SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When Craig Yoho left spring training having missed making Milwaukee's roster to start the year, manager Pat Murphy assured the right-hander he would be in the major leagues soon enough.
The 25-year-old Yoho had never even pitched at Triple-A, so that remained an important step in his path to the majors — and over the weekend he found out he would be joining the Brewers.
On Monday night, he made his big league debut when he took the ball to start the eighth inning with his team trailing 4-2. After striking out Heliot Ramos, Yoho walked LaMonte Wade Jr. and gave up a single to Wilmer Flores before a mound visit.
Patrick Bailey hit a sacrifice fly as Milwaukee turned an inning-ending double play. The Giants won 5-2.
“I got off to a hot start this year in Triple-A and felt like I put myself into the conversation, and I'm here and now I'm ready to help this team,” Yoho said, sitting in the visiting dugout at Oracle Park before the game. “Ready to go whenever my name's called.”
He arrived in time for the opener of a four-game series with the Giants, and had plenty of supporters ready to cheer his major league debut. Yoho's wife, Sydni, and 8-month-old daughter Daisy made the trip with him from Charlotte, North Carolina, while his parents, Lance and Connie, and brother Brandon and his wife, Madison, traveled from the Indianapolis area. In addition, his in-laws came from near San Antonio.
Yoho allowed just one unearned run over 9 2/3 innings at Triple-A Nashville this year after posting an 0.94 ERA over 48 relief appearances with various minor league teams last season.
He will take all he gained during spring training into this next step, one he is counting on being a prolonged stay with Milwaukee.
“There was just a lot of confidence coming away from that. I got to get some exposure with the coaching staff and teammates and know that my stuff plays at this level,” he said. “And I just need to trust myself and go out there and just pitch.”
Murphy's message was simple: “Don't be satisfied you're just here. You earned it, you deserve it.”
For Yoho, this has been a long time coming. An eighth-round pick by Milwaukee in the 2023 amateur draft, he transferred from the University of Houston after the pandemic-interrupted 2020 season and almost immediately was injured — missing two seasons when he needed Tommy John elbow reconstruction. He also dealt with a knee injury.
The Brewers are hoping he can boost a bullpen that has struggled this season. Milwaukee’s 5.14 bullpen ERA ranks 26th in the majors. Last year, the Brewers had a 3.11 bullpen ERA that was second in the majors.
Murphy looked forward to the moment he would call Yoho's name to make his long-awaited debut.
“It's the greatest part of the job is to see players and I guess their families, too, although I don't get to see that all the time, but the greatest part of the job is to see the guys start believing they can and to see them realize they've made it,” Murphy said. “But that's not what they're here for, just to make it. They want to excel. But that's a priceless part of the job, I promise you. I feel very very grateful that I can be part of something like that because it is so very special.”
Milwaukee cleared roster space for Yoho by optioning right-hander Logan Henderson to Nashville and transferring lefty Nestor Cortes to the 60-day injured list.
Henderson was sent down one day after striking out nine batters and allowing only one run over six innings in his MLB debut.
AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee contributed to this report.
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Milwaukee Brewers' Craig Yoho pitches to a San Francisco Giants batter during the eighth inning of a baseball game Monday, April 21, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Craig Yoho follows through on his throw to a San Francisco Giants batter during the eighth inning of a baseball game Monday, April 21, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema’s biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname “The Nation’s Actor,” died Monday. He was 74.
Ahn, who had suffered blood cancer for years, was pronounced dead at Seoul's Soonchunhyang University Hospital, his agency, the Artist Company, and hospital officials said.
“We feel deep sorrow at the sudden, sad news, pray for the eternal rest of the deceased and offer our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family members," the Artist Company said in a statement.
President Lee Jae Myung issued a condolence message saying Ahn provided many people with comfort, joy and time for reflection. “I already miss his warm smile and gentle voice,” Lee wrote on Facebook.
Born to a filmmaker in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1952, Ahn made his debut as a child actor in the movie “The Twilight Train” in 1957. He subsequently appeared in about 70 movies as a child actor before he left the film industry to live an ordinary life.
In 1970, Ahn entered Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as a Vietnamese major. Ahn said he graduated with top honors but failed to land jobs at big companies, who likely saw his Vietnamese major largely useless after a communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.
Ahn returned to the film industry in 1977 believing he could still excel in acting. In 1980, he rose to fame for his lead role in Lee Jang-ho’s “Good, Windy Days,” a hit coming-of-age movie about the struggle of working-class men from rural areas during the country’s rapid rise. Ahn won the best new actor award in the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, the Korean version of the Academy Awards.
He later starred in a series of highly successful and critically acclaimed movies, sweeping best actor awards and becoming arguably the country’s most popular actor in much of the 1980-90s.
Some of his memorable roles included a Buddhist monk in 1981’s “Mandara,” a beggar in 1984’s “Whale Hunting,” a Vietnam War veteran-turned-novelist in 1992’s “White Badge,” a corrupt police officer in 1993’s “Two Cops,” a murderer in 1999’s “No Where To Hide,” a special forces trainer in 2003’s “Silmido” and a devoted celebrity manager in 2006’s “Radio Star.”
Ahn had collected dozens of trophies in major movie awards in South Korea, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for best actor five times, an achievement no other South Korean actors have matched yet.
Ahn built up an image as a humble, trustworthy and family-oriented celebrity who avoided major scandals and maintained a quiet, stable personal life. Past public surveys chose Ahn as South Korea’s most beloved actor and deserving of the nickname “The Nation’s Actor.”
Ahn said he earlier felt confined with his “The Nation's Actor” labeling but eventually thought that led him down the right path. In recent years, local media has given other stars similar honorable nicknames, but Ahn was apparently the first South Korean actor who was dubbed “The Nation's Actor.”
“I felt I should do something that could match that title. But I think that has eventually guided me on a good direction,” Ahn said in an interview with Yonhap news agency in 2023.
In media interviews, Ahn couldn’t choose what his favorite movie was, but said that his role as a dedicated, hardworking manger for a washed-up rock singer played by Park Jung-hoon resembled himself in real life the most.
Ahn was also known for his reluctance to do love scenes. He said said he was too shy to act romantic scenes and sometimes asked directors to skip steamy scenes if they were only meant to add spice to movies.
“I don’t do well on acting like looking at someone who I don’t love with loving eyes and kissing really romantically. I feel shy and can’t express such emotions well,” Ahn said in an interview with the Shindonga magazine in 2007. “Simply, I’m clumsy on that. So I couldn’t star in such movies a lot. But ultimately, that was a right choice for me.”
Ahn is survived by his wife and their two sons. A mourning station at a Seoul hospital was to run until Friday.
FILE - South Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki smiles for a photo on the red carpet at the 56th Daejong Film Awards ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, June 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
FILE - South Korean actor Ahn Sung-ki attends an event as part of the 11th Pusan International Film Festival in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 13, 2006. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
