CENTRAL ISLIP, New York – It’s only about 43 miles from Fairfield Properties Ballpark, the home of the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, to Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, but the line to get into the park for opening night wrapped around the sidewalks in two directions.
You see, the Trevor Bauer Show, which has been on an international tour the last three seasons, returned to the United States for the first time since June 28, 2021, bringing the terminally-online personality who continually produces baseball content for the internet and social media closer, at least in proximity, to Major League Baseball, where he was once an elite starting pitcher.
For most of the players on the Ducks, an independent minor league team playing in the obscurity beyond the city, Citi Field and a spot in the Major Leagues likely feels as far away as Japan, where Bauer, the Ducks opening night starter, spent two of the last three years pitching for the Yokohama DeNa BayStars sandwiched around a season with the Diablos Rojos del Mexico in Mexico City.
And for the fans of the Ducks, it was a chance to see a fallen star and the 2020 Cy Young Award winner pitch for the hometown team, on opening night no less. Bauer’s baseball exile outside the United States ended Tuesday against the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars on a night where the temperature never rose above 50 degrees and the level of competition was lower that what he’d faced the last two seasons, save for his appearances in the Japanese minor league affiliate of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.
He acquitted himself well, throwing four innings and allowing two runs on five hits and three walks, striking out eight, though he struggled with control at times.
The reasons Bauer is pitching here are myriad, and they’re mostly of his own creation. Bauer possesses an incredible understanding of the physics of pitching, an ability to explain it better than most, and a name and notoriety that attract fans to his body of work. He craves constant attention, too, and that has drawn him into conflict with teammates, maangers, and fans while he was pitching in MLB and elsewhere.
He’s also the recipient of the longest suspension issued under MLB’s domestic violence policy, having been slapped with a 324-game ban in 2021 that was later reduced to 192 games after multiple women accused him of violence during sexual encounters. When the suspension ended, Bauer, who was then under contract to the Los Angeles Dodgers, was designated for assignment and then released six days later.
While Bauer has never been arrested, charged, or convicted of a crime related to the allegations, and one of his accusers has been charged with defrauding the former Major Leaguer, Bauer has not returned to MLB.
There are fans who are vocal about not wanting him around at all. A post on X by World Baseball Network that showed a picture of Bauer warming up in the outfield prior to Tuesday night’s game was reposted by a female fan from Kansas City who used multiple profanities to express her displeasure towards both Bauer, alleging that WBN is “shilling” for him and declaring that she was blocking the WBN twitter account.
She didn’t. And we weren’t shilling. When a Cy Young Award winner pitches, it’s news, even when it’s in the Atlantic League.
That said, fans expecting a dominant performance by Bauer got at least a little bit of what they want, and the Bauer haters, who were also scattered among the 6,000-odd fans at Fairfield Properties Ballpark got a little of what they wanted, too.
Bauer notched two strikeouts in the first, three in the second, one in the third, and three more in the fourth. His fastball touched 96 but generally was in the 92-94 mph range, and he mixed his pitches well, though he struggled to control his sinker, cutter, and breaking balls in the cold April air.
In the fourth, Bauer had two outs, and runners at the corners as Hagerstown’s No. 2 hitter, Jeffrey Wehler, faced a 1-2 count. Bauer came set, and leadoff man Jared Carr, who had reached on a single that scored Cristhian Rodriguez to give Hagerstown a 2-0 lead, danced off first base.
Bauer came set and paused, and Carr took second base uncontested.
High above the first base dugout, a fan clad in a Ducks had and a heavy jacket yelled into the April air to voice his displeasure.
“Hey Bauer,” he yelled after the biggest name to play in the Atlantic League in the circuit’s 28-year history. “Stick to YouTube!”
The next pitch would be Bauer’s last of the night. He struck out Wehler swinging at a slider and walked back to the dugout, where he donned a sweatshirt to ward off the chill.
Photo: Trevor Bauer warms up in the outfield before his Atlantic League debut with the Long Island Ducks. (Photo: Leif Skodnick/World Baseball Network)
