Ben Peters lives in Richfield, considers himself primarily a Twins fan and has seen games at the old Met.
But his allegiance might be, well, expanding across the border to a certain National League rival. It was announced Sunday that Peters won the Brewers' "Design a YOUniform" contest and will have his winning design worn by Milwaukee players in multiple games. What made a Twins fan even enter in the first place?
"Fame and fortune! And maybe some girl will want to date me," Peters said in an e-mail Monday. "I'm a graphic designer, and I love sports. It combines the best of both worlds. And it just looked like fun. Winning put a cherry on it."
His winning design features a cream-colored jersey with a "Beer Barrel Man" theme on both the cap and a uniform patch. The barrel man logo was used by the Brewers early in their franchise history. Per the official Brewers blog at mlblogs.com, there were nearly 700 entries in the contest. Peters was chosen as one of three finalists (one was from Wisconsin), and he was notified of his victory Sunday during Brewers On Deck, the organization's annual preseason fan festival.
"I told the Brewers I'm very grateful they didn't discriminate! No one threw tomatoes at me, and I didn't get booed," Peters wrote. "I did read a lot of Wisconsin posts rooting for the hometown designer."
The haul for winning the contest is pretty nice: In addition to the trip to already-completed trip to Brewers on Deck, he gets airfare for two, plus money for expenses, to go to Arizona to see the March 22 spring training game during which the Brewers will wear the uniforms. Peters also gets a game-worn jersey and hat plus 10 T-shirts and hats featuring his design. The jerseys, too, will be worn March 30 at Miller Park during an exhibition game against the White Sox.
As for who is going to bring to Arizona, well, that part doesn't quite have a design.
"[I'm] not sure yet," he wrote. "Can you start a lottery? A marine got Mila Kunis to show for that dance. ... I always liked Marisa Tomei."
