PORT ST. LUCIE — As someone who grew up idolizing Bernie Williams and attending games at Yankee Stadium to receive his baseball fix, Harrison Bader’s childhood memories of the Mets are scant.
There were the three or four games he saw at Shea Stadium — many of the family members on his mother’s side are Mets fans — but Bader, who spent his youth in Bronxville and attended Horace Mann School in Riverdale, was all about the Yankees. More specifically, it was the Yankees’ star players that captivated him.
Now the Mets’ starting center fielder, the 29-year-old Bader is anxious to learn about the organization he says he never hated growing up but largely ignored.
This was the early 2000s, after the Yankees had won the World Series for the fourth time in five years. Bader has vague recollections of the Subway Series in 2000, in which the Yankees beat the Mets to win the fourth of those titles, but it wasn’t until later on that his fandom really developed.
At the time the Mets were beginning a stretch of disappointing seasons that preceded a retooling in which the team added stars such as Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and Pedro Martinez. Bader recalls the fondness he had for the Mets’ catcher in his early years watching baseball.
“Mike Piazza was awesome,” Bader said. “He was calm at the plate and he had a good swing and he had a light-colored bat, so it looked cool.”
As a 12-year-old, Bader said he watched on TV in detached fashion as the Mets lost Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS to the Cardinals.
Bader was later drafted and developed by the Cardinals, so years later his frame of reference is what he remembers from that game about two players who would become his teammates.
“I vaguely remember the game,” Bader said. “That’s when Yadi [Molina] hit that home run and then [Adam] Wainwright struck out Carlos Beltran with that curveball. I remember Yadi jumping up … and then I got to play with him as a Cardinal. He’s a beast.”
Bader’s train of thought has now shifted to Molina, one of the great catchers of the generation.
“[Francisco] Alvarez reminds me of him in ways, which I think is impressive,” Bader said of the Mets’ 22-year-old catcher. “His demeanor. The way he throws the ball, his transfer, reminds me of Yadi. I would study and watch Yadi a lot because he was good at seeing and surveying the entire field and he would move me when I was in center field, so I was always locked in on Yadi, just his movements. I think they’re similar with Alvarez, which is very impressive for a young kid.”
Before Bader focused on becoming the next Bernie Williams, he wanted to be Derek Jeter. These were Bader’s early years of playing youth baseball, when he was learning to become a shortstop.
But the “crappy” conditions of the playing fields in Eastchester led to Bader getting hit in the face with grounders too often.
Or maybe Bader just didn’t have the reflexes to play shortstop: Attending Cal Ripken Jr.’s baseball camp in Aberdeen, Md., as an 11-year-old, Bader took a grounder off the face near his eye and decided he was finished as a shortstop.
“At a young age, no one wants to play the outfield, everyone wants to be like Derek Jeter, and now everyone wants to be like Anthony Volpe,” Bader said. “The fields in New York are so unkempt that I was scared of the ball as a shortstop. My dad told me there are no bad hops in the air, so he got me an outfield glove.”
Jim Edmonds, Andruw Jones, and Torii Hunter joined Williams among players Bader tried to emulate. The Mets had an All-Star center fielder in Beltran, but Bader had a difficult time relating to his outstanding power.
“It’s a different game than I have, but he’s obviously a great one,” Bader said.
Bader, who spent parts of the past two seasons playing in The Bronx, doesn’t regret his allegiance to the Yankees growing up, but as he completes his first spring training with the Mets, he said it might have been different for him if he knew then what he now knows.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of this organization,” Bader said. “I’ve learned really to just fall in love with everything that’s going on here, from the clubhouse to the training staff to the on-field staff. I think if I was a young kid and I knew the inner workings of this organization, I think maybe I would’ve been a different fan.”
Roster squeeze
Another former Yankees player, Luke Voit, is trying to stick with the Mets after arriving at spring training on a minor-league contract.
But even before the Mets agreed Thursday evening to sign righty-swinging designated hitter J.D. Martinez, essentially eliminating his path to a roster spot, Voit hadn’t shown anything to suggest he’s in the mix.
Voit, 33, owns a .100/.222/.200 slash line in the Grapefruit League with one homer while striking out 12 times in 30 at-bats.
Voit said he’s felt good about the quality of his contact lately and hadn’t lost hope that he will get selected to the roster.
“This last week, I was really even telling my wife, I feel like I’m in a really good spot,” Voit said. “I feel like I’m back to normal.”
Voit, whose contract contains an opt-out within the next week, said he was undecided on whether he would accept an assignment to Triple-A Syracuse if the Mets don’t place him on the major league roster.
Want to catch a game? The Mets schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
All aboard the reliever carousel
The most intriguing battle as camp concludes is for the final two bullpen spots.
Michael Tonkin, Yohan Ramirez, Phil Bickford and Sean Reid-Foley are the main contenders, given that all are without remaining minor-league options.
Easing the decision a bit is the fact Reid-Foley, who has dealt recently with arm fatigue, will be placed on the injured list.
Regardless of which two relievers the Mets choose, it’s a sticky situation in that the team will have a bullpen consisting entirely of relievers without options.
That means, barring an IL stint for somebody beforehand, the first time the Mets need a fresh arm from the minors or want to augment the rotation with a sixth starter, a reliever will likely be designated for assignment.
