When Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer isn’t toeing the rubber, he is investing in his new hobby: drones.
Ironically, it’s that same hobby which will cost the 2011 UCLA draftee some time as the Indians face the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series that starts Friday.
The 25-year-old Bauer was expected to pitch Game 2 on Saturday in Cleveland, but now his ALCS start will be pushed to Monday night in Toronto after he cut the pinky right hand while working on a drone, according to the team. Indians manager Terry Francona told reporters in Cleveland that Bauer told him he was doing “routine maintenance” on the drone.
“I think we’ve all, probably everybody in here probably at some point or another had a drone-related problem,” Francona joked.
“This was not malicious, he wasn’t doing something that — he just — I mean, he could have been opening a box in the kitchen. Things happen. I wish it wouldn’t have, but like I said, it wasn’t done maliciously, it wasn’t done by being silly. Just happened.”
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Bauer is a drone enthusiast and has been experimenting with the new technology ever since 2013 and a drone racing video reminded him of his favorite scenes in Star Wars, according to Wall Street Journal via Yahoo.
Building and flying drones isn’t Bauer’s only outside-the-box interest, though. On an off day in August, he visited a robotics lab at Max Hayes High School in Cleveland and learned about students’ interests across technology, auto repair, welding and engineering.