000-square-foot complex, causing severe structural damage and roof collapses, as reported by Hoodline's earlier coverage. A second, two-alarm fire struck the same facility again on April 6, 2026.
A Building Too Damaged to Save
The January blaze left parts of the building unsalvageable. A raze permit was filed, and the city was moving part of the facility toward demolition, Hoodline's prior reporting noted. For tenants like Behling, that meant a race against the clock to retrieve whatever could still be pulled from the wreckage.
What Behling recovered carries weight far beyond its physical condition. She said the memorabilia connects her with her late father, and among the keepsakes is the card she now brings to every Brewers game, per the same FOX6 account. She calls it a lucky charm, telling the station the Brewers have won every game she's attended while carrying it.
A Father-Daughter Tradition Rooted in 1982
The bond traces back decades. Siettmann took his daughter to the Brewers' playoff run against the California Angels, a series Milwaukee won in dramatic fashion. The Brewers trailed the Angels 0-2 in the best-of-five American League Championship Series before rallying to win three straight, clinching Game 5 on October 10, 1982, on a go-ahead two-run single by Cecil Cooper, according to SABR.org. It made the 1982 Brewers the first team in major league history to overcome an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five League Championship Series.
Siettmann also took Behling to the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals that fall. Milwaukee pushed that series to a decisive Game 7 before falling 6-3 at Busch Stadium on October 20, 1982, per Baseball-Reference.com. That American League pennant remained the Brewers' only Fall Classic appearance for 44 years. Behling has said her family sat in the bleachers back then, snapping photos on Instamatic cameras — a stark contrast to the premium seating and resale markets defining the 2026 postseason.
From $8 Bleacher Seats to Thousand-Dollar Resale Tickets
Behling has pointed to her father's preserved 1982 World Series ticket as proof of how much the game has changed. Original tickets at Milwaukee County Stadium that year included an $18 ticket and an $8 ticket, according to WISN, which noted that $18 translates to roughly $62 in today's dollars. Resale tickets for Game 1 and Game 2 of the 2026 World Series at American Family Field, by comparison, started above $2,400 to $2,800 per seat on secondary marketplaces, Forbes reported.
That surge reflects the scale of this year's run. The Brewers completed a franchise-record 103-59 regular season, securing their fourth consecutive NL Central division title and MLB's top overall seed, according to MLB.com. The 2026 World Series pits Milwaukee against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Ceremonial First Pitches Bridge Two Eras
The 1982 team's living legacy will be on full display when Behling attends Game 2 at American Family Field on October 24, 2026, with her father's lucky card in hand. Hall of Famer Paul Molitor is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for Game 2, according to CBS 58, with fellow 1982 franchise figures Robin Yount and Bud Selig set to handle Game 1's ceremonial honors.
Behling has said her father would have had season tickets had he lived to see this postseason, and she believes the Brewers will win it all this year. To help local fans compete for seats against out-of-state brokers, the team offered Wisconsin residents an exclusive four-hour presale head start on October 15, 2026, requiring zip code verification on brewers.com, Hoodline previously reported.
For Behling, the ticket stub and the lucky card are more than souvenirs pulled from a damaged storage unit. They're the remaining physical link to the father who first brought her to Milwaukee County Stadium, and she's carrying that connection with her into a stadium four decades removed from the bleacher seats where it all began.
