Travis Hake didn’t want to leave Lancaster. He wanted to finish his career with the Barnstormers. As a two-year member of the team, and one of its most popular players, he probably earned that right.
Hake, as you may have heard, was selected by the York Revolution in the Atlantic League’s expansion draft last month. This is how he reacted to the news:
“I like Lancaster and I would like to be loyal to Lancaster’s fans,” he said last week. “I would have just liked to have a say in it. I’d rather make the final decision than have somebody make it for me. But that’s the business side of baseball and I don’t have any control over it.”
It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines. Hake wanted to stay. The fans liked him. New manager Frank Klebe liked him. So, why exactly is he gone?
The line between the Barnstormers and Revolution is blurry — to say the least. Keystone Baseball owns both teams and has a vested interest in seeing both succeed. Although management would never admit this publicly, my hunch is president Jon Danos and head of baseball operations Adam Gladstone wanted Hake in York for marketing purposes. He’s a Red Lion native and his parents own a restaurant in York County. Fans in the area remember Hake from his days as a shortstop in the Susquehanna League.
The Barnstormers could have easily protected Hake in the expansion draft and kept him in town. They chose not to do so and the fans who bought Hake’s jerseys, who clapped along when they played “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” have lost one of the franchise’s original players. Only Lance Burkhart, Jutt Hileman and Ross Peeples remain from the inaugural game.
Hake’s tenure with the Barnstormers ended on a sour note. He was benched in September after the team acquired shortstop Jason Bowers for the playoff run and he was an unhappy bystander when Lancaster won the championship. Still, he hoped to return because he wanted the chance to play for Klebe, who’s a favorite among the guys in the clubhouse. Hake will never get that chance.
There’s no guarantee that Hake will play for the Revolution. He still has to sign a contract and earn a spot on the roster. He says this will be his final season in professional baseball. If that’s true, it’s a shame he didn’t get one final summer in Lancaster in front of the fans who embraced him. The Barnstormers’ brass could have easily made that happen.
