The Barrelman is a mascot logo used by two baseball teams in Milwaukee nicknamed "Brewers".
26-670: When the Brewers began playing in the American Association of Professional Baseball in 1901 the Barrelman was associated with the team. In the 1940s the mascot was embraced by the team. The character was nicknamed Owgust and was used as a mascot for the Brewers from 1942 until 1952. The character resembled a beer barrel and had a tap in place of a nose. The Brewers general manager Rudie Schaffer for popularizing Owgust in
52-624: A logo, he chose the Beer Barrel Man in navy and red – traditional Brewers colors. When Bud Selig bought the one-year-old Seattle Pilots franchise in the spring of 1970 , he moved them to Milwaukee and they officially became the "new" major-league Milwaukee Brewers . The club continued to use the Beer Barrel Man (though in the Pilots' original colors of blue and gold) as the team's primary logo until 1978 . Recently, it has seen
78-561: A resurgence on throwback merchandise, and been featured on several stadium promotions. The Milwaukee Brewers won eight pennants in their fifty-one seasons: Before the Junior World Series became an annual event, the American Association pennant winners scheduled postseason minor league championship series against the champions of other leagues. For the Brewers' first two championships, these were held against
104-435: The American Association from 1902 through 1952. The 1944 and 1952 Brewers were recognized as being among the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time . The nickname "Brewers" has been used by baseball teams since at least the 1880s, although none of the early clubs ever enjoyed a measure of success or stability. That would change with Milwaukee's entry into the American Association , which would last 50 years and provide
130-582: The Boston / Milwaukee Braves of the National League from 1945 through 1962 . In 1945, he purchased the club from Bob Quinn for $ 500,000 and the club won the National League pennant in 1948 , but lost the World Series in six games. Performance of the club then tailed off, accompanied by poor attendance and revenue. In March 1953 , Perini moved the club to Milwaukee , Wisconsin , and
156-603: The Boston Braves displaced the Brewers in Milwaukee. After the Braves moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season, former Braves minority owner Bud Selig announced the formation of a group to bring major league baseball club back to Milwaukee, adopting the batting Beer Barrel Man as his organization's logo. When Selig's group was awarded the bankrupt American League Seattle Pilots franchise, he moved them to Milwaukee and
182-597: The Orioles . The city of Milwaukee, hoping to attract a major league club, constructed Milwaukee County Stadium for the 1953 season. The Brewers were set to move in, until spring training of 1953 , when Lou Perini moved his Boston Braves to Milwaukee. The Brewers moved to Toledo , became the Sox , and continued the Brewers' winning ways, claiming an American Association pennant in their first season in Ohio . The legacy of
208-473: The 1940s. Also in the 1940s the team began promoting the Barrel Kid. In the 1940s and 1950s, a whole series of Beer Barrel Men were used as logos by the club – pitching, batting, fielding balls and running the bases. The December 1944 issue of Brewer News , the club's newsletter, depicted Owgust in a Santa Claus suit and long white beard. The Beer Barrel Man was used until spring training of 1953, when
234-547: The American Association Milwaukee Brewers continues in the major league Milwaukee Brewers , which took its name from the 1902–1952 club. After the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966 , local automobile dealer and Braves part-owner Bud Selig created a group to lobby for a new major league club in Milwaukee. As a name for his group, he chose "Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Inc.", after the American Association club he grew up watching. As
260-451: The American Association, Milwaukee played in the same ballpark. Originally constructed in 1888, it was located in the North side of Milwaukee on a rectangular city block with the main entrance on Chambers St. between 7th and 8th Streets. It had abnormally short foul lines, 268 feet (82 m) to left and right. The fences then angled out sharply, making for deep "power alleys", and center field
286-532: The Beer Barrel Man made a comeback as the first logo of the new Milwaukee Brewers. The Beer Barrel Man was used by the American League club through the 1977 season. In 1977, the Milwaukee Brewers sponsored a contest to replace the Barrelman logo. The team received 1,932 entries, from which they selected a logo designed by a 30-year-old college art student named Tom Meindel. The logo that
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#1732776623300312-736: The Beer Barrelman as the cap logo and sleeve patch. This design was used in exhibitions games on March 22 in Arizona against the Chicago Cubs and once again March 30 in a game at Miller Park in Milwaukee against the Chicago White Sox. In 2013, fans selected Bernie's Barrelman Ale as the name of a new craft beer, made by Leinenkugel's , in a poll on the team's website. On January 25, 2015, at their "On Deck" offseason event,
338-494: The Brewers after the 1945 season for a $ 275,000 profit. Grimm returned to Milwaukee twice more during the early 1950s. The Braves named him manager of the Brewers for 1951 and he again enjoyed huge success, winning an American Association title in 1951 and leading the Brewers to first place over the first two months of the 1952 campaign before his promotion to skipper of the MLB Braves May 31. Then, in 1953 , as manager of
364-509: The Brewers announced they would be bringing back the character, now named simply "Barrelman", as a costumed mascot. Barrelman is sometimes confused with Bernie Brewer . Bernie has always been a human figure, first a regular man in lederhosen and then a costumed human mascot suit. Milwaukee Brewers (American Association) The Milwaukee Brewers were a minor league baseball team based in Milwaukee , Wisconsin . They played in
390-399: The Brewers would become one of the most colorful squads in baseball and Veeck would become one of the game's premiere showmen. Constantly creating new promotional gimmicks, Veeck gave away live animals, scheduled morning games for wartime night shift workers, staged weddings at home plate, and even sent Grimm a birthday cake containing a much-needed left-handed pitcher. When Grimm was hired as
416-771: The Denver Grizzlies of the Western League and Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association . After 1919, the Junior World Series was held regularly between the American Association and the International League . For the 1936 season, the American Association introduced a Shaughnessy playoff between the league champions and three runners-up to determine the league's representative. During its 51-year tenure in
442-718: The Packers moved their Milwaukee games to the Wisconsin State Fair Grounds in West Allis . Interstate 43 now runs through where Borchert Field once stood. Notable Owners Notable managers Notable players Lou Perini Louis Robert Perini (November 29, 1903 in Ashland, Massachusetts – April 16, 1972 in West Palm Beach, Florida ) was the principal owner of
468-536: The city's springboard into the major leagues. The American Association Milwaukee Brewers were founded in 1902, after the American League Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the St. Louis Browns . The Brewers were an independent club except for 1929-1933, when they were owned by Phil Ball as an affiliate of his St. Louis Browns , and from October 1946 through their final days, when Lou Perini owned
494-632: The club and operated the Brewers as the AAA-affiliate of the Boston Braves. The Brewers won their first American Association championship in 1913 and repeated the next year. More than 20 years passed before they claimed another with a 90–64 (.584) club in 1936. In 1943–1945, the team won three consecutive pennants, and after the following season the Brewers were purchased by the Boston Braves , and became their Triple-A affiliate for six seasons (1947–1952). Although this move eventually paved
520-649: The club set the NL attendance record that first season and continued to increase. The Braves won two NL pennants in Milwaukee, in 1957 and 1958 , and played the New York Yankees in the World Series twice, winning the first . They also tied for a third straight league title in 1959 , but fell in the playoff series to the Los Angeles Dodgers . At the completion of the 1962 season, he sold
546-497: The franchise for $ 5.5 million to a Chicago group led by 34-year-old insurance executive William Bartholomay , who later moved the franchise to Atlanta for the 1966 season. Perini retained a 10% interest in the club and sat on the board of directors for a number of years. Prior to owning the Braves, Perini gained his fortune in his family's construction business in Boston, Perini Corp , having started out his working life as
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#1732776623300572-614: The manager of the Cubs, he recommended that Casey Stengel be hired to replace him. Veeck was opposed to the idea – Stengel had little success in his previous managerial stints with the Dodgers and Braves – but as Veeck was stationed overseas in the Marine Corps, Grimm won out. The club won the American Association pennant in 1944, and Stengel's managerial career was resurrected. After three consecutive pennants, Veeck sold his interest in
598-463: The transplanted Milwaukee Braves , he led the city's first National League team to three first division finishes (1953–1955). Milwaukee had long been coveted by major league teams looking for a new home. Bill Veeck himself tried to relocate the St. Louis Browns back to Milwaukee in 1952 , but his move was vetoed by the other American League owners; the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 and became
624-406: The way for the team's demise, in the short run it led directly to Milwaukee's final two league championships—one in 1951 when they also won the Junior World Series, followed by an even better team the next year. In 1941, the club was purchased by Bill Veeck (son of former Chicago Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. ) in a partnership with former Cubs star Charlie Grimm . Under Veeck's ownership,
650-541: Was 400 feet (122 m) from home plate. It was known as Athletic Park until 1928 when it was renamed Borchert Field in honor of Brewers owner Otto Borchert, who had died the previous year. The Polo Grounds had a similar, but larger, configuration. Borchert Field was also the first Milwaukee home park for the Green Bay Packers , who played the New York Giants on Oct. 1, 1933. The following year,
676-507: Was selected is known as the ball-in-glove logo . Since then, he has made appearances on stadium giveaways, such as the 1999 Turn Ahead the Clock promotion, and has found new life on Cooperstown Collection merchandise. The Beer Barrel Man was also featured in the winning design for the Brewers' "Design A Youniform" contest in 2013. The contest received nearly 700 entries and the winning design, created by Ben Peters of Richfield, Minnesota, used
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