How a hotel breakfast server helped Yankees' Tyler Wade hit 1st career homer

by Felix Pantaleón

Infielder Tyler Wade was 3-for-5 with a homer, double and single in the Yankees’ 9-0 win over the Orioles on Wednesday, July 11, 2018 (7/11/18) at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Md. The win keeps the Yankees 3.5 games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox in the American League East.

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BALTIMORE — The dugout scene after Yankees infielder Tyler Wade’s first career homer provided some in-game comedy Wednesday night with a longer-than-usual silent treatment.

Wade provided more during his post-game interview when he told a story about a breakfast server at the Yankees’ hotel telling him that morning to eat a raspberry sorbet for dessert because it will make him hit a home run.

And what do you know, it did!

“That was kind of what I was thinking about when I was running the bases just because I ate that thing,” Wade said after going 3-for-5 with a homer and double as the Yankees’ second baseman in a 9-0 blanking of the Baltimore Orioles.

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Wade initially laughed out the offer to down the sorbet when the waiter offered him a sorbet and said, “Hey man, if you eat one of these, it’ll be a homer.”

Wade responded, “Come on, man,” but Yankees security guard Mark Kafalas egged him on by saying, “Do it, do it!”

Wade ate the sorbet, and he loved it.

‘It was like candy,” he said.

And now the rest of history, as Wade went on to have his best game in his brief major league career, a showing that included a waiter-predicted first homer in career at-bat No. 100 with a sixth-inning blast off Orioles reliever Mike Wright Jr. that carried well over the right-center field wall at Oriole Park.

“I had a good scouting report from (hitting coach) Marcus (Thames) and I had a feeling (Wright) was going to throw a cutter, and he threw one,” Wade said.

This homer made up for the Yankees’ home opener on April 3 at Yankee Stadium when Tampa Bay Rays right fielder Carlos Gomez reached over the wall to turn a would-be-homer hit by Wade into an out.

“I saw it every day in Scranton in the pre-game when they’d show that W.B. Mason sign (on the Yankee Stadium right-field wall) in an ad, and it was always him robbing the homer,” Wade said.

Finally getting one was a great thrill for Wade, who just rejoined the Yankees on July 6 after being optioned to Triple-A on April 22 with a .086 average in 35 at-bats.

His teammates reaction (and Wade’s counter) to the homer made it more memorable.

Wade suspects it was right fielder Aaron Judge who instructed everyone in the Yankees dugout to ignore him after his home run trot.

We see this a lot, but this one went beyond what catcher Kyle Higashioka received after his first homer last month, as Wade’s went on and on.

Wade responded by pretending to high-five players as he walked from one end of the dugout to the other, then when he made it to the end and turned around, he expected teammates to end the charade and mob him.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Wade said. “I figured by the time I turn around, sure enough someone will say something.”

Nope.

The silent treatment lasted a few more seconds before everyone popped up to celebrate this big-league first with handslaps and hugs.

This whole day was great fun for Wade, who is 4-for-9 in six games, two as a starter, since returning. He even got back his home run ball, which was caught by a Red Sox fan of all people and handed over Yankees security.

“I’m giving it to my parents,” Wade said. “They have my first-hit ball.”