Wiener Wars: Brewers Pull Sausage Race Rights From Klement's

MILWAUKEE, WI — Go to any Milwaukee Brewers baseball game at Miller Park, and the loudest cheers you'll hear will often come just before the seventh inning. That's when the leftfield gate opens and five seven-foot-high sausage mascots emerge onto the field for what has been called the Famous Klement's Sausage Race. Their comical, ambling route around the horseshoe-shaped infield warning track has been a fan favorite for nearly two decades.

News broke this week that the team suddenly yanked the sausage sponsorship from Klements, un-linking the company from the race that has linked the company to local sausage fame since the race's onset in the 1990s. In fact, Klement's sausages are served throughout the park, and images of the Klement's sausage race have appeared on T-Shirts, hats, cups, mugs, keychains and pants-less bobblehead dolls.

According to a Journal Sentinel report, Klement's 25-year sponsorship link was broken heading into the 2018 Brewers' season "Alas, all good things come to an end, and the Brewers have decided to discontinue our partnership with them," Klement Sausage Co. Chief Executive Officer Tom Danneker said in the report.

According to a Milwaukee Biz Times report, the pulling of the sausage contract came with little to no notice, creating a bit of sizzle for the longtime sponsors, “To our surprise, weeks later the Brewers informed us that they signed with another undisclosed company, and we would not have the opportunity to match the deal or negotiate,” Danneker wrote, saying it was a “surprising and disappointing development.”

The Brat, Polish, Italian, Hot Dog and Chorizo will still be bumbling and stumbling around Miller Park this April, but with a mystery sponsor instead.

Who's the new and super-secret sausage sponsor? As of Jan. 24, that secret is as secret as the Secret Stadium Sauce served alongside the sausages. Is it barbecue sauce? Is it ketchup? You be the judge.

Different media outlets are speculating on who snagged the sausage sponsorship. The Milwaukee Business Journal likes Johnsonville as the favorite, but you can't really count out Usinger's - which has ties to "Mister Baseball" Bob Uecker, the team's announcer - or manufacturer Old Wisconsin.

This is not the first time the heat was turned up on local sausage makers. Back in 2015, Klement's sued Johnsonville over the rights to use the term "Backyard Bratwurst." Johnsonville was blocked from using the term “Backyard Grilled Brat” in their advertising.

The racing sausages runs during an exhibition spring training baseball game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres Friday, March 7, 2014, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)