MILWAUKEE — Christian Yelich wants to give back where it all started for him. Little League baseball.
"Do something to give back to the community," Yelich says. "Give kids a chance to play on with nice facilities, nice fields. And have the same opportunity that myself and a lot of my teammates had growing up."
So he's raised money to revitalize fields around Milwaukee.
"Learning life lessons is part of being in a sport, right?" Yelich says. "Like not everybody is going to become a professional athlete that plays a Little League sport or any kind of sport. But when you learn, you know, teamwork. Dependability. Accountability. You learn a lot of life lessons through sports, so to be able to provide those facilities for kids and they can gain those bonds and those lessons. I'm still friends with a lot of guys that I grew up playing sports with since first grade. You build those bonds through that. I'm the only one out of my friends that ended up becoming a professional athlete. That's kind of just how the odds are. But those bonds and those lessons kind of carry on throughout your life."
And Yelich is a popular and likable guy in the Brewers clubhouse, so he got help from his teammates.
"It's a lot to ask on an off day for us, so I appreciate everybody that came out and showed support and wanted to be a part of this," Yelich says. "So it's something that's exciting. I'm glad it's our first one. And hopefully the first of many."
And as for his full-time job? Well, the second half of the season holds promise.
"It's a good vibe," Yelich says. "We got a good group. We've played well. We kind of, the ups and downs of a season. And there's a really, really long way to go. So we're gonna do our best to make a postseason push and see what happens."
Batting in the leadoff spot, Yelich is responding well and already started the second half of the season with a double-double with 20 plus steals and 10 plus home runs.
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