Live Link: https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2024/07/01/the-milwaukee-brewers-prefer-spending-time-with-family-on-few-days-off/74204504007/

Multimillion-dollar contracts. Extravagant parties with celebrities. Hundreds of hours in the television spotlight. Adoring fans.

Sometimes, the life of a professional athlete can seem out of touch with the average person. As rapper Kendrick Lamar might put it, they're "Not Like Us."

Pro athletes, though, have more in common with us than some might expect.

"Me and my wife like watching a lot of TV shows," Milwaukee Brewers outfielder and first baseman Jake Bauers said. "We used to like going to the movies, but obviously we've got an 8-month-old daughter now, so that's kind of out of the picture."

The Brewers clubhouse is filled with people focused on family, but a grueling Major League Baseball schedule forces their attention elsewhere.

Milwaukee is a little more than halfway through the 162-game season. Through Sunday, it was among the National League leaders with 44 away games – and the Brewers hit the road Monday for seven more games.

Not only have the Brewers been traveling a lot, but they also have little time off. For Milwaukee, 27 of the 30 days in June were game days. Their most recent off day, June 27, was one of only two days of rest before the all-star break on July 15.

Some athletes, enveloped by wealth and youth, may spend their free time on themselves. Bauers has no such luxury.

"For me, I've got my wife and daughter," he said, "so a lot if it goes to trying to spend more quality time with my daughter, and helping my wife out a little bit so she can get what she needs to get done without having to worry about taking care of a baby.

"Just trying to be around, be present, not thinking about baseball and the season for a day."

The same responsibilities ring true for reliever Enoli Paredes, whom the Brewers called up from their Triple-A affiliate, the Nashville Sounds, on May 24.

"(I enjoy) spending time with family," he said. "I'm new in the city, coming from the (Houston) Astros, so that day that I have off, I try to learn Milwaukee to see what the city has.

"I was by the lake the other day with the family. That's the place I'm trying to be, where I can enjoy the family and be out of baseball."

Though he's new to Milwaukee, Paredes likely won't be seen at Summerfest.

"This is my mom's first time in the United States and she wants to go to Chicago," he said. "I'll take the time to explore Chicago, too, and have fun over there."

Between meetings, warm-ups, games, showers and interviews, the players spend an enormous amount of time at the ballpark.

Paredes recognizes how to deal with the MLB's daily demands.

"We finish games late in the night sometimes," he said, "so you have to get a plan for what you want to do the next day.

"You learn how your schedule works, like if you need a haircut or when you want to get breakfast with the family, you have to sacrifice sometimes."

Scheduling in advance can do only so much. The players often don't have the chance to deal with daily, mundane tasks.

Bauers credits his wife, Lauren, for making his life easier.

"Luckily for me, my wife, she's kind of a rock star," he said. "She takes care of pretty much everything else for me, in terms of my laundry, whether there's stuff that needs to be taken care of with our financial guys, stuff with the house, landscaping, whatever. She takes care of all of that.

"Without her, it would be a lot harder and a lot more stressful for me. We've got a good little rhythm going on."

The emphasis on family extends into the coaching staff. The Journal Sentinel's Curt Hogg caught a glimpse of Brewers manager Pat Murphy playing catch with his sons hours after a 3-1 victory against the Cincinnati Reds on June 15.

Two hours after final pitch, skipper and son playing catch on Father’s Day weekend pic.twitter.com/nKYqX0uMd1

— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) June 16, 2024

The Brewers returned to Milwaukee following a lackluster West Coast trip where they lost four of seven games, including three straight to the San Diego Padres.

The return home seemed to rejuvenate the team as the Brewers swept the reigning World Series-champion Texas Rangers and then won two of three from the Cubs.

Bauers, who crushed a grand slam in the series finale against the Rangers, gets an extra bonus whenever reunites with his family: watching his favorite show, House of the Dragon.

He's not allowed to watch without his wife.

"I know if I watched it without her," he said, "she wouldn't be happy."