Father happy to see Bader playing in pinstripes, looks back to his journey

Thursday October 13, 2022

Harrison Bader stopped Jose Ramirez’s double in the top of the third inning, which saved two runs and changed the game on Tuesday in the Yankees’ favor. His parents, sister Sasha, and at least 100 other family members and friends were at Yankee Stadium to cheer him. Then, in the third inning, he hit Cal Quantrill over the left-field wall, which changed the game and scored a run.

His father, Louis Bader had his happiest moment seeing his son playing Mickey Mantle’s position. He was a fan of the former Yankee great and it brought him double joy to find his son in pinstripes and in Mantle’s shoes.

It all began in August. Louis was in his Bronxville office when Harrison Bader called him. Everyone was worried about the trade deadline, and the retired tax lawyer thought something big could happen to his son, who had come back to rehab for a foot injury that was taking a long time to heal.

After a few minutes, the father ran downstairs to meet his son. He was incidentally Harrison Bader’s first coach. The center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals went downstairs to talk to his first coach about something. Before his son broke the news of his New York arrival, Louis told him, “I guess you just got traded to the Yankees, right? Isn’t that what you planned to say?”

Louis told the New York Post:

“It was thrilling for an hour or two, like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe it. Wow, wow, wow. But then we remembered it’s a business, and people get traded, and just being sent to the Yankees isn’t enough. This doesn’t mean anything. Now he has to get healthy, got to perform, and even play this year.”

Harrison Bader grew up in Westchester County and loved the Yankees, just like his 66-year-old father, who was from Spring Valley in Rockland County. However, he loved playing for the Cardinals. Harrison Bader would have been happy to play his whole career in St. Louis, which is one of the best baseball cities in the United States.

“It’s hard to play in New York because there’s so much pressure,” Louis Bader said, “Harrison didn’t know if he could handle it or how; it was almost a good thing that he got hurt when he was traded.”

Harrison Bader was walking around in a boot while the pitcher the Cardinals got in exchange for him, Jordan Montgomery, was on fire. Bader used the time when fans were yelling at general manager Brian Cashman over the trade to watch and learn what it was like to be a big-time athlete in a big city. Aaron Judge was a towering study in grace for him, and soon his plantar fasciitis got better enough for him to join Judge in the outfield and help the big man get back to his natural position in the right field.

Seven weeks after the trade, Harrison Bader made his debut with two hits and three RBIs on the craziest night of the season, September 20. Judge hit home run number 60 in the ninth inning, and Giancarlo Stanton’s walk-off grand slam gave the Yankees a 9-8 win over Pittsburgh.

“I had to say to Harrison after his first couple of games, when he said how great the fans are in an interview, ‘Yeah, they’re great … until they’re not great,’ ” Louis Bader said. “I told him many times that until 1961 Yankees fans routinely booed Mickey Mantle. If you are one of the greatest players who ever lived and fans routinely boo you, what does that tell you? Harrison knows this and understands it.”

So, Harrison Bader said late Tuesday night that he tried not to show too much sentimentality after becoming the first Yankee player to hit his 1st home run in the postseason. Bader said that his parents, especially his mother Janice, who was a good youth basketball player and worked in marketing for Sports Illustrated, helped him “channel that energy in the right way” and stay as normal as he could.

Louis wished his father Harry, a Ruth-Gehrig-DiMaggio fan who owned the old Bader’s Hotel in Spring Valley, was still alive to witness his grandson make major October plays for the Yankees from his perch on the first-base side. As Harrison Bader approached the bases, Louis was thrilled with pride, but he instantly recalled the booing for Mantle.

Easy to say, hard to do. When Harrison was a kid, his dad would come home from work at Verizon in the evening, grab a bucket of 30 baseballs, and drive around Eastchester, Yonkers, or The Bronx looking for a field to play on. Harrison wore a helmet, and his dad stood 35 feet away and threw it at him. Harrison had to dodge the deadly lines that came back at him. Louis would sometimes hit his son on purpose with pitches to get him ready for harder hits in games, which made Harrison Bader angry.

Louis told him, “If you want to be good, you can’t be afraid of getting hit, and one day, you’ll be glad I did this.”

Harrison Bader thanked him later for the old-school lessons and all the Bombers’ games his parents took him to when Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera were playing.

Now, a little more than 5 miles down the road from his parent’s home, Harrison Bader has a chance to win the World Series. This is ten years after he was the best player for Horace Mann in The Bronx. It’s funny that Aaron Boone is his manager. In the 11th innings of Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, Louis told his wife Janice, “Boone better hit a homer now because Mo is done.” With the next pitch, Boone made history.

Now, they watch as their son Harrison Bader tries to do the same thing. Louis was happy when Harrison changed his look from “St. Louis” to “New York” style. “That hair and beard were awful,” he said. In Toronto, Louis was just as happy to sit next to Roger Maris Jr.

Do the Yankees have a more fearsome star in Harrison Bader?