Milwaukee restaurant chain on the hook for free burgers after Brewers' streak strikes 12

Tom Gatto

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Milwaukee restaurant chain on the hook for free burgers after Brewers' streak strikes 12 image

Well done, Brewers: You've done something so rare that a local restaurant chain has to deliver on a standing promise its founder made decades ago.

Milwaukee's MLB squad extended its winning streak to 12 (regular season and postseason combined) Friday with a 6-5 victory over the Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. Twelve is a magic number for the folks who run George Webb Restaurants, who will be serving free burgers next week to mark the occasion.

MORE: Watch the Dodgers-Brewers NLCS live on fuboTV (7-day free trial) 

Mr. Webb made a prediction in the 1940s that the minor league Brewers would cook up a dozen wins in a row. The call has stood for as long as the Braves and, now, the Brewers have resided in Milwaukee.    

The only other time the Webb chain has had to follow through was in 1987. It doled out almost 170,000 freebies then as the Crew began its season 13-0 (it missed the playoffs that year, though). Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who grew up in Milwaukee, vaguely recalls the last giveaway.

As one media member noted, maybe the promotion will work out great for the chain, given its timing:

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.