Christian Yelich says the Milwaukee Brewers’ first World Series championship came down to a style of play other teams will struggle to copy, even as the celebrations keep rolling across Wisconsin.
Yelich spoke with OutKick before joining Brewers fans at a Raising Cane’s in Greendale for a victory “shift,” part of a string of celebrations since Milwaukee beat the Tampa Bay Rays in five games to win the franchise’s first-ever title.
“It’s been awesome,” Yelich said. “We’ve been busy kinda bouncing around everywhere. Not a whole lot of sleep, but I think that’s kinda how it should be. Still taking it all in and celebrating with everybody still. It’s been an awesome couple days.”
The Brewers won 103 regular-season games this year behind an approach that became known as “Brewer Ball” — a fundamentals-first, situational style that stood apart from the power-and-launch-angle approach many teams favor. Milwaukee carried that style into a postseason run that included a sweep of the back-to-back champion Los Angeles Dodgers and a World Series in which they nearly swept the Rays before a Game 4 walk-off kept Tampa Bay alive for one more game.
Asked whether the rest of the league might shift toward that same fundamentals-based approach, Yelich said replicating it is easier said than done.
“Yeah, I think everybody tries to do it, but it’s really hard to do it,” Yelich said. “It takes a team that’s together and everybody’s bought in and going in the same direction. I think that was one of our biggest strengths – the togetherness of everybody and everybody sharing a common goal. Being willing to do whatever it took to accomplish that.”
Yelich has been with the Brewers since 2018 and said he understood immediately what the championship meant to the franchise and its fan base once the final out was recorded at Tropicana Field.
On Monday, he surprised more than 400 fans at the Raising Cane’s appearance, following Friday’s victory parade through the streets of Milwaukee. He was joined over the weekend by teammate Brice Turang and manager Pat Murphy for an appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” At the Greendale stop, Yelich brought his mother, grandmother and dog Winston, signing baseballs and jerseys for fans.
“Just seeing people make memories and celebrate the championship with us. We knew how much it meant to everybody and how much everybody wanted us to get this done,” Yelich said. “We’ve been close for a while now and finally getting over that hurdle and finally getting it done has been awesome. Just really cool to see how happy it’s made people and how much fun everybody’s been having the last few days.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login