Milwaukee Brewers players fanned out across southeast Wisconsin this weekend in a display of random acts of kindness that included everything from retired slugger Ryan Braun leading a senior citizen yoga class to hurler Abner Uribe handing out mystery boxes in the stands containing small gifts. It’s the ninth straight year the organization has sent players and staff out into the world to spread some kindness to the city.
“We have had players go to a convenience store to pump and pay for gas, go to restaurants and pick up lunch tabs for everyone dining there, and show up at little league games to offer kids playing tips and coach first base,” said Brewers spokesman Tyler Barnes in an email. “Players and staff all get to choose what they want to do.”
The acts are mainly surprises: on Saturday, one barista, who on social media platform X says he’s a Norwegian-born Milwaukeean by way of New York, said one Brewers employee tipped him $500 on a coffee order, handing him five crisp Benjamins and a card saying the team is simply out seeking to brighten peoples’ days.
More complicated efforts did mean things were prearranged with organizations, who promised not to promote the event ahead of time. One of those was the appearance of Braun and the team’s racing sausage mascots at the Wilson Park Senior Center Friday. The six-time All-Star led that morning’s aerobics class.
Barnes said there are no firm requirements of what players and employees do for the “Kindness in MKE” day, and in addition to small in-person gestures the team also allows employees to donate money to area non-profits. The team handed out some $50,000 in all, mostly Saturday.
The kind gestures also took place at the team’s American Ballpark ahead of the Brewers game against the Minnesota Twins. After gates opened some half-dozen teammates, including Uribe, went into the stands with unmarked boxes and allowed families to pick one. Each box contained one of various gifts, including signed baseballs, seat upgrades and cash. Uribe let a family’s 1-year-old select a box: it contained $100.
“Players and staff only ask that recipients do something nice for someone else, preferably someone they don’t know or someone who is not expecting anything,” Barnes said. “It doesn’t have to be a donation, it can be as simple as visiting with a lonely neighbor or reading to kids at school.”
With assistance from Eben Novy-Williams.