Harrison Bader is such a mensch in heartfelt goodbye letter to St. Louis

Matt Marton/USA Today Sports

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content Officer
Published August 10, 2022

10 days ago, when I learned that St. Louis Cardinals centerfielder Harrison Bader had committed to play for Team Israel in next year’s World Baseball Classic, I was so excited. First, we learned that we had another Jewish connection to a member of the Cardinals (Bader’s father is Jewish) and second it meant creating a buzz locally around his play in the WBC.

All of that ended on Tuesday, August 2, and 5 p.m. when the Cardinals announced a last-minute trade sending Bader to the New York Yankees for starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery. He was not on the trade radar, so I did not see the move coming.

Bader was an exciting player on the field, a burst of energy in the dugout and as we learned last season after he penned an open letter to St. Louis fans, a true mensch.

Today, Bader re-revealed his inner mensch in a personal note to fans, and a video as well.

“St. Louis, I want to tell you — with all the love and respect in the world — how grateful and appreciative I am to have been a part of this community for the past six years,” wrote Bader in his letter published in The Players’ Tribune. “I’ll never forget how awesome it felt to walk around this city, knowing that I was a part of something truly unique. Being a Cardinal in St. Louis is just special. And I just want to make sure all the fans understand how much I enjoyed playing in front of you guys every single second.”

In his letter to St. Louis, Bader speaks about his journey to becoming a big league player, and how St. Louis fans were so much a part of that journey. He also addresses his hair styling, which was food for fodder for fans over the years.

“This really has been a wonderful journey. And sitting here now, it’s definitely pretty surreal, thinking back on that first game, and then seeing how things have come full circle. I was thinking the other day about how I entered St. Louis with short hair — buzzed on the side, with a little hair on top. And now I’m actually leaving St. Louis with a haircut that’s very similar. In the time in between, my hair got longer and sort of came alive. But more importantly, during that time, the city of St. Louis became a part of who I am. It really shaped me. I feel like I grew up as a player and as a person because of St. Louis, and because of how the people of St. Louis allowed me to develop and show what I was about,” Bader.

You can read his entire letter on The Players Tribune website.