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Every year, the Baseball Hall of Fame collects gear from players that do something historic. It doesn’t always have to be incredibly significant — for example, the Nationals’ contribution was the jersey Bryce Harper wore in a two-homer game this year, something that hasn’t necessarily been rare in his career — but for us baseball nerds, it’s stuff that’s still cool to see being preserved.
The Brewers made a couple contributions to the Hall during their memorable 2018, which saw their first division title since 2011 and an appearance in the NLCS that stretched all the way to a Game 7.
Here is a list of game-used artifacts from the 2018 MLB season that will be preserved at the @baseballhall.
— Jon Shestakofsky (@Shesta_HOF) December 31, 2018
We are grateful to @MLB, the 30 teams, and the players who generously donated these pieces of baseball history to Cooperstown. pic.twitter.com/mokEkV17oi
Ryan Braun hit a three-run home run against Miami’s Junichi Tazawa on April 19th to give him 1,000 RBI for his career. making him just the second Brewer to reach the milestone, joining Robin Yount. Braun would finish the year with 1,053 career RBI, putting him 353 behind Yount for the Brewers’ all-time record.
Christian Yelich had a number of memorable moments during his first year in Milwaukee en route to joining Braun, Yount and Rollie Fingers as Brewers to win the MVP award. Among those: becoming the first player in MLB history to hit for two cycles in the same season against the same team.
Yelich accomplished the feat on August 29th and September 17th, respectively, and his batting gloves from the first cycle and cleats from the second will now sit in the Hall’s museum.
A couple of former Brewers also made the Hall’s contribution list this year. The ball Scooter Gennett hit for the 7th home run in this year’s All-Star Game — a new record for the Midsummer Classic — is also in the Hall, as well as the hat Oliver Drake wore when he pitched for the Minnesota Twins on August 28th, setting a new record by appearing in a game for his 5th team in a single season. A jersey from Khris Davis, who ended up leading the league in home runs this year, was also added to the Hall’s collection.
All in all, a pretty cool year for Brewers history — even if this is about as close to the Hall of Fame as Ryan Braun is going to get.