RanJer
07-28-2006, 02:10 PM
Posted on the Journal Sentinel's Website:
"Right now there's a reporter slogging through a war zone halfway across the world, sidestepping bombs and piecing together a story on the future of civilization hanging in the balance.
I'm at Miller Park covering the announcement of a fifth sausage that will race around the field during baseball games.
The Brewers on Thursday confirmed the news leak from a secret stadium source. The chorizo will join the hot dog, bratwurst, Italian and Polish sausages in our favorite between-innings diversion.
I've never before seen a 9-foot sausage in a sombrero try to squeeze through a standard-size door. It was time for him to meet the press and for us to press the meat with hard questions that none of us could seem to think of.
So we all went out on the field and watched him - no need to be gender-neutral here; he has a goatee - run a practice lap along the warning track. That's where we met the kid-sized version of chorizo. Mini-meat, if you will.
Chorizo, the newest member of the Milwaukee Brewers and Klements Famous Racing Sausage lineup, warms up Thursday before taking his first lap during a media conference at Miller Park.
The sausage race is Milwaukee proving it can laugh at itself. We're a town that knows how to load up a bun, and we celebrate that by cheering on our favorite artery-busters in a foot race.
It's so stupid, which makes it cool. Plus it's funny, in the same way that a kid snickers when you say wiener.
So this new addition is an inside-the-pork home run. Sorry, this press conference has a policy of no pun left behind.
The Brewers have no beef with baloney, and it's not a knock on knackwurst. They just decided the chorizo's time had come.
Also, they're aware, I'm sure, that ballpark attendance will be helped by population trends showing that just about everyone in America will be Latino by the end of this century.
Maria Monreal-Cameron, head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, was at the press conference. She hugged the anthropomorphized sausage and praised the Brewers for responding to years of lobbying for the mascot.
"His skin tone is the actual color of chorizo sausage," she said. "It's perfect."
You couldn't help but share her joy. It's the same pride the racing bratwurst instills in German-Americans and the hot dog swells in Franco-Americans.
Klement's, which sponsors the racing sausages and has a workforce that's nearly half Hispanic, has another sandwich to sell you at the games. Traditionally, chorizo is crumbled up like ground beef and put in scrambled eggs, tacos, chili and so forth, but here, it's jammed in a casing, smoked and served brat-style.
Chorizo is hot to trot for the first time at Saturday's game. Then he won't race again until next season. It's not sausage labor laws, but rather Major League Baseball rules that say you can't switch uniforms or mascots mid-season.
Rick Schlesinger, a Brewers VP, swears that the sausage race is never fixed, but some links are simply faster or better at running while looking through a mesh mask and wearing a top-heavy costume. There is no guarantee that El Picante, the chorizo's nickname, will win Saturday, even though the team has a special Cerveceros Day promotion.
And don't look for any more new sausages in the foreseeable future, Schlesinger said. You can't really fit more than five runners across the track.
That will come as a disappointment to the Irish. Tom Branigan, a spokesman for Irish Fest, said he would love to see corned beef in tennis shoes. He even has a name in mind.
"What do you think about Paddy McSausage?"
http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/jul06/chorizo072806.jpg
"Right now there's a reporter slogging through a war zone halfway across the world, sidestepping bombs and piecing together a story on the future of civilization hanging in the balance.
I'm at Miller Park covering the announcement of a fifth sausage that will race around the field during baseball games.
The Brewers on Thursday confirmed the news leak from a secret stadium source. The chorizo will join the hot dog, bratwurst, Italian and Polish sausages in our favorite between-innings diversion.
I've never before seen a 9-foot sausage in a sombrero try to squeeze through a standard-size door. It was time for him to meet the press and for us to press the meat with hard questions that none of us could seem to think of.
So we all went out on the field and watched him - no need to be gender-neutral here; he has a goatee - run a practice lap along the warning track. That's where we met the kid-sized version of chorizo. Mini-meat, if you will.
Chorizo, the newest member of the Milwaukee Brewers and Klements Famous Racing Sausage lineup, warms up Thursday before taking his first lap during a media conference at Miller Park.
The sausage race is Milwaukee proving it can laugh at itself. We're a town that knows how to load up a bun, and we celebrate that by cheering on our favorite artery-busters in a foot race.
It's so stupid, which makes it cool. Plus it's funny, in the same way that a kid snickers when you say wiener.
So this new addition is an inside-the-pork home run. Sorry, this press conference has a policy of no pun left behind.
The Brewers have no beef with baloney, and it's not a knock on knackwurst. They just decided the chorizo's time had come.
Also, they're aware, I'm sure, that ballpark attendance will be helped by population trends showing that just about everyone in America will be Latino by the end of this century.
Maria Monreal-Cameron, head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, was at the press conference. She hugged the anthropomorphized sausage and praised the Brewers for responding to years of lobbying for the mascot.
"His skin tone is the actual color of chorizo sausage," she said. "It's perfect."
You couldn't help but share her joy. It's the same pride the racing bratwurst instills in German-Americans and the hot dog swells in Franco-Americans.
Klement's, which sponsors the racing sausages and has a workforce that's nearly half Hispanic, has another sandwich to sell you at the games. Traditionally, chorizo is crumbled up like ground beef and put in scrambled eggs, tacos, chili and so forth, but here, it's jammed in a casing, smoked and served brat-style.
Chorizo is hot to trot for the first time at Saturday's game. Then he won't race again until next season. It's not sausage labor laws, but rather Major League Baseball rules that say you can't switch uniforms or mascots mid-season.
Rick Schlesinger, a Brewers VP, swears that the sausage race is never fixed, but some links are simply faster or better at running while looking through a mesh mask and wearing a top-heavy costume. There is no guarantee that El Picante, the chorizo's nickname, will win Saturday, even though the team has a special Cerveceros Day promotion.
And don't look for any more new sausages in the foreseeable future, Schlesinger said. You can't really fit more than five runners across the track.
That will come as a disappointment to the Irish. Tom Branigan, a spokesman for Irish Fest, said he would love to see corned beef in tennis shoes. He even has a name in mind.
"What do you think about Paddy McSausage?"
http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/jul06/chorizo072806.jpg