Brewers star Christian Yelich surprises 11-year-old fan with autographed bat at Pirates game

Jul. 3—A day after getting a high five and social media shout-out from Milwaukee Brewers star Christian Yelich for leaning over the left field railing to catch a Bryan Reynolds foul ball, Christian Gale got an even bigger surprise.

The 11-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., returned to PNC Park for the Brewers-Pittsburgh Pirates game Friday night in hopes of getting Yelich to autograph his souvenir baseball.

Instead, Gale got something better — an autographed bat with a personalized message from the 2018 NL MVP: "Christian, Great catch! See you in the Show!"

Gale is touring major league stadiums with his family, and PNC Park was the second of three stops between a trip to Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park and Cleveland's Progressive Field. After Gale leaned over the railing to make the catch in foul territory, Yelich gave him a high-five. Later, Yelich quote-tweeted a video of Gale leaning over the railing down the left-field line to catch the ball in his glove: "Nice catch kid!"

Dan Potash of AT&T SportsNet found Gale and his family sitting in the second deck of the left field bleachers Friday night. After interviewing Gale during the game on the broadcast, Potash saw he had multiple missed calls from a friend, PNC Park visiting clubhouse attendant Kevin Conrad.

Conrad shared Gale's story with Yelich, who signed the bat in the Brewers dugout. Conrad gave it to Potash, who hid the bat under his suit jacket and surprised a stunned Gale with the gift on live television.

"It speaks volumes for Yelich," Potash said. "I was just the messenger."

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at kgorman@triblive.com or via Twitter .