MILWAUKEE (AP) — Brandon Woodruff has pitched some of the most important games in Milwaukee Brewers history but even he felt a little additional pressure as he took the mound Wednesday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Not only would a victory Wednesday maintain his perfect record on the season and extend Milwaukee’s winning streak to 12 games, free hamburgers for the entire city of Milwaukee were on the line.
“I was nervous,” Woodruff said. “There was a little bit more at stake today. I wanted to win those burgers bad. Who doesn’t want a free burger?”
The Brewers on Wednesday to extend their winning streak to 12 games.
Local restaurant chain George Webb has been promising free burgers if the local baseball team won 17 consecutive games for decades, starting way back when Milwaukee was home to the minor-league Brewers of the old American Association.
The promotion dropped to 13 games by the time the Braves made Milwaukee a big-league city in 1953 but that franchise couldn’t make it happen before departing for Atlanta in 1966.
Webb changed the promotion to 12 games when the Brewers moved from Seattle in 1970. In 1987, the Brewers opened the season with 13 wins in a row. More than 170,000 burgers were given away to mark the occasion.
The Brewers accomplished the feat a second time in 2018. They closed the regular season with eight regular-season victories followed by four playoff wins. Milwaukee has come close on a few occasions since, including an 11-game winning streak earlier this season.
George Webb Vice President Ryan Stamm said the company is planning to give away more than 100,000 burgers and will announce the giveaway plan Thursday afternoon.
“It’s been chaos,” Stamm said. “The restaurants, everyone’s talking about it. They’re excited about it. The team’s playing really well. They’re unstoppable right now, so I assume they’re going to win tonight and we’re going to be giving away burgers. It’s been fun.”
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