Brewers' 'firemen' visit firehouse for annual initiative

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 -- Some of the Brewers’ Firemen got to meet the real firemen and firewomen of Milwaukee on Friday.

Three of the Brewers’ relievers who have been featured in the club’s running docuseries, "The Firemen," visited Engine No. 33 -- just a long toss from American Family Field -- as part of the ballclub’s “Kindness in Milwaukee” initiative. The players delivered groceries to feed the full-time staff of the station and were treated a day early to the tradition that takes place across all of Milwaukee’s fire stations on Saturdays: homemade pizza.

For closer Trevor Megill, the visit was personal. His father-in-law, Mark Wayland, is a retired paramedic and firefighter from Orange, Calif. Megill and his wife, Katie, were married in a firehouse in Long Beach, Calif., in 2019.

“This was fun,” Megill said before departing for the ballpark. “But I know how hard the work is.”

Megill and fellow pitchers Bryan Hudson and Bryse Wilson got a lesson in the hard life of firefighters along with a tour of Engine No. 33 from lieutenant Brandon Leonard, who, knowing Megill’s family history, presented the 6-foot-8 right-hander with a child-sized plastic fire helmet. Leonard explained that the reality of their work doesn’t necessarily match the childhood notion of what it takes to be a firefighter. In fact, only about 25 percent of their runs are related to fires.

The rest are everything from EMT calls to cleaning up traffic accidents to investigating hazardous materials. The players toured the station’s state-of-the-art hazmat truck stocked with sensors to quickly identify threats.

And, naturally, the players took a ride in a fire engine. These are big kids, after all.

“It’s super cool to see them crawling all over the rigs and pulling dough with us to make pizzas,” said Milwaukee’s fire chief, Aaron Lipski, a fourth-generation firefighter. “They’re the home team, and everybody loves the Brewers.”

The Brewers were all over town on Friday. While the relievers were piling into a fire engine, Devin Williams was making his annual visit to a barbershop in the city to pay for fans’ haircuts. Christian Yelich and Brice Turang were bagging groceries and paying customers’ bills. All told, the Brewers Community Foundation doled out more than $50,000 to various charitable causes around town.

Other initiatives happened quietly. There are no rules for Kindness in Milwaukee; players, coaches, front office officials and fans are simply encouraged to do something nice for someone in the community. Freddy Peralta said he stopped at his local Starbucks and handed out tips to the employees who make his daily treat. Brewers owner Mark Attanasio went to the Milwaukee Public Market and bounced from vendor to vendor paying customers’ bills.

“When I talk to the players in Spring Training, I always talk about our Community Foundation and how they can lean in and help, and especially for the younger guys, you don’t have to feel pressure to write a check," Attanasio said. "Make an appearance for us."

How did his appearance go?

“It was funny, because nobody knew who I was, which was nice for a change,” Attanasio said. “I tried to buy somebody a smoothie, and they said, ‘What do you mean?’ One guy said, ‘Well, I’ll buy you a smoothie.’”

For the men and women of Engine No. 33, it was as simple as a memorable lunch with friends they’re used to seeing on TV.

“We’re many people’s first call when something goes wrong, and we’re definitely the last line of defense of every other system,” Lipski said. “When COVID happened, it locked everything down. We couldn’t lose the workforce. It took a while to get out of that habit, but if you look around now, we’ve opened our doors again. All of the overhead doors are open, and we want people to know they can come on in. We love having community groups come through.

“Every firefighter who has worked more than five years in the city has done something like help a kid put the chain back on his bike. Firefighters quietly love doing good.”