Christian Yelich and the Milwaukee Brewers were shellshocked in October 2024, when a Pete Alonso home run eliminated them in stunning fashion from the wild-card round. Yet Yelich’s postgame sadness seemed deeper and far more profound.
Bob Uecker was dying.
Yelich’s tears that night proved prescient, as Uecker passed away from cancer in January 2025. His dream of seeing the Milwaukee Brewers crowned as World Series champions wouldn't be realized.
Yet Yelich and the Brewers kept Uecker close at hand the next two seasons, evoking his name whenever something otherworldly happened on the field, pointing toward his statue in the nether reaches of American Family Field and exhibiting the closeness that can only come when a man known as Mr. Baseball spends
more than half a century with a franchise.
And Wednesday, Oct. 28, Uecker's dream was realized. And Yelich and the Brewers did not forget after winning the 2026 World Series with a 4-1 victory in Game 5 over the Tampa Bay Rays in Florida.
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"He’s smiling, man, he’s smiling. I really wish he could’ve been here to see this," an emotional Yelich said in a postgame interview on Fox Sports. "That would have meant everything. He’s been with us a lot.
"We keep him close to our hearts."
Manager Pat Murphy, whose postgame messages to the team from Uecker became a postseason staple, echoed the sentiments from the victory podium.
"I know the man Ueck upstairs is looking down," says Murphy. "I think about the city of Milwaukee, the state of Wisconsin. They pushed us through."
Uecker would have the entire Brewers clubhouse in stitches with his histrionics. Yet he developed a close relationship with Yelich, who joined the Brewers before the 2018 season and connected with Uecker.
"In a lot of ways, we still feel like he’s with us. He was just a great friend," says Yelich on the eve of the World Series. "It was awesome getting to hear his life stories and baseball stories. He lived such a crazy, awesome life. Talk about getting the most out of a lifetime and getting to experience cool things.
"One of my favorite things was just sitting down with him at a table in the kitchen. Some of the best players in the game were his friends, Hank Aaron. We’d go to dinner once a spring training. And you knew you had to block out four, five hours for the dinner because of how many awesome stories there were gonna be.
"It was a joy being around him."
Yelich certainly honored Uecker in this World Series, driving in the game's first runs in Games 1 and 3. Perhaps Yelich is not a Brewers icon on the level of Robin Yount and Paul Molitor, Hall of Famers who starred for the 1982 club that got so close, losing Game 7 of the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals.
But he is a two-time batting champ, the 2018 MVP and has starred during this run of eight playoff berths in nine seasons. And Yelich, finally, fulfilled Uecker's vision.
"This one’s still for Bob," says Yelich postgame. "This one’s for Ueck.
"Ueck, I love you, man. And we did it."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'This one’s for Ueck.' Christian Yelich, Brewers dedicate World Series to Bob Uecker
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