The Milwaukee Brewers have brought back Gorman Thomas, who used to help pack County Stadium during the team's glory days with his home runs and diving catches in the outfield.
The club hopes his culinary delights will prove equally enticing.Thomas is serving as host, maitre d', autograph signer and all-around hand at Gorman's Grill, which opened Friday outside County Stadium - the Brewers' version of Boog Powell's pit beef barbecue outside Baltimore's ballpark.
The grill, an attempt by the financially strapped club to capitalize on its glorious past and lure back fans who have stayed away because of the strike and the team's uncertain future in Wisconsin, will be open weekends starting 11/2 hours before games.
At the top of the menu is "The Stormin' Gorman," a $5.25 cajun chicken sandwich described as a power eater's delight.
Then there's "The Vuke," barbecue ribs that go for $7.25. "Most Brewers fans remember when Pete Vuckovich would toe the rubber and back most hitters off the plate by pitching in tight on the ribs," said the menu description.
There are other lip-smackin' items named for Ted Simmons, Mike Caldwell, Charlie Moore, Ben Oglivie and Sixto Lexcano - jalapeno poppers called "Sixtoooooooooo Lexcanoooo."
There's also the "Bamberger Hamburger," a half-pounder named in honor of former Milwaukee manager George Bamberger.
Thomas' involvement is part of his personal services contract he signed with the club last year.
"I'll be here every day," he said. "We'll change the menu from time to time. We'll have the guys who are on the menu come in and be a guest server or bartender or whatever. Just bring back to people the good memories of the past.
"Baseball's been trashed lately. It's gone through a bad time. You got to bring it back. The best way is at ground-level."
Thomas, who moved back to Milwaukee from Charleston, S.C., in May, said baseball and cooking are his passions.
"I was just back there tasting the sauce, tasting the seasoning and everything," he said. "I love to cook, too. I'm trying to get a recipe book published. You name it, I make it. I make hot pepper jelly. I make strawberry jelly."
Thomas, the feared power hitter who epitomized the "Harvey's Wallbangers" team that went to the 1982 World Series, is second on the club's all-time home run list with 208, including a club record 45 in 1979.
He has been a scout for the Brewers since last year and makes several public appearances every year on behalf of the club. Thomas relishes mingling with fans and this new venture is a perfect fit, especially in blue-collar Milwaukee, where he played 11 seasons, retiring in 1986.
"It's hard being normal as an athlete or former athlete," Thomas said. "Either people put you on a pedestal or they trash you. But if they get to know you eye-to-eye, they see you're a good guy. And you don't have to wear a tuxedo to be noticed here."
This spring, Thomas, 44, briefly entertained thoughts of becoming a replacement player, a fantasy that ended after two days of strenuous workouts aggravated his bum right knee and left him hobbling around on a cane his girlfriend had to buy him.
"So I figured I'd better concentrate on my golf," he said.
But Thomas said he's never gotten baseball out of his system - his father, Gorman Jr., signed with the New York Yankees before going off to fight in World War II.
"I played baseball from the age of seven until I was 34," said Thomas, who two weeks ago sat in County Stadium's upper deck for the first time. "I missed the sounds, the smells of the ballpark.
"If this grill is what it takes to get more people to the ballpark, to rekindle interest, I'm more than glad to do it."