CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — White Sox Designated Hitter Yermin Mercedes has been one of the true surprises of the 2021 baseball season.
A journeyman player who spent a decade in the minor leagues, Mercedes has been one of the most productive sluggers in baseball during the young baseball season.
A Bridgeport restaurant has already named a hamburger after Mercedes, and now a local brewery has named a beer after the 28-year-old rookie.
The Rule 5 Draft is available at the Goose Island Tap Room in the West Loop. The name came courtesy of White Sox fan Aaron Fitzpatrick of Palos Park. Fitzpatrick was at a Sox game with his daughter last month when he posted a tweet that suggested a brewery name a beer after Mercedes and call it the Rule 5 Draft, after the player draft that bought Mercedes to the White Sox organization in 2017.
It was such a cold afternoon, Fitzpatrick said, that he and his daughter left the game early. But the social media post went viral before the game ended.
"By the 8th or 9th inning my phone had blown up. I saw the notifications. I thought 'whoa, this has gotten more attention than I had ever thought,’” Fitzpatrick told WBBBM Newsradio.
Mercedes is rather beefy, as professional baseball players go. Fitzpatrick said Mercedes has the same everyman quality that made William "The Refrigerator" Perry a Bears fan favorite in the 1980s.
Fitzpatrick and his wife went to the Goose Island taproom to enjoy the Rule 5 Draft. He said the experience has been surreal.
"It's been an interesting ride. I kind of threw a tweet out there and the next thing you know people grabbed on. It's exciting to be a part of it," Fitzpatrick said.
Related
