Harrison Bader remembers being at a lot of Yankees postseason games growing up, especially during the team’s run to the 2009 World Series championship, but the shoe was on the other foot Tuesday – for he had what he estimated as “triple digits” worth of family and friends at the Stadium to watch him play his first postseason game in pinstripes.
“My parents and my sister are here, all my friends are here, but I didn't respond to any of their text messages because we had stuff to do today,” Bader laughed after Game 1. “They definitely showed up, there's no doubt, and they are going to continue to show up, and that's what this is about. This isn't just about the person that gets to put the uniform on. There's a massive team behind us that support us every single day. When you have that behind you, it makes it a lot easier to go out there and play some ball.”
And that first game was, as is cliché, everything he ever dreamed it would be.
“It was everything I expected it could be. I prepared myself for it mentally. It's an atmosphere that I'm very familiar with in terms of I had been present here. I haven't obviously been on the field, but I do understand what it means to be successful here, and I do understand the mental side, especially this is my fourth postseason appearance,” he said. “Every time I like to think that the experience, you just get better and better. There's a lot of emotion, there's no doubt, but it's all noise. And I'm just fortunate that I've had a lot of people, namely my parents, my friends and a lot of people that have helped me get last year to channel that energy appropriately and understand how to use it properly to be successful and not get distracted, because it's very easy.”
Even better: his fist Yankees home run came in the third inning and tied the game at 1-1, giving him a signature Yankees postseason moment barely an hour into the playoffs. It’s also cliché to say doing something like that is every kid’s dream, and Bader is no different, but he was always visualizing coming through in the clutch – even if that wasn’t necessarily a home run, per se.
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“It's not so much the result I focused on. It's more the feeling of the swing as I step in the box. You know, the timing of getting ready to hit. You know, those are the things that really help in visualization to produce good results,” Bader said. “It's very easy to be distracted on wanting to be a hero, wanting to hit a big home run, wanting to go out and do something. And, quite frankly, in my experience, not letting the game come to you will get you into trouble. So the visualization, I guess, comes from just the constant repetition and just thinking in the dugout or thinking before the game of just all these things to just to be ready when you see that ball in that certain spot to just allow it to take over.”
For six weeks or so after being traded to the Yankees, all Bader could do was visualize, because the plantar fasciitis that put him out of action in June kept him out until mid-September – but again, he always knew a day like Tuesday was going to come.
“Definitely…visualization is a large part of success, especially when you have a long plan ahead of you as I did in returning to the field at a physical state which I could be effective, and that was going to take some time,” he said. “So just day-by-day, just visualizing moments like this, what the grass feels like what it feels like to run, all these little thing, definitely played a part in confidently returning. I’m just happy that that came up for us, and I'm looking forward to doing it as often as I can moving forward.”
Bader remembers the level of excitement he felt as a fan growing up, so he understands that “constant energy factor” in Yankee Stadium in the postseason. And, as he said, he was glad he was able to come through – if not just for himself and the team, but maybe those who still were down on the trade that brought him here, even after Jordan Montgomery and the Cardinals were eliminated over the weekend.
“The human element…I always want to play hard, and I want to show my teammates and the fans and everyone why I earned that uniform, there's no doubt,” he said. “However the flipside, the more professional side, the reality of the situation is that I wasn't ready to play; and if I was going to force playing, if I was chasing that exact emotion, it wouldn't have been a version of myself that would have been effective for myself and for my teammates. Coping with that reality allowed me to just continue to work. There was a tremendous staff in there who was helping me every day get back to the field, and the biggest thing was that I would be ready to play when I was healthy, which takes time – but I can assure you it was absolutely worth it. Now we are in a position where I feel great and we're in the postseason, and I've got everything to look forward to.”
But if you ask at least one of those staff who checked in along the way, there was never a doubt what an asset Bader would be once he was back in the field.
“I never sensed that,” manager Aaron Boone said when asked if Bader’s entrance to the Yankees was uncomfortable at first, or any point. “Obviously a local kid that grew up a Yankee fan, I thought right away he endeared himself to us. He's an outgoing guy. Right away I could tell he was really excited to be here. I think he was aware and had some levity to the situation, like understanding what you said. We traded a popular teammate and I show up in a walking boot; he kind of made light of that. But we also knew we were getting a really good player.”
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