Tag: Harrison Bader

Harrison Bader learned the Yankees put him on waivers while watching ESPN

Not a great look for the Yankees.

Maybe Harrison Bader didn’t have his phone near him and couldn’t hear the news from his agent.

Or: The New York Yankees didn’t tell the outfielder that the franchise had put him on waivers on Tuesday.

Because Bader informed reporters in an interview after the news broke that he was “in the lunch room” and saw that he had been put on waivers while watching ESPN.

His first question? “What does waivers mean?” But he laughed about that, and later said he never watches ESPN, and then, “Here we go.”

Bader took it all in stride. Give him credit, because I’d be miffed if I was him:

Harrison Bader was certain he struck out before the ump called ball on a pitch down the middle

Nobody was more surprised than Bader.

At every level of baseball, hitters are told to let the umpires make the call. You never want to make an assumption on a would-be ball 4 and have an umpire take it personally, ruling the pitch a strike.

But you almost never see the reverse happen with an apparent strikeout going the other way.

During the second inning of Sunday’s game between the Red Sox and Yankees, center fielder Harrison Bader was convinced that Nick Pivetta’s 0-2 fastball caught the zone. And well, he was correct. The pitch was right down the middle, but home plate umpire Junior Valentine saw it differently. He called the pitch a ball as Bader was already making his walk back to the dugout.

Hey, at least Bader was being honest. But man, what a rough call from Valentine.

Red Sox catcher Reese McGuire made the call more difficult than it needed to be by setting up high and reaching down to catch the ball without much of a frame. Yet, a big-league umpire still should have been able to see a fastball down the middle like that.

The missed call didn’t make a difference as Bader struck out swinging a couple pitches later. Still, fans thought the reaction was hilarious. Bader was just so surprised about the call.

Harrison Bader rudely tossed Bobby Witt Jr.’s first-career MLB home run into the fountains

That’s cold.

Kansas City Royals rookie Bobby Witt Jr. came into the big-league club with as much hype as any prospect in recent years. But after a slow start, Witt went into Wednesday on an 11-game hitting streak in which he’s batting .342 over that span.

On top of that, the wait for his first Major League home run came to an end. The problem: Retrieving that baseball was more difficult than it should have been.

Witt put Kansas City on the board against the Cardinals with a solo home run in the second inning on Tuesday. The ball bounced back onto the field, which should have made matters simple for Witt. Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader had other ideas.

Bader picked up the baseball, and instead of tossing it towards the Royals dugout for safekeeping, the dude just chucked the ball into the Kauffman Stadium fountains.

Of course, you could make the argument that Bader wasn’t aware of Witt’s home run drought. But I wouldn’t buy that because Bader fields his position based on scouting reports, and Witt’s homer drought wasn’t exactly an under-the-radar storyline in Kansas City. Plus, he could have just given the ball to a fan if he wasn’t aware of the milestone homer. Throwing it into the fountains takes intent.

So yeah, pretty rude on Bader’s part.

Thankfully, Witt was able to get the baseball and was a good sport about it being damp. Via the Kansas City Star:

“Yeah, I heard about that,” Witt said of the splashdown. “It got a little wet, but that’s cool. I can say it went in the fountains.”

Fans had plenty of thoughts on the fountain toss too.

Here’s a look at all nine former Florida Gators included on MLB opening day rosters

A look at all nine former Florida Gators baseball players who were included on their respective teams’ MLB roster for opening day 2021.

Major League Baseball’s opening day is here and this time around it looks like the boys of summer will play out their full schedule, COVID allowing. As such, it is time to take a look at our beloved Florida Gators alumni competing in the world’s greatest collection of baseball players.

Kicking off 2021, UF has nine former players listed on MLB opening day rosters, though one alumnus finds himself on the injured list to start the season. The other eight include a home run champion, a few grizzled veterans, a highly-touted pitcher and a member of the national championship making his major league debut.

Below, you can find all nine former Florida Gators baseball players who made the 2021 opening day roster for their respective teams.