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Christian Yelich weighs in on helping baseball in Milwaukee

Christian Yelich wants to give back where it all started for him. Little League baseball.
Christian Yelich named NL Player of the Week
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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.