The Milwaukee Brewers swept the Dodgers to reach their first World Series since 1982, but the city's sports desk has more pressing news about a sausage.
The Milwaukee Brewers swept the Dodgers to reach their first World Series since 1982. Our sports desk focused instead on the Chorizo's six-stride comeback in the sixth-inning sausage race, and the Hot Dog's pending appeal.
The Chorizo came back from six strides down on Thursday night to win the sixth-inning sausage race at American Family Field. Grown men wept into their bratwurst. A city that has survived brutal winters finally had something to believe in.
Separately, the Brewers reached the World Series.
Milwaukee beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 to sweep the National League Championship Series, the Guardian reported. It is the club's first trip to the Fall Classic since 1982. People seemed pleased.
Six strides down, nowhere to hide
The race began the way so many tragedies do, with a Hot Dog in front. By the first turn, the Chorizo trailed the pack by six full strides. Its foam head was listing badly to the left, like a ship taking on water.
Veterans of the warning track knew the math. Nobody comes back from six strides. Not in October, and not in a costume that weighs as much as a fridge door.
Then the Chorizo planted its giant shoe and found another gear. It passed the Polish Sausage on the outside. It passed the Italian Sausage on the inside, a move race officials later called "legal, but rude." At the line, it beat the Hot Dog by the width of a bun.
The Chorizo ran the final stretch with almost no forward vision, steering by crowd noise alone. You simply cannot teach that kind of grit.
"I've seen men go to war with less heart than that sausage." — Dale Rennick, chief steward, Milwaukee Racing Sausage Integrity Board
Rennick has officiated the race since the board was founded, which he says was "recently, and by me." He reviewed the finish on a borrowed tablet from six separate angles.
"The Hot Dog led wire to wire, except at the wire," Rennick said. "That's the only wire that counts. We'll be studying this one for generations."
Inside the Chorizo camp
Trish Vandermolen, the Chorizo's position coach, said the comeback began months ago in a storage room under the bleachers. Her runner trained by sprinting in full costume while carrying a cooler.
"Everyone talks about the legs," Vandermolen said. "Nobody talks about neck strength. That head wants to go one way. You have to tell it, no, we go the other way."
She declined to say who was inside the costume. "There is no person inside," she said. "There is only the Chorizo."
The losing camp was gracious, mostly. Hot Dog spokesman Marv Tolliver called the result "a gut punch, and I mean that literally, since he clipped our casing on the turn." He confirmed the Hot Dog has requested a formal review.
Also, baseball happened
Back on the diamond, the Dodgers jumped out to a 4-0 lead. The defending champions then blew it. These things happen to everyone.
Jake Bauers hit a two-run double to start the comeback, then drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game in the fifth, according to ESPN. Garrett Mitchell later hit a go-ahead home run. Reporters wrote all of this down, as is customary.
The sweep came a year after Los Angeles swept Milwaukee out of the same series. Some would call that revenge. This desk calls it a decent undercard.
Season-ticket holder Gus Pelletier was in Section 6 for both events. He said the Brewers win was "fine, sure, great," before steering the conversation back to the turn.
"Did you see the head?" Pelletier said. "The head was going one way and the Chorizo was going the other way. I have never been so alive."
What comes next
The Brewers will face either the Rays or the Guardians in the World Series. League officials have been asked to share the schedule with fans who care about that sort of thing.
The Integrity Board, meanwhile, will hear the Hot Dog's appeal on Monday morning. Rennick expects a long session and has ordered six dozen pretzels.
Asked whether the hearing might clash with World Series preparations, he paused for a long time.
"The Brewers are in the World Series?" he said. "Good for them. Somebody should tell the Chorizo."
