Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer is a drone enthusiast, and has been for quite some time now. He owns several unmanned aerial vehicles, and actually sliced his finger open before an important baseball game last October, while attempting to fix one of the rotors. That little accident cost him his starting position during a seemingly important game, which might have frustrated his teammates.
According to Bauer, he was pretty shocked at his drone’s ability to injure him. “I plugged it in, like I’ve done thousands and thousands of times, and for whatever reason it was sitting like this, I was plugging the battery in and my finger happened to be right here, and for whatever reason these three propellers didn’t spin like they were supposed to and this one spun up at max throttle. It never happened to me before. I have no idea why it happened. And my finger just happened to be in the way of the prop and it cut me.”
While Bauer was inspired by Star Wars-themed drones back in 2013 to get his hands on a UAV himself, his favorite film of the saga is apparently The Phantom Menace. While there’s no accounting for taste, it’s pretty great to see a Major League Baseball star be so invested in recreational drone use that it actually jeopardized his baseball career for a few games. On Monday, his latest drone-related mishap occurred. Luckily, this one didn’t result in bodily harm, but Bauer seems hurt, regardless.
That’s a pretty funny hashtag, as he appears to jokingly threaten to lose a few games if he doesn’t get his drone back, and he’s simultaneously self-deprecating. His most recent tweet is imbued with humor, as well. It looks like a “wanted” poster, his drone’s name is “Iron Man,” and it was last seen perching.
According to ESPN, Bauer is pretty serious about having his property returned, lest he be forced to risk building a new one, which came with some serious consequences last time. Bauer said “If I don’t get it back, I’ll have to make a third one.” Smiling, he added that “no Cleveland fan wants me to be building a drone right now.”
After Bauer received stitches for the mishap preceding Game 2 of last season’s American League Championship Series, he started Game 3, but the wound opened before the first inning was even over. So while this is a fairly amusing drone-related story of a professional athlete who just can’t keep his fingers off his flying machines, this might also infuriate a lot of die-hard Cleveland Indians fans who just want the best results from their team.
Thankfully, Bauer himself doesn’t take any of this too seriously. He could obviously just build or buy himself another drone, but seems eager to make a more playful, joking matter out of this incident than anything too self-important.
“I hope I find it,” said Bauer. “If not, it’s a pretty funny story.” Indeed.