2 Brewers phenoms sit down for a meal 50 years in the making
Hall of Famer Yount, rookie star Chourio talk baseball over breakfast in first meeting
Jon Paul Morosi
@jonmorosiMILWAUKEE -- The sudsy clubhouse celebration lasted well into the night, and a late breakfast was to be expected. A table was reserved at Blue¡¯s Egg, a popular spot three miles from American Family Field, where the Brewers had reveled in a walk-off victory and second consecutive National League Central title. Jackson Chourio, the 20-year-old NL Rookie of the Year candidate, scored the winning run with a flourish.
The Brewers secured back-to-back division pennants only once before, in 1981 and 1982. Milwaukee was an American League city then. The Brewers of Robin Yount played at Milwaukee County Stadium, also home to the Green Bay Packers several times a year.
Yount was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, five years before Chourio was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Yount debuted in the Majors in 1974 at 18 years old; Chourio made this year's Opening Day roster at 20. The two had never met. That was about to change, much to the delight of patrons and staff at Blue¡¯s Egg.
Mike Vassallo, the Brewers¡¯ senior director of media relations, reached out to our MLB Network team a few weeks earlier with the unique invitation to interview Yount and Chourio together. We would be in town for the MLB Network Showcase broadcast of the Brewers and Phillies on Thursday, Sept. 18. The following day was selected for a conversation with stars of different nationalities and languages who arrived to Milwaukee a half-century apart.
The resulting feature story can be viewed at the top of this article, and it will premiere this morning at 9 a.m. ET/8 CT on MLB Network, days before the Brewers resume their quest for the first World Series title in franchise history.
Vassallo must have a direct line to the baseball gods, because the timing of the interview was serendipitous: The Brewers clinched the division with the Cubs¡¯ defeat that Wednesday afternoon. Hours later, Chourio ignited the winning rally with a mesmerizing triple to lead off the ninth.
Yount was in attendance, two days after celebrating his 69th birthday.
¡°Jackson!¡± a grinning Yount exclaimed as they shook hands for the first time just inside Blue¡¯s Egg entrance. ¡°Nice job last night. Very good. We didn¡¯t want to stay there all night, so you did a good job.¡±
Chourio smiled. His comprehension of English is improving. When needed, I filled in the gaps with Spanish translations. But this was the first instance -- among many that day -- when Yount¡¯s sincere admiration for Chourio conveyed meaning beyond words.
¡°Did you guys have fun last night?¡± Yount asked.
¡°Yeah,¡± Chourio confirmed.
¡°I can see it in your eyes still,¡± Yount said, noticing a little weariness on his new friend¡¯s visage. ¡°Good for you. You¡¯re supposed to have fun after something like that. I don¡¯t blame you ... ¡®Wait, where¡¯s my sunglasses?¡¯¡±
Laughs all around the table. One minute into their relationship, Chourio and Yount were at ease. As interviews go, there¡¯s no better way to begin.
Early in the conversation, I asked Yount what he¡¯s wanted to say to Chourio while watching him throughout the season.
¡°What I wanted was his ability,¡± Yount answered. ¡°He is so far ahead of where I was at that same stage. Look at him. When I was his age, I just had peach fuzz. I couldn¡¯t grow a beard. He¡¯s a man. I was still a very young man.
¡°... I was in on-the-job training for about five years before I felt like I had established myself as a Major Leaguer. Jackson here is showing us he¡¯s a Major Leaguer today. Very impressive.¡±
Let¡¯s pause to consider the context: By the end of his age-20 season, Yount had been in the Majors for three years. He was on his way to reaching 3,142 hits as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Yount surpassed 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same season once; that was 1980, in his age-24 season. Earlier this month, Chourio became the youngest 20-20 man in MLB history.
¡°What I¡¯m impressed about, too, is the situation Jackson is in is totally different than the one I was in,¡± Yount said. ¡°The Brewers weren¡¯t going anywhere in 1974. They could throw an 18-year-old kid out there, and let¡¯s see what happens. Jackson knew ahead of time that the team was expected to compete for a playoff spot.
¡°In my case, it wasn¡¯t that way. He¡¯s been thrown into the fire, right out of the chute, and has performed as well as anybody could ever imagine.¡±
Given Chourio¡¯s comfort in the big moment, it wasn¡¯t a surprise when he identified his favorite player to watch as a kid: former Blue Jays slugger Jos¨¦ Bautista, whose 2015 bat flip was one of the most indelible postseason moments of the previous decade.
¡°I like the way that he played, his passion for the game,¡± Chourio said in Spanish.
Yount considered the choice to be a good one, given Bautista¡¯s October success.
¡°Just do me one a favor,¡± Yount teased. ¡°Don¡¯t throw your bat as high as he did.¡±
Yount and Chourio bonded as they related their experiences of having brothers in professional baseball. Larry Yount, five years older than Robin, pitched for seven seasons in the Minors; he departed his only Major League appearance due to injury before throwing an official pitch. Outfielder Jaison Chourio, 19, posted an .812 OPS this season with the Single-A Lynchburg Hillcats; he¡¯s the third-ranked prospect in the Guardians system, according to MLBPipeline.com.
¡°We¡¯re always there for support,¡± Jackson told me in Spanish of his relationship with Jaison. ¡°We know that we have each other.¡±
Chourio was surprised to learn he and Yount share the experience of playing in winter ball. Yount joined the Cangrejeros de Santurce following his rookie year with the Brewers. During his season in Puerto Rico, Yount had a Hall of Fame manager (Frank Robinson) and teammate (Orlando Cepeda).
Chourio spent the past three offseasons playing for his hometown ?guilas del Zulia of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.
¡°I believe it helped my confidence,¡± Chourio said. ¡°The experience was important because it was an opportunity to play against older players [than I did in the Minors].¡±
Near the end of the interview, we utilized a great suggestion I¡¯d received earlier in the week from Brian Anderson, the Brewers¡¯ television voice and eminent TNT Sports broadcaster: How about showing Chourio a clip of Yount -- and vice versa -- to analyze in real time?
Paul Solga, our talented MLB Network feature producer, worked quickly to edit together reels of Chourio and Yount. Before handing the iPad to Chourio, we cued up two of Yount¡¯s most memorable moments: his 3,000th hit on Sept. 9, 1992, and the clinching game of the 1982 American League Championship Series, in which Yount fielded the final out at shortstop.
The sequence is familiar to Brewers fans: Yount, then 27, calmly gathers the Rod Carew grounder, throws a strike to Cecil Cooper at first, and thousands of fans stream onto the field in a manner we no longer see at Major League Baseball games.
Because I knew what the screen would show, I was able to focus on Chourio¡¯s reaction. I was not prepared for what I saw.
As Chourio took measure of the fans pouring onto the field, blending imperceptibly with their heroes, his eyes widened. Then he blinked.
Tears.
They were subtle and brief, but I saw them.
¡°Wow,¡± was all Chourio said at first -- in either language -- as he absorbed the overwhelming emotion on the screen.
¡°The stadium is a little different,¡± he continued a moment later. ¡°It¡¯s incredible. ... It wasn¡¯t just the players [who cared]. It was the fans.¡±
Chourio is relatively new to Milwaukee, still learning the history of a passionate baseball city. And now that he has glimpsed 1982, he has a deeper understanding of what 2024 could be.
¡°You are being supported by this whole state,¡± Yount reminded his new friend. ¡°All of Wisconsin are Brewers fans ... it¡¯s a special feeling. ... I hope you get to feel that.¡±