Yelich makes TikTok debut, calls out fan for using his name as her username
Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich made his TikTok debut this week. What was first on his agenda? Calling out the person who already had the @christianyelich username on the social media site.
Yelich, a former National League MVP, posted the clip from the movie “Step Brothers” when Dale (John C. Reilly) and Brennan (Will Ferrell) meet for the first time. (Yes, the epic staredown.)
He overlaid his verified username, @christian.yelich (note the period in that one), on Brennan and placed the other one on Dale.
The username’s owner, Adrianna Wagner, was scrolling through Instagram when she noticed that Yelich, whom she follows, shared a TikTok video.
That video? About her TikTok username.
“I was freaking out,” said the high school junior, who lives around Alma Center, about 40 miles southeast of Eau Claire.
“I’ve been a super fan for a really, really long time,” she said.
Wagner responded with her own TikTok post, of herself and the words: “When you accidentally stole Christian Yelich’s username back in freshman year and now he’s making TikToks about you.”
One of the reasons she decided to reply was so that if Yelich wanted the username, he would have a way to get a hold of her, she said.
Wagner created the TikTok account back in 2018, then started posting Yelich fan videos that her friend helped her make the following year.
The reason she used Yelich’s name was so that people would find the fan page when they searched for him, she said.
She captioned her video response to Yelich with an apology and a smiley face.
But would Yelich accept?
“I think it’s too late now,” Yelich said in his next TikTok. “You are Christian Yelich. So I’m happy for ya.”
After “the whole MLB lockout thing” is figured out and baseball starts up again, he said, the team will reach out with spring training dates and she’ll have to report for that. He also told her to expect to hear from the equipment staff.
“I’ll make some calls, make sure you get the right size, right model, right company, so you can go out there and have some success,” he said in the video. “It’s gonna be hard and all that, but, you know.”
“I cried, I cried a lot,” Wagner said. “It just felt so unreal.”
She said she ran to show her dad to verify that the video was, in fact, real.
“I’m so stoked because I’ve been dreaming of this for my entire life,” she said.
In her next video, she apologized again and told Yelich to direct-message her with the spring training details.
“I look forward to spring training with you, and hopefully, future games,” she said in her TikTok. “’Cause, you know, I’m an MLB star now.”
Wagner has been to one Brewers game in her life, in August 2021. Sadly, Yelich wasn’t playing.
“It was really disappointing for me,” she said. “He was there, but I didn’t get to watch him play.”
Wagner is an athlete, too. She plays softball, and you’ll never guess her number. That’s right, 22, just like Yelich.
“I love (Yelich’s) sportsmanship, I love how he plays the game — he plays it pretty respectfully — and he’s an allaround really, really good player,” she said.