The Brat Pack: Wisconsin relishes its racing tradtion

by Molly Mogren

The sweat is dripping down my face. Forty-thousand pairs of eyes are on me, some belonging to Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, Cy Young candidate Johan Santana and American League All-Star pitcher Joe Nathan. I make an attempt to look presentable, but you wouldn’t know it because I am wearing a ridiculous 20-pound large-mouth bass costume on the field of the Metrodome. Ah, the perks of interning for a major league baseball team.

Every Thursday during the 2004 Twins season, I got to leave my windowless, blue cubicle in the depths of the Metrodome and let fans peg me with squishy baseballs.  If you got nailed by the ball, you hit the turf and flopped around like a fool for 15 seconds. Then you’d get hoisted up in the armless, blob-like foam costume and do it again.

hough I saw the humor in the fishing contest, I felt it a humiliating chore.  I’d gripe and whine like Napoleon Dynamite each time the office requested my presence for the pre-game show. Finally, one day Andy Price, the Twins director of game presentation and the brain behind the casting contest, said to me, “You know, in Milwaukee, it is an honor to be one of the racing sausages.” An honor.  You mean people want to put on those tube steak costumes, race around Miller Park in front of thousands of screaming fans?  I understand the humor.  I mean, come on, encased meat is inherently funny. But are people really lining up to squeeze into these costumes? After my fishing experience, I found it hard to believe, although I was intrigued by Price’s words.

Within the first few minutes of my sausage research, I discovered the role of a fish and the role of a sausage aren’t exactly in the same ballpark. While members of the Brew Crew, the Brewers’ in-game promotions troop, often race in the nearly 10-foot-tall sausage costumes, fans of the sausages champ at the bit for a chance at a cameo sausage role.  Guest racers include professional baseball players Hideo Nomo and Geoff Jenkins, writer Jim Cryns of Northshore Lifestyle Magazine and even the Chicago Cubs’ bat boy. It seems this silly promotion established a reputation that extends beyond Miller Park.

Klement’s Racing Sausages have come a long way from their humble beginnings in the Milwaukee County Stadium. The Hot Dog, the Polish, the Italian and the Brat were born in the early '90s, with the sole job of running a race on the electronic scoreboard. The meats hustled their buns through a digital downtown Milwaukee, finally ending up in the Brewer’s outfield and running toward home. 

The digital race quickly caught on with Brewers fans. Someone within the Brewers’ organization joked that they should take the race a step further by racing sausages live in the stadium. While the idea was initially a joke, it soon became a reality. 

“Every Sunday the sausage costumes would finish the race. They took off and everyone would lose it,” says Chris Peck, the Milwaukee Brewers’ Brew Crew supervisor. “When the team began to struggle, the sausages became more popular with fans, and we stopped running the race on the scoreboard and did the entire race in the stadium.”

And just like a plump brat on a grill, the popularity and presence of Klement’s Racing Sausages continued to expand. Unlike many other mascots, the sausages weren’t just for the kids. “Adults got a kick out of the sausages,” Peck says. “People would be inebriated by the sixth inning and would start betting on their favorite sausage.”

Outside the stadium, sausage merchandise popped up everywhere. Wisconsinites proudly show their love of the wienies with window clings, key chains and magnets. “Sausage merchandise is a big deal. I have to smile when I see sausage t-shirts all over downtown Milwaukee,” Peck says.

The racing sausages made such a big splash in the Dairy State that sausage-inspired races and in-game presentations began sprouting in other baseball stadiums across the country. In Pittsburgh, you can watch the Racing Perogies, based on a Polish dish consisting of dough stuffed with potatoes. And in Minnesota, there are the fish.

Neither of these promotions’ popularity compare with the sausages at Miller Park. But as far as traditions go, few exist in Wisconsin with more ubiquity than the brat and sausage family. Backyard barbeques, tailgates, Lambeau field, fundraisers – the Wisconsin tradition goes hand-in-hand with tube steak consumption. This sense of tradition is a main reason the racing sausages came to such great popularity in Wisconsin and why other teams have imitated, but never duplicated, Milwaukee’s success.      

While the history and appeal of the sausages explains the racing phenomenon in Wisconsin, the national fame of the in-game promotion involved a publicized accident at Miller Park. During the 2003 season, Randall Simon of the Pittsburgh Pirates slugged the Italian Sausage with his bat during the sixth inning race. The Italian fell to the dirt, taking down the Hot Dog in the process. Both sausages sustained scraped knees, and Simon was fined $432 and suspended for three games.

Images of the doubled-over sausage surfaced on news broadcasts and sports programs and in newspapers around the country.  Thus, the racing sausages became a nationwide sensation. “In Milwaukee the sausages have always been big, but [the incident] definitely brought out a lot of national attention,” says Mandy Block, also known as the assaulted Italian sausage.

Block, who is currently a junior at the University of Wisconsin, describes the hoopla after the Simon incident as “really strange.”  “I got a lot of interesting mail, some marriage proposals via email and phone calls from radio stations across the country at 7 a.m.,” Block says. “I think the funniest reaction was by an old neighbor lady that lives across the street and had the pleasure of dealing with all the press trucks parked in front of her house. She actually took pictures of me on her television... It was sorta weird.”

While Block, the Brewers and Simon agree the incident was a fairly harmless joke gone awry, the incident skyrocketed the sausage race’s popularity nationwide. Since the 2003 season, the sausages have received invitations from Minneapolis to Arkansas, to the All-Star Game in Houston and even Hollywood. In September 2004, the four encased meats debuted on the big screen in Bernie Mac’s baseball comedy, Mr. 3000.

Obviously the racing sausages have made a name for themselves. But the idea that racing in a costume that Block describes as “really top heavy, hot, tipsy when its windy and sorta smells like B.O.,” still sounds unappealing. Then a fan spun the idea that the sausage race is...well...more than a sausage race.    

“The reason you go to a brew game is not to see the Brewers win,” says Matt Dolbey, a self-described lifetime Brewers fan. “It’s kind of the long-term theme of being a Milwaukee fan. You go there because of the brats and the cheap beer. And it’s a great stadium. All of the things going on at Miller Park put together make it a great experience.”

Taking in a game at Miller Park is apparently more than cheering on the Brewers. It’s about the game, the food, the beer, the stadium, the fans and, yes, the sausages.

“The Racing Sausages and Bob Uecker and Bernie the Brewer and Miller Park are synonymous with the Milwaukee Brewers,” Dolbey says. So by putting on the foam Polish costume and racing the Italian, the Hot Dog and the Brat is like transforming into an extension of the team. It’s way to be a literal part of the tradition of major league baseball – even if you can’t demand the $3 million contract as a utility player.    

The Hot Dog, Polish, Italian and Brat inspired other sports organizations to create events that will excite fans and make games more enjoyable. However, Dolbey doesn’t think the fish, the perogies or any other gimmick promotions people will come up will ever compare with the unique contribution the sausages make in Milwaukee.

“A sausage with a mustache and lederhosen?” Dolbey ponders.  “You can’t find that anywhere else in the world besides Miller Park. People talk about them as a part of the team. When a Brewers game comes back from a commercial break, the Fox Sports guys talk about the sausages and who won the race. I can’t imagine anyone else talking about a race of other any other food.” 

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