Six of the tiniest patients inside Aurora Sinai Medical Center's neonatal intensive care unit spent part of this week dressed as Bernie Brewer and all five Famous Racing Sausages, a downtown Milwaukee send-off for a Brewers team that just wrapped its best regular season ever. Care teams stitched together the miniature costumes representing Bratwurst, Polish Sausage, Italian Sausage, Hot Dog, and Chorizo, plus the team's lederhosen-clad mascot Bernie Brewer, for infants currently receiving critical care in the unit.
The dress-up event was first reported by CBS 58, which detailed how the six infants were outfitted in the custom outfits by hospital staff. Aurora Sinai's NICU is a 36-bed Level III unit, according to Advocate Health, meaning it is equipped for the most advanced care available to high-risk pregnancies and critically ill newborns, including infants born well before term.
A Costume Tradition With a Clinical Purpose
Tim Garlie has dressed as Santa for NICU visits over several years. CBS 58 reported that the Brewers-themed costumes brought joy and normalcy to families.
The photo shoot offered families a moment of joy.
Timed to a Historic Brewers Season
The costumes arrive as the Milwaukee Brewers ride a wave of citywide enthusiasm into the postseason. The club finished the 2026 regular season with a franchise-record 103-59 mark, according to MLB.com, clinching a fourth straight National League Central title and the National League's No. 1 overall seed. That first-round bye buys the team extra rest before its NL Division Series opener.
This October carries extra weight for fans across the metro area, and local institutions like Aurora Sinai are finding lighthearted ways to join in.
The Sausages, Explained
The Famous Racing Sausages are a set of five Brewers characters: Bratwurst, Polish Sausage, Italian Sausage, Hot Dog and Chorizo.
A Busy Stretch for Milwaukee NICUs
The Brewers-themed shoot also comes on the heels of an unusually active summer inside Milwaukee's neonatal units. In August, Hoodline reported that Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Milwaukee Campus NICU saw a patient surge that included four sets of twins and one set of triplets over the past four months. Ascension Columbia St. Mary's has a Level III NICU.
For now, the six babies at Aurora Sinai remain under close watch in their custom Bernie Brewer and Racing Sausages gear, a small moment of levity inside a unit built for some of the region's most fragile patients. As the Brewers prepare to open their playoff run, their tiniest fans in downtown Milwaukee are already dressed for the occasion.
