Louis Bader was in his home office in Bronxville when he heard his son’s phone ring upstairs. The trade deadline was bearing down on everyone, and the retired tax attorney had felt something big could occur for his boy Harrison, who had returned to rehab a foot injury that was taking without end to heal.
A couple of minutes later, the St. Louis Cardinals center fielder headed downstairs to share something along with his first coach.
“Hey Dad,” Harrison said.
“I suppose you were just traded to the Yankees, right?” Louis interrupted.
“What?” the stunned ballplayer said.
“Isn’t that what you were going to inform me?”
The 2 men fell into one another’s arms. One among them desired to be Mickey Mantle or Roger Maris — take your pick — and the opposite desired to be Derek Jeter, no less than until some choppy local infields chased young Harrison from shortstop to center.
“It was thrilling for an hour or two, like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t imagine it. Wow, wow, wow,’ ” Louis told The Post by phone. “But then we remembered it’s a business, and folks get traded, and just being sent to the Yankees isn’t enough. This doesn’t mean anything. Now you could have to get healthy. You’ve got to perform. Will you even play this yr?”
Though he grew up in Westchester County adoring the identical Yankees adored by his 66-year-old father, a Rockland County guy by the use of Spring Valley, Harrison loved playing for the Cardinals. He would’ve been perfectly blissful spending his entire profession in St. Louis, considered one of America’s great baseball towns.
“It’s a challenge to play in Recent York, with an unlimited amount of pressure,” Louis Bader said. “Harrison wasn’t sure if or how he could handle it. It was almost good that he was hurt when traded.”
Bader was walking around in a boot while the pitcher he was dealt for, Jordan Montgomery, was lighting it up for the Cardinals. Though fans were crushing general manager Brian Cashman, Bader used the down time to look at and learn what it meant to be a big-time athlete within the big-city cauldron. He absorbed a towering study in grace in the shape of Aaron Judge, and shortly enough the plantar fasciitis relented enough to permit Bader to affix Judge within the outfield and to escort the massive man back to his natural position in right.
Seven weeks after the trade, Harrison Bader debuted with two hits and three RBIs on the wildest night of the season — Judge hit homer No. 60 within the ninth before Giancarlo Stanton’s walk-off grand slam gave the Yankees a 9-8 victory over Pittsburgh on Sept. 20.
“I needed 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 repeatedly that until 1961 Yankees fans routinely booed Mickey Mantle. For those who are considered one of the best players who ever lived and fans routinely boo you, what does that let you know? Harrison knows this and understands it.”
In order that’s why late Tuesday night, Bader said that he tried to indicate as little emotion as possible after becoming the primary player to hit his first home run as a Yankee within the postseason. Bader cited his parents — his mother, Janice, was a talented youth basketball player and Sports Illustrated marketing executive — amongst those that have helped him, in his words, “Channel that energy appropriately,” and remain as near room temperature as he can.
Together with his parents, sister Sasha and no less than 100 other relatives and friends within the Stadium for the opening Division Series victory over Cleveland, Bader made a game-changing, run-saving defensive play in the highest of the third when he cut off Jose Ramirez’s double. He then made a game-changing, run-scoring offensive play in the underside of the third when he ripped Cal Quantrill’s full-count sinker over the left-field wall.
From his seat on the first-base side, Louis was wishing his own father Harry, a Ruth-Gehrig-DiMaggio guy who owned the old Bader’s Hotel in Spring Valley, was still around to see his grandson make big October plays for the Yanks. Louis was crammed with pride as Harrison rounded the bases, but quickly remembered those boos for Mantle. “After which I attempted to temper it,” he said, “and keep an excellent head.”
Much easier said than done. When Harrison was a boy, his father would return from his Verizon job within the evenings, grab a bucket of 30 baseballs and drive around looking for an open field in Eastchester, Yonkers or The Bronx. Harrison wore a helmet and his old man stood 35 feet away and threw to him, before dodging the lethal liners coming back his way. Sometimes Louis intentionally hit his son with pitches (below the shoulders, after all) to arrange him for higher-velocity impact in competition, and Harrison got offended.
“If you should be good, you may’t be afraid to be hit,” Louis told him. “You’ll thank me for this sooner or later.”
Harrison did later thank him for the old-school lessons, and for all of the Yankee games that Louis and Janice treated him to in the course of the Jeter/Mariano Rivera years. Harrison also loved his skiing trips out west along with his dad; the child was a greater skier than baseball player and was fearless in his approach. Louis believes his son could’ve grown into an Olympian, but he was fearful in regards to the dangers of the game even before Harrison navigated his way through two avalanches.
“Baseball was the much safer route,” Louis said. “When he finishes his profession in 11 or 12 years, I hope I’m healthy enough to ski with him again.”
Meanwhile, a decade after starring for Horace Mann in The Bronx, Bader has a shot to win a World Series title slightly greater than 5 miles down the road. Funny that his manager is Aaron Boone. In the group for Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, gearing up for the underside of the eleventh after Rivera had pitched three innings, Louis turned to Janice and said, “Boone had higher effin’ hit a house run now, because Mo is completed.” One pitch later, Boone made history.
Now the Baders watch their son attempt to do the identical. Louis was thrilled when Harrison cleaned up his St. Louis look to satisfy Yankee standards. “I hated that hair and beard,” he said. Louis was just as thrilled to sit down next to Roger Maris Jr. in Toronto.
But one of the best part, to date, is that this part: Harrison is spending the postseason in his old bedroom in Bronxville, reunited along with his parents, sister and beloved Goldendoodle Riley. “He hasn’t forgotten about us,” Louis said. “We feel an element of it.”
And why not? A homegrown Mickey Mantle fan is getting to look at his homegrown son play Mickey Mantle’s position in October, while each try to maintain their cool. Home run or no home run, that’s a Recent York story that ought to touch ’em all.
Louis Bader was in his home office in Bronxville when he heard his son’s phone ring upstairs. The trade deadline was bearing down on everyone, and the retired tax attorney had felt something big could occur for his boy Harrison, who had returned to rehab a foot injury that was taking without end to heal.
A couple of minutes later, the St. Louis Cardinals center fielder headed downstairs to share something along with his first coach.
“Hey Dad,” Harrison said.
“I suppose you were just traded to the Yankees, right?” Louis interrupted.
“What?” the stunned ballplayer said.
“Isn’t that what you were going to inform me?”
The 2 men fell into one another’s arms. One among them desired to be Mickey Mantle or Roger Maris — take your pick — and the opposite desired to be Derek Jeter, no less than until some choppy local infields chased young Harrison from shortstop to center.
“It was thrilling for an hour or two, like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t imagine it. Wow, wow, wow,’ ” Louis told The Post by phone. “But then we remembered it’s a business, and folks get traded, and just being sent to the Yankees isn’t enough. This doesn’t mean anything. Now you could have to get healthy. You’ve got to perform. Will you even play this yr?”
Though he grew up in Westchester County adoring the identical Yankees adored by his 66-year-old father, a Rockland County guy by the use of Spring Valley, Harrison loved playing for the Cardinals. He would’ve been perfectly blissful spending his entire profession in St. Louis, considered one of America’s great baseball towns.
“It’s a challenge to play in Recent York, with an unlimited amount of pressure,” Louis Bader said. “Harrison wasn’t sure if or how he could handle it. It was almost good that he was hurt when traded.”
Bader was walking around in a boot while the pitcher he was dealt for, Jordan Montgomery, was lighting it up for the Cardinals. Though fans were crushing general manager Brian Cashman, Bader used the down time to look at and learn what it meant to be a big-time athlete within the big-city cauldron. He absorbed a towering study in grace in the shape of Aaron Judge, and shortly enough the plantar fasciitis relented enough to permit Bader to affix Judge within the outfield and to escort the massive man back to his natural position in right.
Seven weeks after the trade, Harrison Bader debuted with two hits and three RBIs on the wildest night of the season — Judge hit homer No. 60 within the ninth before Giancarlo Stanton’s walk-off grand slam gave the Yankees a 9-8 victory over Pittsburgh on Sept. 20.
“I needed 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 repeatedly that until 1961 Yankees fans routinely booed Mickey Mantle. For those who are considered one of the best players who ever lived and fans routinely boo you, what does that let you know? Harrison knows this and understands it.”
In order that’s why late Tuesday night, Bader said that he tried to indicate as little emotion as possible after becoming the primary player to hit his first home run as a Yankee within the postseason. Bader cited his parents — his mother, Janice, was a talented youth basketball player and Sports Illustrated marketing executive — amongst those that have helped him, in his words, “Channel that energy appropriately,” and remain as near room temperature as he can.
Together with his parents, sister Sasha and no less than 100 other relatives and friends within the Stadium for the opening Division Series victory over Cleveland, Bader made a game-changing, run-saving defensive play in the highest of the third when he cut off Jose Ramirez’s double. He then made a game-changing, run-scoring offensive play in the underside of the third when he ripped Cal Quantrill’s full-count sinker over the left-field wall.
From his seat on the first-base side, Louis was wishing his own father Harry, a Ruth-Gehrig-DiMaggio guy who owned the old Bader’s Hotel in Spring Valley, was still around to see his grandson make big October plays for the Yanks. Louis was crammed with pride as Harrison rounded the bases, but quickly remembered those boos for Mantle. “After which I attempted to temper it,” he said, “and keep an excellent head.”
Much easier said than done. When Harrison was a boy, his father would return from his Verizon job within the evenings, grab a bucket of 30 baseballs and drive around looking for an open field in Eastchester, Yonkers or The Bronx. Harrison wore a helmet and his old man stood 35 feet away and threw to him, before dodging the lethal liners coming back his way. Sometimes Louis intentionally hit his son with pitches (below the shoulders, after all) to arrange him for higher-velocity impact in competition, and Harrison got offended.
“If you should be good, you may’t be afraid to be hit,” Louis told him. “You’ll thank me for this sooner or later.”
Harrison did later thank him for the old-school lessons, and for all of the Yankee games that Louis and Janice treated him to in the course of the Jeter/Mariano Rivera years. Harrison also loved his skiing trips out west along with his dad; the child was a greater skier than baseball player and was fearless in his approach. Louis believes his son could’ve grown into an Olympian, but he was fearful in regards to the dangers of the game even before Harrison navigated his way through two avalanches.
“Baseball was the much safer route,” Louis said. “When he finishes his profession in 11 or 12 years, I hope I’m healthy enough to ski with him again.”
Meanwhile, a decade after starring for Horace Mann in The Bronx, Bader has a shot to win a World Series title slightly greater than 5 miles down the road. Funny that his manager is Aaron Boone. In the group for Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, gearing up for the underside of the eleventh after Rivera had pitched three innings, Louis turned to Janice and said, “Boone had higher effin’ hit a house run now, because Mo is completed.” One pitch later, Boone made history.
Now the Baders watch their son attempt to do the identical. Louis was thrilled when Harrison cleaned up his St. Louis look to satisfy Yankee standards. “I hated that hair and beard,” he said. Louis was just as thrilled to sit down next to Roger Maris Jr. in Toronto.
But one of the best part, to date, is that this part: Harrison is spending the postseason in his old bedroom in Bronxville, reunited along with his parents, sister and beloved Goldendoodle Riley. “He hasn’t forgotten about us,” Louis said. “We feel an element of it.”
And why not? A homegrown Mickey Mantle fan is getting to look at his homegrown son play Mickey Mantle’s position in October, while each try to maintain their cool. Home run or no home run, that’s a Recent York story that ought to touch ’em all.
