World Series: Brewers' Christian Yelich answer questions ahead of Game 5

Christian, is it hard to sleep last night after a game where you're so close to your ultimate goal, or is it easy because it was such a long game and took so and went late into the night morning? Yeah, I mean, you don't get home until pretty late, long game, like you're tired. So, you know, you sleep fine, like the game didn't go our way. It's part of it. It's happened a bunch of times throughout the year, and you just move on and come here today ready to go. Christian, we've talked a lot about the fans that are here taking it all in, but how about the Brewers employees that flew down with the team to take in this series, a lot of long-tenured people that work for the Brewers organization, able to be here with you guys. What's it like for you guys as players to see them around this ballpark? Yeah, it's cool that they get to experience the World Series also. You know, and I don't know how many came, but I know a lot came. And, you know, it's just cool that the organization gets to, you know, experience that together. Christian, that resilience that you're talking about where you lose a tough game, to say the least, last night and then just come back to play, For you, has that been a learned skill throughout your career? Was there a time earlier in your career that you might have reacted to being three outs away from winning the World Series not as well as maybe you and the rest of your guys did last night? I mean, once it happens and it's over, there's nothing you can do about it. So you can't look back on it. You can't second-guess it, and you just got to flush it. You can't come here today, and nobody has come here today with, you know, a different outlook is winning a game tonight the same as it's been the entire year. You can show up to the field with a chance to win, and that's what we do. You know, you focus on the present, where you're at today, and, you know, go from there and try to win a game. After what happened last night, talk about the character and the resiliency of your club a little bit. Yeah, I mean, you've got to stay together in those moments. You know, it's obviously not ideal. It's not what anybody wants to happen or, you know, what you want to see. But the reality is, is like sometimes that just happens, you know, things, the game doesn't cooperate. You're going to have to overcome hard things. You're going to have to, you know, get through some adversity, which, you know, last night was certainly that, you know, there's, you're not going to deny that or say that like that didn't suck. Yeah, it sucks. But once it's over, it's over. And once you get home and you wake up this morning and you got a new day with a chance to play a game tonight and you need to focus on winning, like we got a great opportunity tonight and you've got to do a lot of things well tonight to win and you feel a lot better about it after that. Christian, you're a really good base runner. That was already proven in the fifth inning of game three, but how much do you also trust a guy like Matt Erickson where he just seems to have an uncanny ability to know when to send you guys and what to do in certain situations, your third base coach? Yeah, that's why they're there. If it's telling you to go, you've got to go. We've done it all year and you've made some good judgments on some tough balls. So, yeah, I mean, listen to your base coaches, right? When they tell you to go, go. If they tell you to stop, better stop. Question, if you guys win the World Series, do you think it changes the legacy of this franchise or the image of it? We've seen, you know, Atlanta won 14 straight division titles, Dodgers, and, you know, you guys have been in the playoffs eight of the last nine years now. Yeah, I mean, of course. I think any time, you know, you win a World Series, it definitely changes the place, you know, at least a little bit, right? And you go from not having any championships to having one. So that would be obviously a big step for our organization. And, you know, it's been a goal for some time. Whether this ends tonight or this weekend, these could be the last games in a long time if there's a lengthy stoppage. For fans who get angry at both sides, what do you say to persuade them to come back when the games resume? You know, to be honest, we've just been focused about World Series and playing in this game. Obviously, there's going to be a lot of talk this offseason about what's going to happen. It's definitely out of my personal control about what happens this offseason. But obviously, I'd love to see the game be in a good spot and continue to be played. I think the game's in a great spot right now with a lot of people tuned in, a lot of popularity, a lot of great players out there. And, you know, it would obviously be a shame if we missed time. But, you know, we'll have plenty of time this offseason to talk about it. I think myself and definitely our group have got a couple other things in front of us right now. Christian, what has impressed you about the way Jacob Mizell has kind of turned into and taken on that role of your number one starter, your ace, your guy you want on the mound? Yeah, he's come a long way. You know, he's come a long way since last year where he was a young kid with a lot of ability and a lot of, you know, natural talent. You know, anybody could see that looking at the radar gun and kind of what he could do. But I think he's come a long way, like learning himself as a pitcher, learning how to pitch, and he's still learning, I think, in a lot of ways. But he's matured a lot. He's gotten to know himself a lot. He's gotten confident, and he continues to get better, which is kind of crazy, you know, from stuff he's done. But that's Major League Baseball. You know, you've got to always continue to try to better yourself and make progress no matter how much success or lack thereof that you've had. You always have to continue to improve, and he's done a great job doing that. Obviously now you have the C on your chest. You're considered a leader in this room. When did you start to feel like a leader in this kind of time that you've been with the Brewers? Obviously when you got here, you were younger. Was there a moment where it flipped and you looked around and you were like, oh, I'm kind of the guy now? No, I mean, I don't think you have a moment or you make a conscious decision and be like, all right, I have to do this. And I think we've got a lot of guys that lead in that room. And, you know, I've just been here a long time, you know, and myself and Woody have been here probably the longest. But, you know, when you've got a lot of young guys, you've experienced a lot of things that they're experiencing for the first time, you know, and you can kind of see yourself in their shoes and in their position and what it felt like when you were that age or you were going through that for the first time and really just talk to them or ask them questions or they'll ask you questions or kind of just help them navigate some of those challenges and situations that you might come across in the big leagues for the first time. And have you enjoyed that, being a leader? And how has it maybe changed your relationship with the sport? Yeah, I mean, I enjoy helping people. You know, I don't look at it as, like, being a leader. You have to do that. I enjoy helping guys and trying to impact people in a positive way. It takes the attention off you. You can make an impact on people without your performance on the field. I'm not saying I don't care. Obviously, I care about my performance on the field. But you can impact people in multiple ways and help out and leave the game and the clubhouse and someone's career in a better place than you found it. People certainly did that for me, and it's nice to be able to give back too. Christian, entering the series, there was a lot of talk about the markets being represented in this match-up and hand-wringing about how many people would be watching on television and that kind of thing. And I know you guys don't have time to worry about television ratings right now, but the early reports are the viewership is really strong. What do you think that says about not just the style of baseball that both of these teams play, but also the fact that this is a match-up between the best team in each league meeting for the championship? Yeah, I mean, I would hope people were tuned in to the World Series, and I think it just means that you know people enjoy the sport of baseball they enjoy where the sport is the kind of players that are playing in the sport and i think that goes far beyond like just the World Series you know i think it's the the regular season product the the stars you have in the game obviously the WBC has helped over the years how awesome that's been the last few post seasons has been really good and it's just good baseball like you said between two good teams and if you're a fan of the game and and you enjoy watching baseball, you know, regardless of where the teams are from or quote-unquote market size, you know, I still would hope that it's, you know, appealing to people and certainly think it is. Hey, Christian, over your time in the game, how much have you come to understand how much the Brewers mean to people out there and how does it make you feel when maybe you hear stories of just how important, you know, the baseball team is to your community? Yeah, it's been awesome to see. I mean, it's been pretty evident this month about how, you know, how much the fans have gotten behind this team, the fan support that we've had at the road venues, at our home ballpark, people just coming up to you, telling you what the team means to them and how awesome and how much fun and memories they've made over the years, watching the Brewers and getting to go to games. And, you know, like I said, I've said it a couple times this week, where, you know, we don't take that lightly as a team and understand that, you know, when we play well, it creates memories for people and makes people happy. Christian, as you guys have developed the team identity style that you play, the standards that you've set, I'm wondering how you see the role of players in the clubhouse setting the parameters around that versus the coaches and staff setting the parameters for that. Yeah, I think it's both. I mean, it starts with you want to be a winning team and you want to win games. So you have to do certain things in order to make that happen. And that's just the reality of the sport of baseball is if you want to be a good team, there's certain non-negotiables and everybody acknowledges that. And then once you make the commitment that you want to be a winning team and you want to be in the World Series and you want to win the World Series, then, you know, everything after that is geared towards that goal. And so when there's tough conversations or you're the guy that's being criticized or you're the guy that messes up and we have to talk about it, nobody's feelings get hurt because it's all geared. towards a bigger goal and you can make that commitment as as the group as a group and have the buy-in from everybody and you know it's well documented at this point on the Murph standards and expectations for everybody but I think we have those standards and expectations for ourselves too so then it becomes easy and it's just all geared towards a you know a bigger common goal and it makes creating that those expectations a lot easier when everybody shares that. Christian, what's it like within the clubhouse when you guys know you have Miz going to the mound for that day? I mean, especially for a game that could clinch a World Series. Yeah, we've, you know, liked our chances all year when he's been out there, and you know, he's proven that he's one of the better pitchers in the game. We're facing one of the better pitchers in the game tonight, too, from their side, and you know, that's what the World Series is all about, right? You know, best on best, and you know, got to find a way to win a game. Christian, there's so much change in baseball, but if you think about your tenure with the front office ownership even a lot of the the business side people you've known them for your whole time as a brewer yeah how's that influenced your time and how do you think that's influenced the culture that you're talking about in the clubhouse yeah it just creates relationships and you have like common people that you see around all the time and share good memories tough memories um and we've had both of those over the years here um but you know i think it creates a closeness and a togetherness and a you know a family atmosphere you know for lack of a better term but it kind of that's what it kind of feels like here is they take really good care of you as a as a player here in this organization I think a lot of it's all a big reason why if you ask a lot of players that have played here they speak pretty fondly of their time in Milwaukee and that comes from ownership to the the clubhouse staff to you know everybody behind the scenes that That does a great job of trying to help put the best product that you can on the field, and that helps with helping players and helping families and navigating a lot of things that you don't see on the field. They do a tremendous job of that here, and that's been a big part of it too. I think it's about 99% of the players on both teams have not been to a World Series before this. I'm just wondering if the experience of being in the series has been everything that you thought it would be? Has it been more than you thought it would be? Is there anything that surprised you? Yeah, I mean, I think it's about what you would expect, you know. There's a lot of you guys here, and the atmospheres are great, which you know you're getting into that when you're going into the World Series. You know, I think an underrated part of it is, like, when the game starts, it's still a game. It's still the game of baseball. You know, you have all this stuff. You have the extra media attention. You have the pageantry pregame and all that. But, you know, once the first pitch is thrown, it's still the same game that, you know, you've played since February. And the same things decide those – these games that decided those games. And, you know, I think that's been one thing that's kind of stuck out is just like, yeah, it just feels like – it feels like a baseball game once things get started. Christian, what was your process like last year when the season ended? Do you – after you leave L.A., do you go back and watch those games at all? Do you just try to kind of separate yourself from the job? Yeah, I mean, I didn't watch any of the games from last year. Pretty good view the first time through and didn't go too good. So it was just like, you know, one of those where you just kind of chalk it up and, you know, it is what it is at that point. There's nothing you can do about it. So, you know, flush it and get ready for the following year. You know, take a little time off. Let your body heal up from whatever had been going on for the last few months and get back to the offseason stuff a few weeks later and ramp up for spring training. You know, it's kind of just the cycle that you're on as an athlete. And, you know, that's kind of what happened last year. Do you feel it helps you when you face a pitcher several times in a short span, like with the bullpen and with Rasmussen tonight? Or is that less important than the era of trajectory? I mean, I think it's less important than if you've, like, never faced a guy before. When you've never faced a guy before, it's a little bit tougher because you don't really have anything to draw back on. If you face the guy, it doesn't really matter if it was a few days ago or, you know, a few weeks ago, you know, a month ago. You have that kind of experience, and I'm sure they have the same with you. But when you've never faced a guy before, it's a little bit tougher, especially if they have really good stuff. It just makes that bat the first time through a little more difficult because you kind of have to navigate it on the fly, and you can see the video and see, like, the metrics on things. But until you're actually in there sometimes, it's not always that way, but you know sometimes it can make it more difficult yeah thank you guys