MILWAUKEE -- Jim Bathey took a sales job in the Brewers' ticket office in 1992 and only vaguely remembers the preparations that went into an ultimately unsuccessful postseason bid.

Today, he's right in the middle of the action.

Bathey, who has risen to senior director of ticket sales, heads a 25-member committee charged with working through a 700-plus page postseason manual distributed by Major League Baseball. It covers everything from ticketing to sponsorship, travel and accommodations, hospitality, media services, game day entertainment and security, and also includes all of the rules of postseason roster management. That means assistant general manager Gord Ash is one of those 25 committee members.

"You're really preparing for a whole new season," said Bathey, who received the thick binder in early July. "But it was more daunting last year, because it was the first time that as an organization we went through the process, which has changed significantly since the early 1990s.

"The process today is so much more elaborate than it was in 1992, from my recollection. What the postseason and the World Series has become, it's an incredible event. Back in the 1990s, I don't think it was the same."

Brewers manager Ned Yost's "one day at a time" philosophy might work inside the clubhouse, but it doesn't cut it in the front office. The Brewers have not hosted a playoff game since Game 5 of the 1982 World Series, but if they get the opportunity this season, they'll be ready.

Last season, though disappointing for a franchise that finished two games behind the National League Central-winning Cubs, was a successful trial run for Milwaukee's front office.

"This year, I knew what to expect and the people on the committee responsible for different areas had already done their research," Bathey said. "Going through the process last year was very helpful."

Ticketing is "the largest and most complicated component" of postseason planning, Bathey said, and has been a major focus. The team mailed postseason invoices to season seatholders last week, and those fans have until Sept. 5 to decide whether to purchase strips of tickets.

Within the next week, non-season seatholders should look for information about postseason ticket availability.

Miller Park was packed to the rafters with 45,163 fans for Sunday's homestand finale against the Pirates, but capacity will be lower for postseason games because some seats are lost to additional stations for television cameras. Beginning with the NL Championship Series, the Brewers would also lose about 1,000 seats in the field-level bleachers in right field, a section that would become an auxiliary press box.

Additionally, at least 10,000 tickets for each game are reserved for Major League Baseball, according to the Brewers.

"That leaves us with around 30,000 tickets to work with," Bathey said. "So far, our response has been very, very positive. Last year, because it was the first time that we sent out invoices to season seatholders since 1992, no one knew what to expect. I think people had much more of a 'wait and see' attitude, and they waited until the last minute.

"This year, as soon as the invoices hit, we started getting calls and people wanted to start paying for their postseason tickets. It shows me that our seatholder base really believes that we're going to be there this year. Last year, they were a little more skeptical."

If every season seatholder took advantage of the postseason offer, as many as 24,000 tickets to each game could already be spoken for. By the second week of September, the Brewers will send an order to the Arkansas-based printing company that produced postseason tickets.

Ticketing is not the only challenge. Brewers traveling secretary Dan Larrea is used to making complicated travel arrangements, but for postseason play he must reserve in advance blocks of hotel rooms for MLB officials for the various postseason rounds, without knowing exactly when games would be played, or if they'll be played at all. At the same time, senior director of broadcasting and entertainment Aleta Mercer and director of corporate and suite services Patty Harsch are planning the various parties and receptions that are staged before and after playoff games, especially in the later rounds.

Again, no one knows the precise dates. They might not know until the final weekend in September, days before an Oct. 1 start to the NL Division Series.

"That's a huge challenge," Bathey said. "But it's been a very fun season so far for the entire front office. We're probably spending about 50 percent of our time these days preparing for the postseason, but it's fun when you're winning."

That area of planning falls to Yost, whose Brewers went 5-1 on their most recent homestand and have drawn 21 consecutive sellout crowds at Miller Park. Yost is trying to convince players to ignore hype about the postseason, but that's no easy task. He remembers 1993, when Yost was Atlanta's bullpen coach and the Braves and Giants battled it out in the NL West that season. In the end, 104-win Atlanta narrowly beat out 103-win San Francisco, with third-place Houston 19 games back.

If last season's prep helped the Brewers' front office, Yost believes the same could be true for his young players.

"When you haven't gone through expectations at this level, every time you hit a little bump, you think the world is coming to an end," Yost said. "Experience teaches you the sun comes up again tomorrow and you get another crack at it.

"This game is built on natural ability and you have to let your natural ability flow. When you start pressing, you suppress your natural ability and it makes it worse. We weren't really ready to win last year."

This time, on the field and off it, they hope to be ready.