Michael Trzinski

Image courtesy of © Brett Davis-Imagn Images The Milwaukee Brewers entered the All-Star break as one of, if not the, hottest teams in baseball. It hadn't always looked so bright, though. After waking up on May 18, manager Pat Murphy checked the latest National League standings and saw his Brewers in fourth place in the NL Central, six games behind the division-leading Chicago Cubs with a dismal record of 21-25. Since then, the Brew Crew has won 35 of their last 50 games to improve to 56-40 and are lurking a single game behind the now mortal-looking Cubs going into the All-Star break. Many players have contributed mightily for Milwaukee, but perhaps none as well as the three Brewers 'freshmen, namely Jacob Misiorowski, Caleb Durbin, and Isaac Collins. 'The Miz' was called up a few short weeks ago and has made a huge splash in the major leagues. In his big-league debut on June 12, Miz pitched five innings of no-hit ball against the St. Louis Cardinals, earning his first big league win before leaving with a minor injury. In his next outing, Misiorowski threw six perfect innings against the Minnesota Twins before giving up a walk and a two-run homer to Matt Wallner in the seventh in a 17-6 trouncing of the Twins. Game number three was more of the same, with Miz outdueling Pittsburgh Pirates superstar Paul Skenes in a 4-2 win, the third straight victory for the young Brewers hurler. Misiorowski came down to earth on July 2, getting tagged with his first major league defeat in a 7-3 loss to the New York Mets. In just 3.2 innings, he allowed five hits, five runs, and three walks while giving up a grand salami to Brandon Nimmo, followed by a solo shot by Francisco Lindor in the bottom of the second. The Miz looked tired, and his velocity was down. Six days later, he faced another legend, Los Angeles Dodgers sure-thing Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. Seemingly revitalized, the young buck took it to the established star and outpitched LA's southpaw by a long shot. Miz went six innings and allowed four hits, one run, and one walk while striking out 12 batters. The next day, Kershaw said, "I know him now, huh? That was super impressive. That was unbelievable. It was really special. I mean, everything. The velo, but he’s got four pitches, commands the ball, and made it — I mean, I don’t know how you hit that, honestly. That’s just really tough.” Clayton Kershaw, meet Jacob Misiorowski. The Miz was a late addition to the NL All-Star team and pitched one inning on Tuesday, allowing one hit in one inning while hitting 102.3 mph on the radar gun. Hopefully, that is the first of many trips to the ASG for the star Milwaukee pitcher. There were probably more than a few Brewers fans unhappy with the acquisition of New York Yankees farmhand Caleb Durbin. The Brewers traded closer Devin Williams to the Yanks last December for Durbin and pitcher Nestor Cortes. Fast forward eight months. With the overall success of the Brewers' pen and solid pitching by new closer Trevor Megill, Brewers fans might now be asking, 'Devin Who?' Durbin started the season at Triple-A Nashville but was called up three weeks into the season and has played almost every game for Milwaukee since. In his first major league game against the 'Nomadic' Athletics, Durbin collected his first big-league knock and went 2-for-4 in the contest. Durbin's season has been typical of a rookie, with the usual ups and downs. On May 20, he was batting .169 with an OPS of .501 when he went on a hot streak over his next 11 games, batting .333/.383/.500 over 42 at-bats while slamming seven two-baggers and stealing three bases. Then came a 2-for-23 famine that saw his average plummet to .203 in mid-June. But over the next month, Durbin had a red-hot streak in which he batted .367/.440/.468 over 79 at-bats. The power is still not there (12 doubles, four HRs), but he has provided some clutch moments, including three walk-offs, which ties him with the immortal Gomer Hodge (1971) with the most walk-offs in major league history before the All-Star game. (Hodge would later manage the Beloit Brewers in the Class-A Midwest League from 1986-88.) Durbin kills southpaws to the tune of .351/.413/.509 over 57 at-bats, while scuffling somewhat against righties, batting .232/.329/.316 in 177 ABs. Platoon splits aside, the diminutive (5-foot-7) infielder is batting .261/.348/.363 overall and is playing a decent third base for Milwaukee. His six defensive runs saved (DRS) ranks fourth overall, just ahead of 10-time Gold Glover Nolan Arenado. Hmm... Isaac Collins began his professional career with the Colorado Rockies. He made it as high as Double-A before being selected by the Brewers in the minor league portion of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. The switch-hitter clawed his way up the chain and made his big-league debut last year, going 2-for-17 in 11 games. What a difference a year makes. With injuries to Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins, Collins worked his way up the outfield depth chart and has been a mainstay in left field, starting 48 games for the Brewers. Although he split time between left field and second base in the minors, he has become adept at playing 'the corn' at Am Fam Field and has passed the eye test, having made several outstanding catches this year. His five defensive runs saved rank in MLB's top 10 for left fielders. Proving that they don't all grow big in Minnesota, the 5-foot-8 Collins has been steady for Milwaukee, batting .259/.363/.389 over 193 ABs. Although not a big power hitter (eight doubles, one triple, five homers), Collins plays good defense and shows some speed, stealing 10 of 13 bases this season. Collins has the potential of being a 30-stolen base guy and could hit 10-15 homers. Add to that his defensive skills, and you have a pretty solid player. If The Miz can pitch as well in his next 12-13 starts as he did in his first five, he will be a slam-dunk Top 5 NL Rookie of the Year candidate. Durbin and Collins could collect some votes, but it's more likely they will simply be solid rookies, and right now, that's what the Brewers need. What do you think of the jobs that these three have done this year? Let us know in the comment section, and thanks for reading! View full article

On May 16, 2004, Ben Sheets threw one of the greatest games in Milwaukee Brewers history. The righthander struck out 18 batters - still a Milwaukee record - on the way to a 4-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves. It was a window into Sheets' electrifying ability. Sadly, Sheets' career would be derailed by injuries and bad teams - otherwise he may have ended up as the best pitcher in franchise history. Ben Sheets was born in Louisiana in 1978. He attended college at Northeast Louisiana University (now the University of Louisiana Monroe), where he was an All-American. The Brewers drafted Sheets in the first round (10th overall) in 1999. In 2000, Sheets became the hero for the U.S. Olympic baseball team, pitching 22 innings and yielding only one walk and 11 hits. For the gold medal game, he pitched a complete game shutout against the favored Cuban team, giving up only three singles and no walks. The Brewers moved Sheets rapidly through the minor leagues, and by 2001, he was a fixture in the rotation. Sheets quickly became a workhorse, averaging 225 IP from 2002-2004. During the span, Sheets became a complete pitcher, controlling his offerings and increasing his strikeouts. All of it came together in 2004, when Sheets produced one of the best seasons in Brewer history. In addition to a 2.70 ERA, Sheets struck out 264 batters and walked just 32. Unfortunately, Sheets suffered from a lack of run support and only had a record of 12-14. (The club won only 67 games that season.) Due to the low win total, he finished a distant eighth in the Cy Young Award voting, despite producing 7.2 bWAR - second in the league behind Randy Johnson. After Sheets' breakout campaign, the Brewers gave their newly minted ace a four-year contract worth $38.5 million. Unfortunately, Sheets never rose up to the brilliance of the 2004 campaign as he missed time due to injury and illness during each of the next four years. He was still effective, but he never threw for more than 200 innings or produced a sub-3.00 ERA. His list of injuries included shoulder tendinitis, hamstring issues, ear infections that caused vertigo, and a tear in his right elbow. The latter injury occurred in the final weeks of 2008 - the only winning season Sheets had been part of with Milwaukee - and shelved him for the playoffs. With the season concluded, Sheets was a free agent. The Brewers decided the oft-injured Sheets wasn't worth a significant investment but did opt to offer him arbitration with the expectation of landing a draft pick as compensation. Unfortunately for Sheets, who declined the arbitration offer, the elbow injury was worse than thought and required Tommy John surgery. He missed all of the 2009 season. Sheets signed with Oakland for the 2010 season, starting 20 games, with mediocre results, before suffering a torn flexor in his pitching elbow. He made one final stab at playing in 2012, signing with Atlanta mid-season. He pitched well over nine games before landing on the DL again with a sore shoulder. After the last setback, Sheets decided to call it a career. After retiring, Sheets returned to Louisiana to raise his family, where he owns and operates Sheets Baseball Academy. He has served as a volunteer baseball coach at his alma mater since 2013. He was inducted into the Brewer Wall of Honor in 2014. Ben Sheets was unique in that he was a starter that relied primary on only two pitches: his fastball and a devastating curveball. No player in team history probably threw a curve ball as often and as effectively as Sheets. Sheets' legacy with Milwaukee is effectively in place as one of the top pitchers the organization ever produced - even if it was tinged with disappointment. In addition to pitching in four All-Star games, he is second in career bWAR, with 25.6, behind only Teddy Higuera. And he has more strikeouts than anyone other than Yovani Gallardo. Sheets' name appears in the Brewers top 10 of just about every pitching statistic that you can think of, including WHIP, innings pitched, and wins. As I noted, for all the accomplishments of Sheets, there is a dose of disappointment that things weren't better during his run in Brew City. Sheets pitched on some really bad clubs, dimming his accomplishments in some eyes. Also, as the club's first home grown star in years, he was cast as the savior for the franchise and awarded the richest contract in team history. But the injuries that followed clouded people's view of him and he would never carry the club on his back like he did in 2004. I remember during the time period that people on brewerfan.net would sarcastically say things such as, "It would be nice if our 'ace' would get over his dizzy spells" and things of that nature. The final injury cemented for many fans the sour view of Sheets. At the time, some felt he was bailing on the team in the heat of the pennant race. When he left the Brewer organization, there was some bitterness between both parties, but that appears to have faded over the years. In the end, it's easy to remember Sheets for the good things he did in Milwaukee. Watching him when he was on top of his game was a thing of beauty. Sheets' curveball was second to none. I personally remember going to an afternoon game with my father and watching Sheets mow down the opposing team in less than 2.5 hours. It was brilliant. That's how I remember Ben Sheets. And finally, we can't mention Sheets without talking about his batting. Sheets had a reputation as one of the worst hitters in the league. His .076 BA backs up those claims. I used to joke that Brewer pitcher Doug Davis (who had a career BA of .083) used to thank Sheets for not making him look so bad. View full player

Little did Pete Ladd know that one year after he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, that he would play a crucial role in the magical season that was 1982. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound righthander—known as Big Foot because of his size 15 cleats—started the season at Triple-A Vancouver. In mid-July, Ladd was called up to the big club when pitcher Jamie Easterly went on the disabled list. Ladd played an understudy role to closer Rollie Fingers, but when Fingers was lost for the season with a torn forearm muscle in early September, Ladd moved into the closer’s job the last month of the season. He notched two saves in the ALCS with California but was largely forgotten in the World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. Peter Linwood Ladd was born in Portland, Maine but moved to Atlanta and played high school ball at Henderson HS and then attended the University of Mississippi. The Boston Red Sox selected him in the 25th round of the 1977 MLB Amateur Draft. After three seasons in the Sox organization, Ladd was traded to the Houston Astros. He pitched 10 games for the Astros in 1979 and then spent the next two seasons in the minors before his trade to the Brewers. Ladd earned two saves in his first two games after taking over the closer spot but then lost two games in a five-game span mid-month and lost his high leverage job. He pitched three times in blow-out games late in the season. Ladd earned saves in Game 3 and Game 5 of the ALCS as the Brewers defeated the Angels to advance to the World Series. In three outings, Ladd was perfect in 3.1 innings, striking out five in a dominant showing. But he pitched only one time in the Series, while lefty Bob McClure appeared in five games, earning two saves. The Cards would win the Series in seven games and even to this day, Brewers fans think their team would have been victorious had Fingers been healthy. Ladd had his best season in 1983, saving a team-high 25 games, but became a medium-leverage/long reliever the next two seasons before being released by the Brewers after the 1985 season. He pitched well for the Seattle Mariners in 1986, posting an ERA+ of 111 in 52 appearances. His career ended after pitching at Triple-A Albuquerque in 1987. Ladd passed away in October 2023 after a short battle with cancer. View full player

Sam Hinds was a real-life globetrotter. He was born in Maryland, spent much of his childhood in Florida, attended high school in La Jolla, California, and graduated from an international high school in The Netherlands. After graduation, he was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 35th round of the 1971 MLB Amateur Draft but elected not to sign. He attended Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for two years and was later signed by the Brewers in 1974 as an undrafted free agent. Samuel Russell Hinds was born in 1953 in Frederick, Maryland. His father took a government job in The Netherlands and Sam flourished in sports, winning team European titles in basketball and baseball in 1970-71. In 1974 he was signed by Brewers scouting director Jim Baumer. Hinds, a 6-foot-6 righthanded pitcher, was assigned to Single-A Danville in the Midwest League in 1974. Hinds won nine games and helped the Warriors to the Midwest League crown. Hinds spent the next two years at Double-A (Thetford Mines and Berkshire) before moving to Triple-A Spokane in 1977. He was called up to Milwaukee and made his big-league debut on May 21 against the Boston Red Sox. He replaced Moose Haas in the second inning and pitched well, going 5.1 innings while allowing five hits, two runs, and two walks and striking out three. Hinds collected his first save in mid-June in a 6-2 win over Baltimore and earned his second and final save two months later in a 7-5 win over Toronto. Hinds did not earn a big-league win. He posted an ERA+ of 87 and a FIP of 4.11 in 29 games (one start). He did not fare well in his only big-league start, getting knocked out in the third inning by the Red Sox in a late-July game. Hinds pitched for the final time in the bigs on September 4. He pitched for Spokane in 1978 and was bumped down to Double-A Holyoke in 1979, where he made 19 starts and won his final six games. Hinds was released by the Brewers prior to the 1980 campaign. Hinds passed away on September 19, 2019 in Hanford, California. View full player

Not a trade, but I hope the Brewers look at a Chewy-type contract for The Miz. Seven-year, $125 MM? Don't call me crazy...that's how they made me. 🤩

the subtle art of framing? Like when William catches a ball two inches off the ground and jerks his glove waist-high in the middle of the plate? Pretty subtle...lol. ⚾

Back in the early 1990s, Greg Vaughn spent his time roaming left field in ‘Vaughn’s Valley’ at Milwaukee County Stadium. Although his best years came later after he was traded from the Brewers, Vaughn still played well enough to be considered one of the best left fielders in Milwaukee Brewers history. In his eight years as a Brewer, Vaughn was named to two All-Star teams and hit more than 20 home runs in a season four times. Gregory Lamont Vaughn was born in Sacramento, California and attended Sacramento City College after graduating from John F. Kennedy High School, where he starred in both football and baseball. He was drafted five different times over two-plus years before he finally signed with Milwaukee, who drafted him fourth overall in the 1986 MLB June Draft-Secondary Phase. Prior to signing, Vaughn played two seasons in the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), leading the Cotuit Kettleers to league titles in both seasons, and was named league MVP in 1985. He was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2009. The right-handed hitting Vaughn spent four years in the minors before getting called up to Milwaukee for good in August 1989. Vaughn doubled and singled in his first two big league at-bats. His final numbers for the season showed a batting line of .265/.336/.425 over 113 at-bats with five homers and 23 RBI. Vaughn led the Brewers in home runs from 1991-94 and would have led in 1996 but was traded to the San Diego Padres before the trade deadline after slamming 31 round-trippers in just 375 at-bats. That trade, which brought the Brewers pitchers Ron Villone and Bryce Florie, along with outfielder Marc Newfield, was probably one of the worst in Brewer history. In the eight years after the trade, Vaughn hit over 45 homers in two straight seasons (45, 50), made two more All-Star appearances, and hit 186 home runs to give him a career total of 355. Villone, Florie, and Newfield combined for a bWAR of just 0.8 in seven combined seasons for Milwaukee, while Vaughn's total bWAR in eight seasons after the trade was 15.6. As a Brewer, Vaughn ranks eighth all time with 169 home runs and 10th with 566 RBI. View full player

I agree. I believe that both Joey O and Durbin will pick up the pace enough to make a deal a non-issue.

It always seemed like Jeff Suppan was going to be the next superstar. From the time the right-handed pitcher was drafted in the second round by the Boston Red Sox in the 1993 MLB Amateur draft to the times he was signed as a free agent by Kansas City, St. Louis, and Milwaukee, Suppan was always looked upon as a future staff savior. He was never named to an all-star team, never won 20 games, and never earned Cy Young votes. All Suppan did was play for 17 years, won 140 games, and provided back-end stability to pitching rotations for seven different teams. Jeffrey Scot Suppan graduated from Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, California and was named the All-California Interscholastic Federation Division I Player of the Year after going 11-1 with a 0.92 ERA his senior year. After signing with Boston, he moved rapidly through the minor league system and made his major league debut for Boston in August and pitched eight times (three starts) and posted an ERA+ of 83 and a FIP of 4.38. Suppan pitched parts of three different seasons for Boston before being drafted in the 1997 Expansion draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Suppan struggled to a 1-7 mark with an ERA of 6.68 in 13 starts before being sold to the Kansas City Royals toward the end of the 1998 season. After a solid September, Suppan spent the next four seasons as a dependable starter for the Royals, averaging 33 starts and 10 wins per season before signing as a free agent with the Pittsburgh Pirates before the 2003 campaign, but then was traded back to Boston at mid-season. The St. Louis Cardinals signed him as a free agent before the 2004 season and Suppan rewarded the Cards with 42 victories in three seasons. Impressed by that, Milwaukee signed Suppan to a $42 million, four-year free agent contract on Christmas Eve 2006. Suppan took the ball every turn for three-plus years, starting 97 games (110 appearances) while posting an ERA+ of 84 and a FIP of 5.14. He started the 2010 season in the rotation but was demoted to the bullpen after two dismal starts. After getting hammered for 20 hits and 13 earned runs over 9.2 innings in five games in late May/early June, ‘Soup’ was released by the Brewers, still owed $10 million. While well-liked by people in the organization, it got so bad that Suppan would get booed by the fans as he came out of the bullpen at Miller Park. He made 13 starts for St. Louis in 2010 after being picked up for his second stint with the Cards, and then made six starts for the Pirates in 2012 before announcing his retirement on January 2, 2014—his 39th birthday. View full player

100% agree. Rest in Peace, big fella.

Image courtesy of © Tom Lynn/Milwaukee Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC Dave Parker spent only one year as a Brewer, but at the age of 39, he played like a man 10 years his junior. The Brewers also signed Parker to be a steadying influence in the clubhouse, especially with troubled star Gary Sheffield. The players lockered next to each other, giving Parker the opportunity to work with Sheffield, who had been something of an enigma in his first two seasons in Milwaukee. Dave Parker was not only a great player, but he was a great leader, and more importantly, a great person. David Gene Parker was born in 1951 in Grenada, Mississippi. His family moved to Cincinnati, and he graduated from Courter Tech High School. The Pittsburgh Pirates tabbed him in the 14th round of the 1970 MLB Amateur Draft. After three and a half seasons in the Pirates organization, Parker made his major league debut with the Buccos in April 1973. He was sent back down to Triple-A Charleston but was called back up in mid-July and never played in the minors again. The man known as ‘The Cobra’ played for 11 years in the Steel City, winning back-to-back batting titles in 1977-78. In 1978, Parker was named the National League Most Valuable Player. He finished in the Top 10 in the MVP race four times with the Pirates, while earning three Gold Gloves and was named to four All-Star squads. Oddly enough, Parker did not make the All-Star team in his MVP season. The Cincinnati Reds signed Parker as a free agent after the 1983 season, and over the next four seasons, into his mid-30s, Parker was a two-time Silver Slugger winner and a two-time All-Star. After the 1987 campaign, Parker was traded to the Oakland A’s and had two ‘average’ seasons there before signing with the Brewers as a free agent after the 1989 season. The signing of Parker and the re-signing of Robin Yount helped at the box office. “We’re running ahead of last year at this time,” said Dick Hackett, the Brewers’ vice president of marketing. “Our season ticket sales are up 20 percent. We’re very pleased.” Parker did not let the Brewers down, as he led the team with 176 hits, 39 doubles, 92 RBI, and 275 total bases. He was second-best on the team in seven other major offensive categories and led the American League with 14 sacrifice flies. Parker was mainly a designated hitter, as he only played 23 innings at first base. Parker was named to the All-Star team and earned Silver Slugger status. He was also named the team MVP. After the season, Parker was traded to the California Angels for Dante Bichette. Parker played for the Angels and the Toronto Blue Jays in 1991 before retiring. In 19 major league seasons, Parker batted .290/.339/.471 across 9,358 at-bats, including 339 homers, 1,493 RBI, and 154 stolen bases. Dave Parker was elected to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2014, the inaugural Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame in 2022, and was elected with 87.5% of the vote on December 8, 2024, on the Classic Baseball Era Committee's 2025 ballot. He will be formally inducted on July 27, 2025. He is survived by his wife, Kellye, and six children. May he Rest in Peace. View full article

You know what is even more impressive? Working the words 'deleteriously' and 'homeostasis' into an article about hitting! @Matthew Trueblood

If ever there was a stereotypical 1950s/1960s teenager, it was John Gelnar. The Granite (Oklahoma) High School student did everything. He was the class president all four years, was the president of the FFA (Future Farmers of America), performed in plays both his junior and senior years, played basketball and baseball all four years, played American Legion ball three years, and was a member of the 1960 Class B champion high school baseball team. The lanky (6-foot-2, 185-pound) right-handed fireballer drew rave reviews from opponents and was compared to the McDaniel brothers from nearby Hollis. Lindy McDaniel pitched in the majors for 21 years while brother Von lasted only two years in the bigs due to arm injuries. Johnnie Richard Gelnar was born in 1943 and graduated from Granite HS in 1961. He attended the University of Oklahoma and in his first action against the varsity team, struck out 18 batters and allowed one hit as the U of O freshmen beat the varsity, 3-0. He pitched one year with the Sooners and one season with the Oklahoma City Natural Gassers in the non-professional Industrial Major League. In September 1962, the Pittsburgh Pirates and south-central scout Bob Zuk signed him as a free agent. In his first professional season (1963), Gelnar won 12 games and posted an ERA of 3.04 in 27 starts for Asheville in the Double-A South Atlantic League. The following year Gelnar attended his first big league camp but started out at Triple-A Columbus before getting sent back to Asheville. He got called up by the Pirates in August and made his big league debut on August 4, pitching two innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, allowing two hits and one run in a 10-7 loss. He finished the season with an ERA+ of 73 and FIP of 4.94 in seven relief appearances. Gelnar spent the next two seasons at Columbus and most of 1967 there before getting called up to Pittsburgh in August, where he made 10 appearances, including his first major league start. In 1968 he spent the whole year at Columbus but was purchased by the Kansas City Royals after the season. Prior to the start of the 1969 season, Gelnar was traded to the Seattle Pilots. He spent most of the season at Triple-A Vancouver before getting called up to Seattle in late May. Gelnar earned his first big league save and win in a span of a week in mid-June, but the Pilots were a bad ball club and Gelnar ended the season with just three wins against 10 losses. His 109 ERA+ and 2.93 FIP were career bests. In 1970, the team moved to Milwaukee. That season, Gelnar was strictly a reliever and pitched a career-high 53 games and notched four saves for the Brewers and posted an ERA+ of 90 and a FIP of 3.49. Gelnar made two appearances in 1971 for Milwaukee and was then traded to the Detroit Tigers. He finished the season at Triple-A Toledo, appearing 26 times including 16 starts. Gelnar began 1972 on the Toledo roster but he was purchased by the Minnesota Twins, who assigned the pitcher to Triple-A Tacoma, where he spent the whole year. After posting a 3-7 record with an ERA of 4.31, he was released and would retire from baseball. View full player

There's two troublemakers there lol ❤️

On average, MLB starters generally play 140-150 games during the year, which means they get 2-3 days off/month. Any more than that and the performance will suffer. Murph might like to keep his regulars in there all the time, but he has to give them days off at some point. Seventy-nine games in (almost half way) shows the following games played: Chewy 78 Ortiz 77 Turang 76 Frelick 76 Contreras 74 Hoskins 74 Yeli 74 Collins 60 Durbin 58 Any of those guys in the 70s will need to sit a bit.

Image courtesy of Marathon Dude In the early 1990s, fans at Milwaukee County Stadium were treated to ‘The Incredible Edible Sausage Race,’ an animated running contest between three varieties of meats: Bratwurst, Polish Sausage, and Italian Sausage. The pixelated version of the race was initially shown on the ‘state of the art’ scoreboard in County Stadium. Then one day in 1992, graphic designer Michael Dillon approached the Brewers with the idea of making it a real race with people wearing sausage ‘costumes.’ On June 27, 1993, the race began as usual, with cartoon characters running on the scoreboard against backdrops of Milwaukee landmarks, such as the Mitchell Park Domes, on the screen. Suddenly, the scoreboard went blank and a gate in left field opened, and the three ‘Racing Sausages’ appeared, much to the delight of the fans. They stumbled around in the outfield for a few seconds, then headed to the third-base foul line and ‘raced’ toward home plate. The Bratwurst—worn by Dillon—won the inaugural race while Toronto pitcher Jack Morris was warming up with catcher Pat Borders in the bottom of the sixth inning. Initially, the race was run only on select Sundays and special occasions, as to “not wear out the welcome,” then-Brewers vice president Laurel Prieb said. Soon enough, the race was run during every game. Klement’s Sausage Company began sponsoring the Sausages in 1995. In 1996, Hot Dog was added to the ‘link league,’ but ran only on Sundays. That season, Italian Sausage won 30 times, while Polish Sausage was second with 27 and Bratwurst pulled off 24 victories. On Opening Day, April 7, 1997, the 42,893 fans were all given True Value Hardware commemorative baseballs upon entry. You can probably guess what happened when projectiles and alcohol were liberally mixed. Over 250 baseballs were hurled onto the field, including one that narrowly missed Texas Ranger left fielder Rusty Greer. The game was delayed for 14 minutes, and the sausage race was canceled for fear that the Sausages would be pelted by baseballs. “It shows that excessive alcohol and fans are not a good mix,” Brewers pitcher Cal Eldred said. “This should make a good commercial for Miller.” The following season, Hot Dog was added to his three fellow Sausages. In August, the four contestants were seen running pre-game wind sprints with St. Louis pitcher Donovan Osborne. They must have been training for their next race. In 1999, Pittsburgh infielder Pat Meares—who was on the disabled list—raced as the Bratwurst and won easily. That would not be the last time a Pirates player would interact with the Sausages. In July 2000, Detroit Tigers pitcher Hideo Nomo raced as the Italian Sausage, waved at his teammates in the Tigers' dugout, and cruised to victory in the race. Nomo, who had pitched for the Brewers the previous season, said, “This is unique, only done here.” In the last Sausage Race held at County Stadium in September 2000, Bratwurst (worn by Laurel Prieb) edged Italian Sausage for the victory. Miller Park opened in March 2001, and during an exhibition game with the Chicago White Sox, Hot Dog grabbed the first win, albeit unofficially, as it was not a regular season game. That honor went to Bratwurst on April 6 in the first regular-season game at Miller Park against Cincinnati. The Major League All-Star Game came to Miller Park in 2002, and the Sausages raced during a break in the Home Run Derby. ESPN personality Dan Patrick wore one of the costumes. In 2003, Pittsburgh Pirate first baseman Randall Simon became ‘Public Enemy Number One’ at Miller Park after he took a ‘playful’ swing at the Italian Sausage and knocked it to the ground, also causing the Hot Dog to fall. Neither Sausage suffered serious injuries, but after the game, Simon, while still in full uniform, was handcuffed, taken to a police station, and charged with disorderly conduct. He was later fined $432. MLB also suspended him for three games. Simon apologized to the women and sent an autographed bat to Mandy Block, who was identified as the Italian Sausage. The Curacao Tourism Board offered all expenses-paid trips to both Block and Veronica Chandler, who were running as Hot Dog. (Simon was a Curacao native.) It was a big year for the Sausages in 2006. First, ESPN filmed two commercials featuring the foursome that ran that summer. In late July, Chorizo was introduced as the fifth Sausage. Also known as ‘Cinco,’ Chorizo was only allowed to run once that year per MLB rules regarding introducing ‘new’ mascots. Chorizo would become a full-time member in 2007. The Italian Sausage costume was stolen in February 2013 but was left at a Cedarburg bar and was recovered without incident. On the 20th anniversary of the race, the original three Sausages ran the race while Chorizo and Hot Dog held the tape and the finish line. Other than Meares and Nomo, Geoff Jenkins and Mark Grace ran as Sausages. So did former Green Bay Packer Javon Walker, who won the race in 2004. Casey McGehee’s son Mack ran as a ‘Little Weenie,’ a kid-sized version of the Sausages that were introduced around 2010. In 2021, the sausage race became known as the Johnsonville Sausage Race, after the new sausage supplier at American Family Field. Three years later, former Milwaukee resident Todd Elliott submitted a product concept to the LEGO Ideas website that would turn the Sausages into a buildable set. The idea needs to receive 10,000 votes to be reviewed by the LEGO Design team. Currently, Elliott has just over 5,300 supporters. Go here to vote in support of the idea. The Sausages have been a key part of the Brewers for over 30 years, as much as tailgating and Bernie Brewer. A LEGO set would only further solidify their status as 'mascot' legends. View full article