The Barrelman is a

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...

used by two baseball teams in Milwaukee nicknamed "Brewers".

Introduction

The character was first used in the 1940s by the Milwaukee Brewers, a Minor League Baseball team based in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

. At the time, he was known as "Owgust". With a

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

barrel for a

torso The torso or trunk is an anatomical term for the central part, or the core, of the body of many animals (including humans), from which the head, neck, limbs, tail and other appendages extend. The tetrapod torso — including that of a huma ...

and tap for his nose, the Beer Barrel Man embodied the whimsical spirit of the minor leagues in the early to mid-twentieth century. 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 the Boston Braves displaced the Brewers in Milwaukee.

Major Leagues

After the Braves moved to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

after the 1965 season, former Braves minority owner

Bud Selig Allan Huber "Bud" Selig (; born July 30, 1934) is an American baseball executive who currently serves as the Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball. Previously, he served as the ninth Commissioner of Baseball from 1998 to 2015. He initially served as ...

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 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.

Legacy

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 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.

Return in 2015

On January 25, 2015, at their "On Deck" offseason event, the Brewers announced they would be bringing back the character, now named simply "Barrelman", as a costumed mascot.

Other Brewers mascots

Barrelman is sometimes confused with

Bernie Brewer Bernie Brewer is the official mascot for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team. History In late June 1970, when the Brewers were still a new team and having difficulty drawing spectators to their games at Milwaukee County Stadium, Milt Mason, a 69 ...

. Bernie has always been a human figure, first a regular man in

lederhosen Lederhosen (; , ; singular in German usage: ''Lederhose'') are short or knee-length leather breeches that are worn as traditional garments in some regions of German-speaking countries. The longer ones are generally called ''Bundhosen'' or ''Kn ...

and then a costumed human mascot suit.

References

External links

Official website of the Milwaukee Brewers

{{Milwaukee Brewers Major League Baseball team mascots Milwaukee Brewers