Baseball is back and so are the best of the wurst running the track at American Family Field, and you don’t have to attend a Brewers game to see them. Wisconsin’s favorite sports mascots are celebrities statewide, appearing at festivals, parades, schools and community races.
The original sausage race was a scoreboard sideshow of animated cartoon characters that entertained fans in 1992 at old County Stadium.
A live version of the Famous Racing Sausages debuted on June 27, 1993, with a trio of costumed links, the Bratwurst, Polish, and Italian, racing from the left field corner on select Sundays during the season.
Fans relished the addition of the Hot Dog in 1997. Replicas of the racing sausages became the hottest collectible items in 1999 with stuffed toys joining a series of products, T-shirts, caps and balls. The Mexican Chorizo, adorned with a sombrero and decked out in red, green and white, spiced up the lineup in July of 2006 to became the fifth Klement’s Racing Sausage.
In 2010 Forbes magazine compiled a list of the top sports mascots, and the Klement’s Famous Racing Sausages received a mention. Milwaukee’s Klement Sausage Co. was the original sponsor for 25 years, until Sheboygan Falls-based Johnsonville assumed sponsorship for the 2018 baseball season, continuing the fan-favorite race at each Brewers home game.
The Brewers Community Foundation will host its 28th annual 5K & 10K Famous Racing Sausages Run/Walk on July 11. The run benefits the Brewers Community Foundation, Fisher House Wisconsin and the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center. Visit brewers.race-mlb.com
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers’ Racing Sausages have been a winner on field and in community
Reporting by Elaine Rewolinski and Lou Saldivar, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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