In baseball parlance, the Milwaukee Brewers‘ alumni home run derby on Friday night, July 25 was a walk-off grand slam.

With much of the sellout crowd of 41,944 sticking around at American Family Field following a lackluster 5-1 loss to the Miami Marlins, 10 players from varying eras in franchise history got together and provided a show that kept everyone cheering and left everyone smiling by the time it was all over.

Two of the most well-known players – Ryan Braun and Carlos Gómez – were named captains beforehand and chose their teams.

Braun went with Eric Thames, Corey Hart, Bill Hall and Casey McGehee while Gómez countered with Nyjer Morgan, Prince Fielder, Yovani Gallardo and Keon Broxton with former longtime third-base coach Ed Sedar pitching and George Kottaras catching.

“Before we got out here, everybody was in the weight room getting our bodies prepared, trying to wake them up,” said Broxton. “Just being back in that competitive mode is amazing.”

The event, which was the crown jewel of the Brewers’ 25th season at American Family Field celebration, got underway with Team Gómez winning the coin toss and deferring.

Thames hit a pair for Team Braun – one in an opening, 2-minute round with eight outs to start and then another in a “golden baseball” round which lasted 45 seconds with three outs where homers were worth triple.

Morgan, who is probably 50 pounds lighter than the massively bulked-up former slugger, countered with a homer in each round for Team Gómez, and the event was off and running with participants from each team alternating.

Hart, who ranks 12th on Milwaukee’s all-time homers list, was up next and used his long, smooth swing to belt five in his opening round, including three straight to close out. Now 43 years old and 10 years removed from his last action in the major leagues, Hart sports the same beard – except now it’s all gray.

Making his performance even more impressive? Hart was swinging in some serious pain.

“I tore my right oblique Friday, so I tried to find a way to hit without putting too much pressure on my right side,” said Hart, who estimated his preparation consisted of 40 total swings over two days on a high-school field.

“I made it work.”

Up next was Fielder, whose 230 homers rank third all-time, and the anticipation was high for a few more of the mammoth moon shots he hit during his heyday from 2005 through 2011.

Alas, he managed only a pair in his opening round, with a third just missing on his final swing when it hit the top of the wall.

Hall, who quipped between rounds that his mother, Vergie, wouldn’t let him bring the pink bat he made famous back in 2006 when he hit a Mother’s Day walk-off homer to beat the New York Mets, hit a pair in the first round.

Then it was time for team captain Gómez, who hit two of his own in his first round. The first was a bomb, measuring in at 434.7 feet, while the second traveled out at 109.1 mph – both impressive figures considering he’s been out of the game since 2019 and turns 40 on Dec. 4.

One of only 16 players in franchise history to record a three-homer game, McGehee ended up being the only player who failed to hit one at all.

Even still, the crowd remained supportive and appreciative of his efforts.

Gallardo, the lone pitcher among the 10 players involved, hit a pair in his first round. His 12 rank first in Milwaukee franchise history, with his four in his lone all-star year in 2010 his career high.

That brought Braun to the plate to tremendous cheers.

Far and away the Brewers’ all-time leader with 352 homers, and fresh off taking batting practice with the Brewers at Dodger Stadium last weekend, he probably entered as the odds-on favorite to win yet mustered only a pair in his first round.

Rounding out the competition was Broxton, whose Brewers tenure lasted only 269 games spanning the 2016-2018 seasons, and whose most memorable moment, arguably, was when he gloved the final out in right field in Milwaukee’s Game 163 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in 2018.

Like Gómez, he too wrapped up his major-league career in 2019, although he played professionally through 2023 in Mexico. Barely only 35 years old and in tremendous shape, Broxton slugged five in his first round to win the team title for Team Gómez and earn a spot in the finals against Hart for the individual title.

Hart managed only one homer, although it was in the “golden baseball” round.

Broxton responded with three homers in his first round, including the longest blast of the night for any player at 435.7 feet.

“The expectations were come in and win,” he said. “I’ve never been one to come in and lose. Come in and have fun.”

Following his final homer, Broxton took a casual trot around the bases and as he crossed home, the rest of the competitors fell down like bowling pins – a nod to Fielder’s famous 2009 walk-off blast that beat the San Francisco Giants.

“We talked about it beforehand – ‘If this happens, we’re going to do this,’” Broxton said. “The moment came, and it was awesome.”

The real winners of the night were the charities Autism United of Wisconsin, which receives a check for $10,000 from Brewers Community Foundation for Team Gómez’s win, and Habitat for Humanity, which gets a $5,000 payout from Team Braun’s efforts.

The unsung hero?

Without question it was Sedar, who pitched countless rounds of batting practice during his days as a Brewers coach and stepped forth with round after round of quality offerings in this competition with the pressure on.

“Oh yeah,” he said when asked if there were butteflies. “There’s all the hoopla, then I haven’t thrown for who knows how many years. And you’ve got to know a bunch of different guys, where they’re going, ‘No, a little more in,’ and I’m going, ‘OK, I can do that.

“I thought it went pretty well.”

Brewers manager Pat Murphy also provided some laughs as he headed out with Braun and Broxton remaining to hit to pull Sedar in favor of bullpen coach Charlie Greene, who finished up.

“Murph and I had it set up because we thought it would be funny,” Sedar said. “It was a cool moment, but I could have kept going.”

All the participants stuck around afterwards for photos and to sign autographs for fans, with Broxton walking away with a trophy that was nearly as tall as he is – 6 feet 3 inches.

“I’ve always been a guy that when his back’s against the wall finds a way to figure it out,” he said of his upset victory. “I kind of love those moments when I’m the underdog. Those were all my favorite players when I was growing up – Prince Fielder, Corey Hart, Nyjer Morgan. I just loved watching those guys play.

“So, just being here and being able to compete with these guys is a blessing.”

Overall, a terrific concept by the Brewers pulled off to perfection.

“Best fans in baseball,” Sedar said. “They stayed around for this and everyone had a blast. They had some pretty prime-time talent in the derby as well. It was a pretty cool thing to be a part of.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Keon Broxton posts upset victory in Brewers alumni home run derby