The ‘Big L’ flag guy could be arrested if he brings it back to Miller Park again

One of the more iconic games (and images) of the Brewers’ late-season run in 2018 was the day a massive “L” flag was unfurled by fans at Miller Park after the Brewers beat the Cubs.

At 25 feet by 15 feet, it was no small feat to get the thing inside Miller Park, considering the stadium’s security rules.

Part of the legend — it was originally brought into the stadium in a Little Mermaid backpack, passed the metal detector screening, and wasn’t pulled out of the bag by security. It was later zip-tied to the rails in front of section 235 and unfurled as the Brewers capped off an 11-1 win.

While there was generally a positive response from fans (and even players), it was made pretty clear by stadium staff that it wouldn’t be allowed in the park again. The Brewers apparently have a limit on the size of flags and banners that can be brought into the stadium — 3 feet by 5 feet — and things got testy at the end of the 2018 season when Cubs fans said their “W” flags were being confiscated at the gates.

So that’s what made the return of the Giant L so surprising Friday night — and it was all orchestrated by the same guy. This time, he told our old friend Curt Hogg that he went to some pretty drastic measures to get it in the building:

“We brought it in a backpack the first time, and they didn’t care,” Ryan said. “We brought it in a second time, we did the same thing. They said people complained, so the security guard didn’t let us in with it.”

A Brewers spokesman at the time said the decision was to prevent a back-and-forth between Cubs and Brewers fans bringing increasingly larger and potentially more dangerous props into the stadium.

Ryan had a different plan this time around: Saran wrap.

“This time, I just put (the flag) around me and I Saran-wrapped it to make it as tight as possible,” Ryan said. “Then I just put on a bigger sweatshirt.”

By the 9th inning, the flag was unwrapped and unveiled again, this time in Section 438.

It looks like security staff may have had enough, though, and perhaps out of those fears of escalation, are now threatening him with and arrest for trespassing if the flag makes it back into the park again.

One one hand, the, uh, confrontational tone many Brewers/Cubs games have at Miller Park makes it somewhat understandable that the team doesn’t want anything fanning the flames — especially a 375-square foot flag. On the other hand, an arrest seems like an excessive reaction when they could just take the flag away, or have him leave the stadium if he tries the stunt again.

The fan says he plans to go to the games tonight and tomorrow, so we’ll see if he tries to call the stadium staff’s bluff, or if they aren’t kidding around when it comes to not wanting a slippery slope of fan escalation.