Milwaukee Brewers closer Abner Uribe carries his flag proudly (and that has nothing to do with the Cubs)
Milwaukee Brewers closer Abner Uribe strode into the media auditorium at American Family Field hours before Game 1 of the National League Championship Series carrying a flag.
No, Chicago Cubs fans, not that flag.
Two days after the Brewers took some flak from Chicago fans for posing with a white and blue “L” flag after vanquishing the Cubs in their NL Division Series, the team was preparing to start its best-of-seven series with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Oct. 13.
Uribe, though, was carrying the flag of the Dominican Republic, red and blue with a crest in the middle of the white cross that splits the flag into four distinct parts.
Amid the chaos after he pitched the final two innings in the clincher against the Cubs, Uribe made a special point to grab his flag and carry it back onto the field as the celebration continued there. If the one he carried this time wasn’t a fresh one, it had at least been well cleaned and neatly pressed.
Carefully he draped it over the front edge of the desk, using the Gatorade bottles placed by the event staff to anchor it in front of himself and fellow Dominican pitcher Freddy Peralta and Venezuelan outfielder Jackson Chourio.
“When I was a kid, I really liked watching Yordano Ventura pitch,” Uribe said through Brewers interpreter Daniel de Mondesert. “It’s something I always really enjoyed, just the way he went about it, the way he would throw. I always remember him being with the flag at all times.”
Ventura appeared in 98 games over four seasons with the Kansas City Royals from 2013-16, when Uribe was a teen.
“It’s a great honor,” Uribe continued. “It’s of great pride…and it makes me very happy to be able to bring it up and do it myself now.”
