Bernie Drives 55
A Brewers ploy to drive ticket sales their first season in town lives on today
Oh, if we could all look so good at his age…
The germ of the idea that led to creation of Bernie Brewer turns 55 as June becomes July. History tells us it came from a blend of inspiration and desperation, with more than a little perspiration mixed in.
And, there was lederhosen.
Meet Milt Mason, aka “The Original Bernie Brewer,” the centerpiece of a 1970 sports promotion that’s alive and thriving a century plus five years later. The Brewers may not have always been a success between the lines but the front office had marketing chops virtually from day one, a talent birthed amid a need for relevance.
The Brewers who landed in Milwaukee on short notice in April of ‘70 started their MLB lives as Seattle’s Pilots in ‘69, a franchise rushed into existence before ownership and the community were ready for it. Seattle beat out Milwaukee and Bud Selig when MLB added teams in the late 60’s, and the Northwest greeted its expansion gift with a collective shrug: the Pilots played in a substandard ballpark sporting a roster flecked with past-their-prime players. Bankruptcy winds were blowing hard as the Pilots reported for their second-ever spring training, with a court awarding the financially teetering franchise to Selig a week or so before Opening Day.
That 37,000 fans showed up on such short notice for the Crew’s first-ever County Stadium game April 7, 1970 is amazing but the buzz rapidly dwindled. As happy as some were to be in “the bigs” again, there was a contingent that was reluctant to embrace an American League team: the departure of the National League Braves for Atlanta five summers before left a deep scar. With no time to sell season tickets, few opportunities to market the club, and a poor on-field product to peddle, the Brewers were on a pace to draw fewer than a million fans as the season was reaching its midpoint.
Enter bespectacled dude pictured above: Mr. Mason was a spring training employee who came north with the rebranded Brewers, a buddy of Brewers GM Marvin Milkes who knew desperate marketing times called for desperate marketing measures. The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) says it was Milkes who came up with the original Bernie concept: a living, breathing lederhosen-wearing stadium denizen, a flesh-and-blood mascot who’d cheer the feisty Brewers on from his perch in a trailer above the County Stadium scoreboard. Milkes added a twist: Mason wouldn’t go home after the final out: he’d STAY THERE, day and night, through the rigors of the Wisconsin summer in his tin home, his liberation to come only with the team’s next sellout crowd (which would also be the club’s FIRST sellout—the 37,000+ for game one was about six grand short).
Mason took to his spot 81 feet above the proceedings on July 6th, 1970 at a time when the club was averaging a mere 11,000 fans per game. Baseball Reference tells us that, true to form, just over 11,000 patrons were there that night to see the Crew do in the dreaded White Sox 3-1 in a crisp two-hour long affair.
No one was going to mistake Bernie’s trailer for a suite at the Pfister but it did have some ammenities including A-C, color TV, a phone and a fridge, as well as indoor plumbing. Local restaurants delivered catered food, the least folks could do for a man sentenced to a life of watching a really bad ballclub on a nightly basis with no means of escape.
Cap Day July 26th drew just over 29,000 fans—the third biggest of the season but not enough to liberate Bernie from his perch. Freedom would come a few weeks later—August 16th, aka “Bat Day.” 44,387 fans got free clubs and an extra inning walk-off Brewers win over Cleveland. Ever the showman, the 69 year old Mason spurned the chance to use conventional means (stairs, perhaps?) to come down, choosing instead to descend via rope, burning his hands and legs in the process. It was the highlight of an otherwise forgettable season, unique in that it brought Major League Baseball back to Milwaukee.
And, that it sired this:
…and this…
A stunt that ran 42 days (and 41 nights) became promotional gold for the Brewers, with Bernie Brewer as much a part of the game experience as tailgate brats and lousy Opening Day weather. Bernie Brewer still has legs 55 summers later.
Minus the lederhosen.
Hope your trip to Scotland was fun, full of history, good food and people. I liked this writing about the Crew from a slightly different perspective; which I never saw a photo of the first, Bernie. He certainly was a good pitchman for all the breweries that still were a big part of the Milwaukee economy. Years; later, the presence. Of former baseball catcher, Bob Uecker was incredible valuable for both baseball, Miller Lite and the Milwaukee economy. Bernie, was passionate; but, not the presence that a Bob Uecker had. He could have just about gone anywhere to announce baseball games. I wonder if he ever gave a thought about going International to call games. Yet; a very faithful son of Milwaukee and the now National League Brewers was his choice.