The “25 Facts” series features people, places, and stuff that make Milwaukee great. These articles are meant just for fun and we have nothing but love for everyone included. Brought to you by Milwaukee Food & Drink Specials.
Bob Uecker once said, “I set records that have never been equaled. In fact, I hope 90 percent of them don’t even get printed.” Fortunately for Mr. Baseball, history has a way of crowding out the statistical hilarities of yesteryear’s big leaguers. Within a few short decades, any mentions of passed balls, batting slumps, and tubas played will be demoted to trivial footnotes, at best.
That’s completely unacceptable.
We believe that the trivial, the forgotten, and the slightly embarrassing little-known bits of information about the people, places, and things that make Milwaukee great are bits to be celebrated and certainly printed. Out of respect for Ueck, we’ll keep his name out our list this time, but there are plenty more not-that-interesting facts about Milwaukee for us to discuss. Without further ado, here are 25 of them.
1. The longest game (by time) in the history of Major League Baseball was a 25-inning marathon at Comiskey Park between the Chicago White Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers. The 8-hour, 6-minute game began on May 8, 1984, but play was suspended after 18 innings and resumed the evening of May 9, 1984. Chicago ultimately won with a walk-off home run. Also on May 9, 1984, former Brewer Prince Fielder was born.
2. Michael Dhuey, an electrical and computer engineer from Milwaukee, co-invented the Macintosh II and helped develop the hardware for the iPod. The day he was born, July 20, 1958, the sun rose at 5:32 a.m. and set at 8:25 p.m.
3. The distance from Alem Ethiopian Village restaurant in Downtown Milwaukee to the nearest actual Ethiopian village is about 7,586 miles.
4. Frank Drebin (played by Leslie Nielsen) wears a Milwaukee Braves hat while disposing of dirt from the tunnel he’s digging out of his prison cell in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. (h/t Nick Hoppert)
5. The Milwaukee Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-4, at Wrigley Field on June 10, 1965, the same day that Elizabeth Hurley was born. Ken Johnson, who recorded the save in this Braves victory, would later become the only pitcher in MLB history to pitch a complete 9-inning no-hitter and lose.
6. All movie versions of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers are based on the novel The Body Snatchers, which was published in 1955 by Milwaukee author Jack Finney. Jack Finney was born John Finney, but his family changed his name to Walter Braden Finney when he was 3 years old.
7. Milwaukee County has streets named after 37 of the 50 United States. Here are the ones it’s missing: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia
8. An anagram for Red Light Ramen is “enlarged mirth.” Nice!
Another one is “malted herring.” Less nice, and certainly not on the menu.
9. In 1964, about a year after Werner “Benji” Benjamin founded Benji’s Deli, a dog made his television debut on Petticoat Junction. That dog, whose real name was Higgins, went on to play the role of Benji in the box office smash Benji. Benjamin and Higgins are not related.
10. You probably shouldn’t do this, but if you ever used Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny” as a guide for which items to order on the Bombay Sweets menu, this is what you’d get (SPOILER ALERT: Carbs):
#8: Plain Parotha (Indian style pan fried wheat bread topped with butter)
#6: Poori (Puffed whole wheat bread that is deep fried)
#7: Bhatura (Leavened fine flour bread deep fried)
#5: Roti (Whole wheat puffed bread deep fried)
#30: Idli Sambhar (Two steam cooked rice patties served with sambhar and coconut chutney)
#9: Aloo Parotha (bread stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes)
11. On November 11, 2017, Lonzo Ball became the youngest NBA player of all time to record a triple double, posting 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 13 assists in a 98-90 Los Angeles Lakers loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. He was 20 years and 15 days old—a few days younger than previous record holder, LeBron James.
12. When Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture becomes a permanent fixture at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and Café Corazon completes construction on its third location, this is how far each location of Café Corazon (which means “heart”) will be from the LOVE sculpture:
Riverwest: ~3.5 miles
Bay View: ~4 miles
Mequon: ~17 miles
13. Milwaukee native Al Jarreau has star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 7083 Hollywood Boulevard. The other people with Walk of Fame stars at that address are Elmer Bernstein, Pierce Brosnan, George and Ira Gershwin, John Lee Hooker, Pedro Infante, Ben Johnson, Gladys Knight, Don Knotts, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Livingston and Evans, Frankie Lymon, Rose Marie, Rita Moreno, Nicholas Brothers, Charley Pride, Denver Pyle, Robert Urich, Vera-Ellen, and Stuart Whitman.
14. The walking distance from Char’d Bar and Grill to the State of Wisconsin Historical Marker for the Sinking of the Lady Elgin, located on the corner of Water Street and Erie Street, is the same as the length of the Lady Elgin itself (252 feet).
15. The walking distance from Stack’d Burger Bar to the Art Stop in Bay Vi’w is 1.9 miles.
16. On April 11, 2018, Markelle Fultz became the youngest NBA player of all time to record a triple double, posting 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 130-95 Philadelphia 76ers win over the Milwaukee Bucks. He was 19 years and 317 days old—a few weeks younger than previous record holder, Lonzo Ball.
17. Classic Slice has two “Radical Meat Pizzas” named after ’80s movies about sailors (Popeye and Top Gun). “That’s right. A naval aviator.” – Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell
18. Gianelli’s Pizza / Chicken Man has a delivery area of 36.45 square miles. At nearly 200 menu items, they offer over five menu items per square mile of delivery area.
19. The juices at Urban Beets Café & Juicery ranked by their ingredients’ average Scrabble scores:
#1 Mint Twist (pineapple, apple, cucumber, mint, kale): 10.8 points per ingredient (PPI)
#2 Clean & Green (celery, apple, kale, lemon, ginger): 9.2 PPI
#3 Savory (beet, carrot, celery, lemon, parsley, cilantro): 9 PPI
#4 Smooth Operator (beet, pineapple, orange, apple, mint): 8.6 PPI
#5 Keep It Simple (carrot, apple, orange): 8.3 PPI
20. Types of seafood at Twisted Fisherman ranked by each animal’s average lifespan:
#1 Shrimp: 2 years
#2 Mussel: 3 years
#3 Calamari: 4 years
#4 Trout: 5-6 years
#5 Tilapia: 6-7 years
#6 Crab: 8-13 years
#7 Perch: 9-10 years
#8 Oyster: 20 years
#9 Cod: 25 years
21. Of the approximately 40 bars, restaurants, and coffee shops along Brady Street, all but these four have a letter “A” in their name: Cousins Subs, Dryhootch Coffeehouse, Fro Zone, and Jimmy John’s.
22. Rice N Roll Bistro‘s raw Exclusive Rolls ranked by each item name’s distance from the restaurant:
#1 East Side (0 miles)
#2 Mega Salmon (undetermined, but closer than Indonesia)
#3 Komodo Dragon (9,215 miles; they live in Indonesia)
#4 Dancing On The Moon (238,900 miles)
#5 Rising Sun (92.96 million miles)
23. Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport is named for Lawrence J. Timmerman, who served as chairman of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors for 23 years. His middle name was John.
24a. On January 27, 2019, Luka Doncic became the youngest NBA player of all time to score 30+ points in a triple double, posting 35 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 123-120 Dallas Mavericks loss to the Toronto Raptors. He was 19 years and 333 days old—a few months younger than previous record holder LeBron James, who set the previous record against the Milwaukee Bucks.
24b. On January 27, 2019, Doncic also became the youngest player of all time to record his second career triple double. His first was an 18-11-10 line in a 116-106 Mavericks loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on January 21, 2019.
25. Champion Chicken has had a delivery truck with a giant chicken on top of it since 1959.
Bonus Fact: If you grow up within a few blocks of Champion Chicken, your parents will encourage you from a young age to get a job at Champion Chicken so you can take dates to high school dances in the chicken truck. When you don’t, they’ll still love you, but they’ll remind you well into adulthood that it would’ve been great if you had.