Christian Yelich honors late Bob Uecker after Brewers' title - ESPN

Like so many Milwaukee fans, Christian Yelich took a moment while celebrating the Brewers' first World Series title to remember a man he wished had been around to see it.

«Uecky, I love you, man,» Yelich said in reference to beloved Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker, who died in January 2025 at the age of 90. «We did it.»

Yelich's tribute after the Brewers' 4-1 Game 5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays recalled a dramatically different postgame setting two years earlier, when Milwaukee couldn't hang on to a 2-0 ninth-inning lead and fell to the New York Mets in the decisive game of the National League Wild Card Series.

That would be the last game in the broadcasting career of Uecker, who had been calling games through the 2023 and 2024 seasons while battling small cell lung cancer. Uecker had kept that information private up until his death and shared it only with a select group of people, including Yelich.

Uecker capped his game broadcast that night by saying, «That one had some sting on it,» then went into a silent locker room and offered condolences to the Brewers players, a moment that was detailed in a documentary on Uecker that came out this year. Yelich struggled to contain his emotions that night as he discussed the hardest part of having a season end that way.

«For me, it was talking to Ueck,» Yelich said at the time. «That's kind of a tough one. All the other stuff, it is what it is. It's a tough way for your season to end, but talking to Uecky one on one, it was tough.»

Learning from the low moments, that made Wednesday's moment all the more cathartic for Yelich, who has been with the Brewers through all their celebrations and commiserations over the last several years as the franchise had its greatest run of