Brewers: “Beast Mode 2.0” Adds To Recent History Of Base Hit Celebrations

The recent history of Brewers base hit celebrations

2011: Beast Mode 1.0

Prince Fielder’s sons were big fans of the movie Monsters, Inc. and one of the characters, Sully, puts his arms out when he wants to scare someone as monsters stereotypically do.

They called it “beast mode” and the Brewers took it and ran with it. Fielder, Ryan Braun, Nyjer Morgan, and the entirety of that Brewers lineup used that as their celebration. It was the basically the core piece of the personality of that team. They were all in beast mode all the time.

The fans made the gesture back on base hits, shirts were sold merchandising it, signs were made about it.

When thinking back to that 2011 postseason run, it’s difficult for the Beast Mode celebration to not be a major piece of that memory. Remember Nyjer Morgan’s walk-off single in the NLDS? Remember the celebration? Morgan ran into the arms of his teammates with his arms fully extended in Beast Mode. One of the most iconic images in Brewers franchise history is Morgan doing the Beast Mode.

It was the first postseason series victory for the Brewers since 1982. Beast Mode brought the Brewers to new heights, and set the foundation for future base hit celebrations.

2017: The Gauntlet gets thrown

The Brewers were in the early stages of a rebuild that a lot of people were expecting to take several years. Instead, Brewers fans and the front office fell in love with a roster that was having a ridiculous amount of fun for a group that was expected to be one of the worst in the league.

It started early in the year, with Orlando Arcia believed to be the mastermind behind The Gauntlet. After every home run, the Brewers would form a line of players in the dugout and do a series of jumping elbow bumps with Arcia typically being the final player in the line for one big final elbow bump and then Arcia and the homering player would scream in exuberance.

Fans would look forward to Brewers home runs not just because that meant the Brewers scored, but because that meant we got to watch another run of the Gauntlet. The bigger the home runs, the more exciting Gauntlet runs there were.

The excitement and fun of that team surged them to a better than expected finish, just one game shy of making the postseason. It also helped push the front office to move their chips into the center of the table and go from a rebuild to going for a World Series.

2018-19: Show Me Some Love

The 2017 team had a fun Gauntlet celebration, and that continued into 2018 and 2019 as well. But that was only for home runs. What about singles, doubles, and triples? What about everything else?

This celebration is believed to be have been started by Lorenzo Cain, one of the big offseason additions that year.

It was quite simple. Players would put their arms up, wiggle their fingers, and look skyward as if to say, “show me some love”.

“Show Me Some Love” took on a life of its own. After each base hit, players would do the celebration, and the fans would do it back. Fans would raise their arms, wiggle their fingers, and do the celebration back to, in effect, show them some love.

The more love that was shown, especially down the stretch, the better the Brewers started to play.

2019: Double Deuce

The 2019 season primarily was the carryover of “show me some love” and the Gauntlet was still being run as well.

But later in the season, Christian Yelich, the team’s MVP, went down with a broken kneecap after he fouled a pitch off it. Yelich was done for the season just as the Brewers were heating up in September and making a push for the postseason.

This was obviously a devastating blow to the team.

To “honor” Yelich and try to keep him with the team as they pushed forward without him, Ryan Braun started the “double deuce” on home runs and some base hits, in homage to Yelich’s jersey number, 22. Braun and others would make 22 with their fingers as a way to keep him involved with their success on the field.

Braun even wore Yelich’s jersey under his own for a few games.

2020: Positivity Train

Things were not going super well for the 2020 Brewers, as a lot of offensive players were in deep slumps. It’s difficult to stay positive when everybody is slumping. But then Daniel Vogelbach was brought in off waivers and helped start the “positivity train”.

A little arm pump and a reminder to keep things positive and keep things moving. Fans didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy this one as there were no fans allowed during the 2020 season and there wasn’t even that much time to see it in action. The Brewers offense stayed stagnant, even after adding the positivity train.

It didn’t gain that much popularity, but it helped the Brewers limp their way to a third straight postseason appearance.

Now, in 2021, we have “The Tiger”, which looks similar to the Brewers original Beast Mode a decade ago.

It’s hard to believe that the 2011 Brewers season happened a decade ago. The Tiger has a completely different origin story and isn’t related at all to Beast Mode 1.0, but perhaps the similarity will bring in some magic.

Previously, when the Brewers have had base hit celebrations like this, they perform better, have more fun, and are a more enjoyable team.