50 Fun Facts About Milwaukee Brewers

Where did the Seattle Pilots, who became the Brewers, play their only season of home games in 1969?

Sick's Stadium was an ageing minor-league park whose plumbing was never upgraded: with a big crowd in, the water pressure all but vanished, one reason the club lasted a single season.

Which future commissioner bought the bankrupt Pilots and moved them to Milwaukee in 1970?

Bud Selig, a Milwaukee car dealer who had been the largest public shareholder in the departed Braves, wanted his new club to carry on the minor-league Brewers he had watched as a boy.

Which pitcher's diary of the Pilots' only season became the famous tell-all book Ball Four?

Jim Bouton kept the diary as a fading knuckleballer, and its clubhouse candour so alarmed baseball's commissioner that he called the book 'detrimental to baseball' and pressed Bouton to disown it.

Why did the 1970 Brewers play in altered Seattle Pilots uniforms?

The move came days before the opener: a bankruptcy court cleared the sale about a week ahead of the first game, so 'Pilots' was torn off the blue and gold jerseys and 'Brewers' sewn on.

The Brewers moved from the American League to the National in 1998; which team later switched the other way?

Houston Astros, in 2013, to give each league 15 clubs; the Brewers had gone the other way so that both leagues kept an even number of teams when two expansion clubs arrived in 1998.

Which team did the 1982 Brewers beat in the ALCS after losing the first two games?

California Angels: beaten twice in Anaheim, the Brewers won three straight at County Stadium to take the pennant, and with it their only World Series place through 2025.

What nickname did the slugging 1982 Brewers earn, after their manager?

Harvey's Wallbangers, a play on the Harvey Wallbanger cocktail, were 23-24 when hitting coach Harvey Kuenn took over as manager; they went 72-43 the rest of the way and hit 216 home runs.

The 1982 World Series was dubbed the 'Suds Series' because of what?

Both cities' beer-industry rivalry supplied the name: Milwaukee was the home of several of America's biggest brewers, while their great rival Anheuser-Busch owned the opposing ball club outright.

Which relief pitcher became the first Brewer to win the MVP award, in 1981?

Rollie Fingers saved 28 games with a 1.04 ERA in the strike-shortened 1981 season, added the Cy Young Award to his MVP, and carried the Brewers to the first postseason in their history.

Which polka have Brewers fans sung during the seventh-inning stretch since the 1970s?

Roll Out the Barrel, properly the Beer Barrel Polka, began as a Czech tune of the 1920s and is now so much a Wisconsin anthem that it also rings out at Badgers and Packers games.

The Brewers' 18-year-old rookie of 1974, a future two-time MVP, almost quit baseball in 1978 for which sport?

Golf: in the spring of 1978 he left the team and weighed a career as a professional golfer before coming back; four years later he was the American League's Most Valuable Player.

Which two positions did the Brewers' 1982 and 1989 MVP play across his 20-year career?

Shortstop and center field: shoulder trouble forced him off shortstop in 1985, and his 1989 award as a center fielder made him only the third player to win MVPs at two positions.

Which Brewer hit safely in 39 straight games in 1987, the longest streak since Pete Rose's 44?

Paul Molitor never got the chance to make it 40: hitless that night, he was waiting on deck in the tenth inning when team-mate Rick Manning's single won the game and ended the streak.

Which Hall of Fame slugger finished his career with the Brewers in 1975 and 1976, back where he began?

Hank Aaron, traded by Atlanta after 21 seasons with the Braves, called it 'going back home'; as a designated hitter he hit his 755th and last home run at County Stadium on 20 July 1976.

Which 1989 comedy cast Bob Uecker as a baseball announcer?

Major League cast him as Harry Doyle, the hard-drinking voice of a hopeless Cleveland team, yet many of its ballpark scenes were shot at Milwaukee County Stadium, where Uecker called real Brewers games.

What honour did the Baseball Hall of Fame give Bob Uecker in 2003?

The Ford C. Frick Award is the Hall's honour for broadcasters, so it reached Cooperstown ahead of the playing record of a backup catcher who batted exactly .200 over six seasons.

The fan who inspired Bernie Brewer lived high above County Stadium in 1970 until what happened?

A crowd of 40,000 came: Milt Mason, 69, moved into his perch above the outfield that June and vowed to stay until the new team filled the park, and a Bat Day gate of 44,387 brought him down in August.

Into what did Bernie Brewer originally slide after Brewers home runs at County Stadium?

A giant beer mug: from 1973 Bernie shot down a slide from his chalet into the mug after every Brewers home run and win, sending balloons into the air; since the move to a new ballpark in 2001 the slide has ended on a platform.

Where was the Brewers' Sausage Race run in its earliest years?

On the scoreboard: the race began as a cartoon of three animated sausages, and only later did runners in sausage costumes take it down onto the field for real.

Which sausage became the fifth racer in the Brewers' Sausage Race, in the mid-2000s?

The Chorizo first ran in 2006 on Cerveceros Day, the club's salute to its Latino fans (cerveceros is Spanish for brewers), joining a field that had started with only the bratwurst, the Polish and the Italian.

Which Pirates first baseman was arrested for hitting a racing sausage with his bat in Milwaukee in 2003?

Randall Simon swung at the Italian Sausage as the racers passed the visitors' dugout and toppled the young woman inside the costume; he was fined $432 and suspended for three games.

What was American Family Field called from its 2001 opening through 2020?

Miller's $40 million naming deal expired and American Family Insurance took over on a 15-year contract.

The roof of the Brewers' ballpark, unique in North America, opens and closes like which object?

A folding fan: the roof's 12,000 tons of panels swing out from a pivot behind home plate and can cover the whole field in about ten minutes.

Why did the Brewers' new ballpark open a year late, in 2001?

A crane collapse: on 14 July 1999 the giant crane known as Big Blue fell while lifting a section of the roof, killing three ironworkers, who are honoured by a sculpture outside the park.

How did the Brewers come by their ball-in-glove logo, introduced in 1978?

A fan design contest: Tom Meindel, an art history student from Eau Claire, beat some 2,000 entries by shaping the letters m and b into a glove holding a ball.

Which ace, acquired from Cleveland in July 2008, went 11-2 to pitch the Brewers into the playoffs?

CC Sabathia had a 1.65 ERA and seven complete games in his 17 Milwaukee starts, ending the Brewers' 26-year wait for a postseason place before he left that winter as a free agent.

In 2007, which Brewer became the youngest player ever to hit 50 home runs in a season?

Prince Fielder was 23 when he reached 50; a neck injury ended his career at 32 with 319 home runs, exactly the total hit by his father, the former Tigers slugger Cecil Fielder.

Ryan Braun's 2011 NL MVP season was later tainted when he admitted using what?

Banned PEDs: a positive test from 2011 was thrown out on appeal over the handling of the sample, but the Biogenesis investigation brought a suspension in 2013, and Braun then admitted using them in his MVP year.

From which team did the Brewers acquire Christian Yelich before the 2018 season?

Miami Marlins: the price was four prospects, headed by outfielder Lewis Brinson, and Yelich repaid it at once with the batting title and the NL MVP award in his first Milwaukee season.

Through 2025, Christian Yelich had hit for the cycle three times, all against which team?

Cincinnati Reds: two of the cycles came within three weeks of each other in his 2018 MVP season and the third in 2022, which made him the first player with three against a single club.

Which Brewer won the 2021 NL Cy Young Award after leading the league in ERA?

Corbin Burnes was perfect into the seventh inning at Cleveland that September and struck out 14 in eight no-hit innings, before Josh Hader closed out the second no-hitter in Brewers history.

Which reliever won NL Rookie of the Year for the Brewers in 2020?

Devin Williams won it without recording a single save: in the shortened season he allowed one earned run in 27 innings and struck out 53 of the 100 batters he faced.

Which Brewers manager won the NL Manager of the Year award in both 2024 and 2025, his first two seasons?

Pat Murphy had coached Craig Counsell in college at Notre Dame, then spent eight seasons on Counsell's staff in Milwaukee before succeeding him; no Brewers manager had won the award before.

Craig Counsell, the Brewers' winningest manager, left in 2023 to manage which rival?

Chicago Cubs: they dismissed David Ross on the very day they hired Counsell, and signed him to a five-year contract worth more than $40 million.

How did the Brewers clinch the 2018 NL Central title?

A one-game tiebreaker: both clubs finished 95-67, so a 163rd game was played on 1 October, and Milwaukee's 3-1 road win sent its rival into the Wild Card Game instead.

Which NBA superstar became a minority owner of the Brewers in 2021?

Giannis Antetokounmpo had agreed the deal in May but kept it quiet for three months, so as not to distract from the playoff run that brought the Bucks their first NBA title in 50 years.

Which team swept the 2025 Brewers, owners of baseball's best record, in the NLCS?

Los Angeles Dodgers: Milwaukee's 97 wins were the most in baseball and it edged a division rival in a five-game Division Series, but the eventual champions needed only four games to end its season.

Which Brewers prospect signed an $82 million contract in December 2023 before playing a game in the majors?

Jackson Chourio was 19 when he signed the eight-year deal, then the largest ever for a player with no big-league experience; a season later he was the youngest man ever to hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases.

Which future Brewers ace shut out Cuba to win Olympic baseball gold for the United States in 2000?

Ben Sheets, a 22-year-old minor leaguer, allowed three singles and no walks in the 4-0 final, the first Olympic baseball title the United States had won; a year later he was a Brewers All-Star.

Through 2025, which Hall of Famer was the only one to spend his entire career with the Brewers?

Robin Yount played all 20 of his seasons in Milwaukee, though it was a close thing: a free agent after his 1989 MVP year, he listened to a serious offer from another club before re-signing with the Brewers.

Which colours, a nod to the minor-league Brewers, were first planned for the 1970 team?

Navy blue and red had been the colours of the minor-league Brewers the new owner grew up watching, and the new club's early marketing material was already in that scheme when the plan was dropped.

Which team beat the Brewers in the 2011 NLCS on its way to the championship?

St. Louis Cardinals, who had only reached the playoffs as the wild card, beat the 96-win Brewers in six games and then took the title from Texas in seven.

Which ballpark hosted the minor-league Brewers and the Negro League Milwaukee Bears before 1953?

Borchert Field opened in 1888 as Athletic Park and was renamed for Otto Borchert, the minor-league Brewers' owner, after his death; a freeway now runs across the city block where it stood.

Which interim manager guided the 2008 Brewers into their first postseason in 26 years?

Dale Sveum was the third-base coach until 15 September, when Ned Yost was fired with 12 games left after 11 defeats in 14; Sveum won seven of them, enough to take the wild card.

Which pitcher won the Brewers' second Cy Young Award, in 1982?

Pete Vuckovich went 18-6 for the pennant winners while pitching through shoulder pain; a torn rotator cuff was found the next spring, and he appeared in only three games over the following two seasons.

Who was the Brewers' first Rookie of the Year, in 1992?

Pat Listach, called up from the minors that April, hit .290 for a 92-win team and stole 54 bases, a total beaten in the league only by another rookie, Cleveland's Kenny Lofton.

Which Brewers first baseman won the 1983 Roberto Clemente Award, the club's only winner through 2025?

Cecil Cooper was honoured for his work with Athletes for Youth, a programme teaching baseball to children in Milwaukee's inner city, in a year when he also drove in 126 runs.

Which closer became the first pitcher to reach 600 career saves, doing so as a Brewer in 2010?

Trevor Hoffman had lost the closer's job at 42 with his total stuck on 596; when the 600th save finally came, on 7 September 2010, his Brewers team-mates swarmed him on the mound.

In 2014, which stray wandered into the Brewers' spring training camp and became their unofficial mascot?

A dog: a coach won the scruffy stray over with a link of sausage, more than 1,000 people then asked to adopt him, and he ended up going home with one of the club's executives.

What happened to the senator whose switched vote passed the Brewers' ballpark tax?

Lost a recall election: George Petak of Racine had promised to vote no, then cast the deciding yes for a 0.1% sales tax that covered his own county, and in June 1996 his voters removed him.