Our Readers Share: Mark Dorn – From his hall of fame T-shirt collection

Yesterday the Milwaukee Brewers won their 11th consecutive game, and tonight at 8:40 CDT they hope to extend their streak to 12 as they play the Seattle Mariners in an away game. They’re currently at the top of the MLB, with a 60-40 record. [The Cubs are at 59-41.] The game is broadcast on Fanduel, TDS channel 252 or Spectrum channel 29.

Today Mark Dorn is wearing the above T-shirt that dates to 1987! He says “I was in line in Milwaukee to get my free George Webb for several hours, back in the day.”

The longest winning streak in Milwaukee Brewers history is 16 games, spanning from October 3, 1986 to April 20, 1987. That run started with a win over the Toronto Blue Jays to close out the ’86 season and continued into the start of the ’87 campaign, famously dubbed “Team Streak.” Then in the 1987 season they had a 13 game streak, and in 2021 (and 2025, thus far) they had 11 game streaks.

The 1987 streak triggered Milwaukee’s legendary George Webb burger giveaway, a quirky local tradition that promises free burgers if the Brewers win 12 straight.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has published the article at the following link. George Webb ready to give 100,000 free burgers if Brewers win tonight. Ryan Stamm, vice president of George Webb, describes in the article the many contacts he’s had in recent days with vendors, distributors and franchise owners to ensure that they’ll be ready to keep their promise. He indicates that “If the Brewers do beat the Mariners, George Webb will announce the date of the giveaway, something that Stamm said will have been decided in a meeting hours before the game’s first pitch. And while it won’t happen the next day, Stamm said the goal is to get burgers in hands as fast as possible.”

The tradition began in the 1940s, when George Webb predicted the [minor league] Brewers would win 12 straight games. It became official in 1987, when the Brewers hit that mark and George Webb handed out over 168,000 burgers. The only other time it happened was in 2018, when fans received 90,000 burgers and 100,000 vouchers.

Our thanks to Mark Dorn for sharing this photo of his priceless T-shirt.

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