Breakthrough Star: Jake Bauers

It's June 8th of 2023... Nightcap of a doubleheader as the Syracuse Mets host the Yankees Triple A club from Scranton Wilkes-Barre.  And a former Tampa Bay Ray who just joined the Yankees organization takes his at bat.  First I snap the scoreboard to get the player's name, then a few snaps of the at-bat.  And I continue on.

Three-plus years later, and I'm now scrambling to find a photo of Jake Bauers.  Looking through my backup drive, there's none from his year in Tampa Bay, and nothing from his stints in Cleveland or the Yankees -- not even a spring training game.  But thanks to baseball-reference.com, I saw that Bauers also spent time with Scranton.  

And lo and behold, I find him in a Railriders road uniform.  Jake Bauers trying to keep his baseball dreams alive on an early summer night in Syracuse before a small crowd... and my Canon.

The dream came true: he joined the Brewers the following season.  This October, after leading Milwaukee to a four-game sweep of the two-time defending champion Dodgers, Jake Bauers is your NLCS MVP!  And a little irony on the side... he'll be facing one of his former teams in the World Series.

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