‘Nail It Or Bomb’: Christian Yelich Works Raising Cane’s Shift After Milwaukee Brewers’ SNL Cameo, World Series Title
GREENDALE, Wis. — Five days after the Milwaukee Brewers won the first World Series title in franchise history, captain Christian Yelich worked a victory “shift” Monday at the Raising Cane’s at 5250 S. 76th St. in Greendale. More than 400 fans showed up for it, according to the chain.
Behind the front counter and at the drive-thru window, Yelich served Chicken Finger Meals, filled drinks, bagged Box Combos, cooked chicken fingers, and buttered Cane’s Toast. Between orders, he signed baseballs, jerseys, and other memorabilia. His mother and grandmother came with him, along with his dog, Winston, who wore a Cane’s bandana.
The first customer in line arrived at 11 p.m. Sunday, 11 hours before Yelich’s shift began, Raising Cane’s said. The chain issued statements afterward from Yelich and from Todd Graves, its owner and founder.
“First we had the parade, then SNL and now I’m here at Cane’s, it’s awesome!” Yelich said in the statement.
The visit included a press conference and an appearance on the restaurant’s outdoor stage, where the crowd chanted “Yelly! Yelly! Yelly!” Graves opened the first Raising Cane’s in Baton Rouge, La., in 1996.
“It was great having Christian out to Cane’s to celebrate the Brewers’ first-ever World Series win in franchise history,” Graves said.
The Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 on Oct. 28 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. Milwaukee’s only previous World Series title came in 1957, when the Braves still played in the city.
Yelich, 34, was the National League MVP in 2018. He is a two-time NL batting champion and a three-time All-Star. This season, he played designated hitter for Milwaukee.
Christian Yelich Recounts Lambeau Field, The Parade, And His SNL Cameo
Less than 24 hours after the clincher, several Brewers players brought the Commissioner’s Trophy to Lambeau Field for the Green Bay Packers’ Thursday night game. Brandon Woodruff carried the trophy onto the field at the end of the first quarter. Outfielder Sal Frelick made a Lambeau Leap into the stands.
Milwaukee held its championship parade Friday. On Saturday night, Yelich, second baseman Brice Turang, and Brewers manager Pat Murphy appeared on the Halloween episode of “Saturday Night Live.”
“We’ve been bouncing around the last few days, from coming back from Tampa straight to the parade,” Yelich explained. “We were at Lambeau, SNL, and then slept for the first time for a few hours, I think, yesterday. So I feel a lot better going into the day and ready for all this and looking forward to it.”
The three joined former cast member Bobby Moynihan during “Weekend Update,” where Moynihan, reprising his Drunk Uncle character, called Yelich Pete Davidson. Turang told the audience the team had been drinking since Wednesday. Murphy compared being the manager to being the Drunk Uncle of the team.
“I actually was weirdly not that nervous for SNL because I figured this is probably the only time I’m ever going to be here in my life,” Yelich said. “So whether we nail it or bomb, it’s going to be a great story. It’s going to be a lot of fun. So I was just, I was taking it all in and just enjoying the experience and thought it was just a really cool opportunity to do SNL.”
“It was awesome that I got to share with Brice and Murph, and just taking that whole experience was a really good time,” Yelich continued.
Tom Hanks made a surprise cameo on the same episode. Lorne Michaels created the show in 1975.
“I think it was more like meeting everybody and talking to everybody and just everybody’s really excited to talk about the Brewers and the World Series, and I think we forget like how many people watch baseball,” Yelich said. “And having Lorne talk about it and Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and all these people talk about like how much they enjoyed watching the World Series, and I loved watching the Brewers play, I thought that was really cool and just a reminder of how big the game of baseball really is.”
“It’s an honor that people are that excited about the team, excited to come here, excited to meet you,” Yelich added.
Some fans in Greendale skipped school or work for the shift, TMJ4 reported. Matthew Zimmer of Brown Deer told the station he arrived at 4 a.m.
“That’s wild. 4 a.m.,” Yelich said. “4 a.m. is pretty crazy, but I’m excited to see everyone. Last night? That’s crazy, but we appreciate everybody that came out and really excited to meet everybody and say hello today.”
Yelich Revisits Brandon Woodruff’s Return And Jackson Chourio’s Walk-Off
Woodruff, the longest-tenured player on the Brewers’ roster, made his first appearance since July 4 in Game 3 at Tropicana Field. He pitched the bottom of the ninth inning of Milwaukee’s 10-1 win and allowed 1 run on 2 hits with 1 strikeout. His major league debut came at the same ballpark in 2017.
“It was really cool to share that with Woody and made sure to find him after the last out and the craziness and the madness and just gave him a big hug,” Yelich said. “We talked about this moment for a really long time, a lot of years and especially this year just kind of throughout it.”
“He’s had some of the ups and downs with the injuries and some of the unfortunate luck, but it was really cool to see him get in that game, get in Game 3, pitch an inning, get a strikeout,” Yelich detailed. “I think the whole team was just really happy for him to be back out there when we were rooting for him because he’s such a great guy and glad that we got to share that memory together. It’s something that we’ll have forever.”
Milwaukee won a major league-best 103 games during the regular season. The Brewers then went 11-2 in the postseason, including seven comeback wins. They lost Game 3 of the National League Division Series and Game 4 of the World Series, a 4-3 defeat in 12 innings.
“I think we just knew that we didn’t have to do anything different than what we’d done all year,” Yelich said. “That if we just did the same things and played the same way that we’d played for six months, that we’d be fine. And we had never, we hadn’t really gone on one of those like extended win streaks yet that season. It was kind of just, I think someone said we didn’t win really more than five games in a row at any point during the regular season.”
“So with this team, you always kind of knew that we had the potential to go on a little bit of a heater and just start racking up the wins,” Yelich noted. “We’re like, that might actually be in October this year because we haven’t done it yet. You kind of start building the momentum with some of those close wins, and you get the walk-off win, and everybody starts feeling good. And then that’s kind of how those hot streaks start, and we kind of just got off and running and didn’t look back.”
Jackson Chourio’s walk-off came Oct. 4 in Game 2 of the NL Division Series at American Family Field. With two outs in the ninth inning, Chourio, 22, hit a two-run single that beat the San Diego Padres 4-3 and gave Milwaukee a 2-0 series lead. He later set a record for a five-game World Series with 11 hits.
“I think Chourio’s walk-off for sure was probably like the catalyst moment,” Yelich said. “But so many, the thing about this year that was cool is like so many guys had moments that kind of shows what it takes to get to the point that we did as a team. You need moments from everybody.”
“A lot of the postseason is about winning moments, whether that’s at-bats or making big pitches,” Yelich continued. “And our guys did a really good job of that this year, just winning moments, winning big spots. And I think the Chourio walk-off was obviously one of the bigger ones and kind of just set our team on that trajectory to eventually where we went to.”
Milwaukee’s parade on Friday came two days after the clincher in St. Petersburg. Several area schools closed for it.
“I think it still hasn’t really set in,” Yelich said. “I think maybe in the parade a little bit, like a lot of our group was kind of talking about like, yeah, it’s kind of, this is crazy, like this actually happened. When you’re on the parade, because obviously you know in the moment that you won the World Series, you have the trophy, champagne, all that stuff.”
“But then it kind of just, like, I don’t know, we got on a plane the next morning, nobody had slept at all,” Yelich added. “And then you kind of come here, and once you’re on the parade, you see how many people came out, and, like, you’re actually celebrating winning the World Series. Like, that actually did happen. I think it’ll hit again when opening day, raise the banner, ring ceremony, all that stuff I think kind of hit again.”
“It’s been really cool and it’s everything you kind of think it would be,” Yelich detailed. “A lot of people throughout the league, even people that have played here before in the past that aren’t on the team anymore, reached out and heard from a lot of people. I haven’t done a great job of getting back to everybody. I dedicated a lot of yesterday to doing that, but I finally got the texts under 100 yesterday, so we still got a ways to go. But slowly get back to everyone and just appreciate everybody reaching out for sure.”
Closer Trevor Megill pitched the last two innings of Game 5 to finish Milwaukee’s season. The Associated Press reported last week that an owners’ lockout is likely to begin Dec. 2.
“Just experiencing everything that comes with this and obviously resting up a little bit and getting your body to feel a little bit better, which I feel actually pretty good right now, which is cool,” Yelich said. “But, yeah, it’s going to be an awesome offseason, and it’s cool that this team gets to stay together forever because obviously every year is never the same team, right? So, just really excited that that group of guys will kind of be around together forever.”
Yelich worked Monday’s shift with his family rather than teammates. World Series MVP William Contreras made his own appearance Sunday at a Dick’s Sporting Goods, TMJ4 reported.
“You guys wouldn’t want that,” Yelich said. “You guys wouldn’t want our entire team to be here. It’d be the most fun, I think, this place has had in a long, long time with that group. They probably wouldn’t be able to use the store for a couple of days after our team got a hold of it.”
“But I think Sal, if you got Sal back there, JB, all those guys, it’d be, it’d be quite the scene,” Yelich noted. “It’d be a lot of fun. I wish we could actually do that. But yeah, my guess would be Sal would be messing stuff up.”
Raising Cane’s lists Yelich alongside Jeremy Peña, Corey Seager, Kiké Hernández, and Will Smith among World Series champions who have worked celebratory shifts. Seager worked his at the Raising Cane’s on North Collins Street in Arlington on Nov. 3, 2023, after the Texas Rangers’ championship parade. He had been named World Series MVP two days earlier.
