Pittsburgh police got an emergency dispatch on Friday that someone from inside PNC Park was throwing baseballs at people in boats.
Turned out in was Brewers slugger Christian Yelich practicing for Monday’s Home Run Derby (8 p.m., ESPN).
One of Yelich’s massive shots hit a houseboat docked on the Allegheny River and broke a window, according to FSWisconsin.
Yelich responded to a tweet about the broken window with a shrug.
🤷🏻♂️ https://t.co/si2mm6EOpY
— Christian Yelich (@ChristianYelich) July 5, 2019
Allegheny County District Attorney Steve Zappala joked on social media that he would love to bring Yelich in for questioning regarding the incident and suggested 7:05 p.m. — the start time of the Brewers game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC.
With an MLB-leading 31 homers and counting, it hardly seems that Yelich needs to practice, but he took some soft tosses at PNC from former Marlins coach Pat Shine around 2 p.m. Friday, with the aim of hitting them out of the park.
“When it started out, I thought it was a young kid throwing the ball in the river,” boat owner Clint Lohler told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I was like, ‘Oh, there’s a baseball.’ So I went and got my pole. … The next thing I knew, they were coming over the wall here and hitting the boats.”
Lohler estimated that at least four balls landed in the water, and he fished out one as a souvenir.
PNC Park is on the Allegheny River in the North Shore neighborhood. Boats dock on the river wall, and commuters to the neighborhood often park their cars elsewhere and travel via boat to work or attend games.
According to ESPN Stats, home run balls have flown out of PNC and landed in the river five times in the park’s history, including twice this season by the Pirates’ Josh Bell. The Brewers have a three-game series at the park, so Yelich will have a chance to add to that number.