This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers are spreading “Kindness in MKE” this weekend, a club initiative in its ninth consecutive year in which players, coaches, front office officials and alumni blanket the city with random acts of goodwill, then encourage the beneficiaries to pay it forward.
It began first thing Friday morning like so many good things do, with a proper stretch.
“You have to send me those videos,” Ryan Braun said.
Braun reached, twisted, jumped and squatted, all while wearing his familiar No. 8 jersey and surrounded by septuagenarians at the Wilson Park Senior Center on Milwaukee’s south side, where he took part in the thrice-weekly aerobics class run by Caroline and Robert Sanderson. Their 45-minute program focuses on flexibility and balance, with movements covering upper body, lower body and core. By the time it's done, Caroline said proudly, there isn’t a single joint or a muscle that hasn’t been given a good wake-up call.
They typically draw about 50 participants, but the gym was full on Friday for what was billed only as a “workout with the Brewers.”
“There must have been 80 people here,” Caroline said. “And that’s not counting Sausages.”
All five Racing Sausages, to be precise.
Plus one former National League MVP.
Braun retired in 2021 but still stays in shape at a gym near his home in Southern California that’s popular with former pro athletes. He also works out with a group of Malibu dads that every now and then includes former teammate Mike Moustakas.
“It’s the fountain of youth, you know? You have to work out,” Braun said. “Health, wellness, longevity, and you get some semblance of competition.”
During his playing days, much of Braun’s charitable work focused on literacy and education, usually involving kids. He was a star of the Brewers’ first Kindness In MKE events, whether bagging groceries around town, pumping gas, buying coffees for morning commuters or surprising kids at school. Friday was a different kind of fun.
“This was a unique one. I feel like seniors don’t get enough of our love,” Braun said. “We spend so much time with the kids, but think of how many of these people have been longtime fans and supporters of the Brewers.
“Anyway, where I am in life, I’m probably closer in age to these people here today than I am to the elementary school kids.”
As Braun posed for selfies and stories, it was exactly the interaction the Brewers had in mind when they conjured Kindness in MKE. Best they can remember, the program was born at what was then called Maryvale Baseball Park during Spring Training in 2016, when now-vice president of community relations Katina Shaw, Brewers Community Foundation Executive Director Cecelia Gore and now-senior vice president of communications and affiliate relations Tyler Barnes were brainstorming ways to meet chairman and principal owner Mark Attanasio’s mandate to connect to the community.
“I think we all kind of came up with it together,” Shaw said. “It was like, ‘What can we do to make an impact?’”
“We were trying to find something to engage everybody,” Gore said.
That’s what makes Kindness in MKE unique. Instead of the Brewers identifying organizations or individuals to support, they give $100 to every full-time front office employee and $500 to every player and coach, and let them decide how to spend it. All told, those folks will spread around more than $50,000 in the community on Saturday alone, and you’ll see the results if you search social media for the hashtag #KindnessInMKE.
Over the years, the money has gone to countless causes, big and small. Shaw’s own gift the first year went to Neighborhood House of Milwaukee, a community center in the city’s Concordia neighborhood. She told of the player whose child loved his school bus driver, so the player surprised the driver with a tip. There was the coach who noticed construction going on in his neighborhood and provided workers with coolers of water and food.
Last year, the Brewers’ own firemen -- a group of relief pitchers -- visited a firehouse near American Family Field for lunch and a ride around the neighborhood in a fire truck. This year, a group of staffers pooled their money and planned to donate it to a local animal shelter on Saturday.
“I like hearing the stories of what everyone does,” Shaw said. “And then they give the person a card that says, basically, ‘We’re spreading joy in the community. Tag, you’re it.’”
Braun’s workout was a nice start, and a big surprise to even the Sandersons running the aerobics program. Robert is a big Brewers fan and was once a finalist among 250 entrants in a mustache contest judged by none other than Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers.
“Meeting Ryan Braun was not something I thought was going to happen today,” Robert said. “His eyes twinkled the whole time, in spite of all of us old folks,” Caroline said. “He was having fun. Some of the people here are dealing with horrible difficulties, some not. It’s just good to see everybody moving.”