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A weird Florida mystery: Frozen pork falling from the sky

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<p>MOOSIC &#8212; It&#8217;s almost been a month since Tyler Wade was called up by the New York Yankees on June 27. But he remembers his Major-League debut like it was yesterday.</p><p>The 22-year-old utility player pinch hit for Rob Refsndyer in the eighth inning of a one-run game against the Chicago White Sox that very same day. He worked a walk and would later score the first run of a three-run inning.</p><p>It&#8217;s a moment he&#8217;s been waiting for his entire life.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of what you dream of as a kid, being in a situation like that,&#8221; Wade said. &#8220;I just tried to put good at-bats together for guys behind me and in front of me.</p><p>&#8220;It was a dream come true. It was fun to be with those group of guys and play baseball up there.&#8221;</p><p>Not only did he get his first taste of the majors as a 22-year-old, but he wasn&#8217;t the only Baby Bomber either. During Wade&#8217;s time with the Yankees, third baseman Miguel Andujar and outfielders Dustin Fowler and Clint Frazier all made their Major-League debuts within the span of a week of each other.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s awesome. That&#8217;s the goal. Be in the minor leagues, come up together and contribute to the big-league team,&#8221; Wade said.</p><p>However, Frazier is the only Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders alum still with the Yankees. Andujar was sent back down to the RailRiders after just a few days and Fowler&#8217;s season ended before he even took his first big-league at-bat.</p><p>The 22-year-old outfield ruptured his patellar tendon in the bottom of the first inning during his Major-League debut against the White Sox on June 29.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s tough to see what happened to Dustin, but Miggy, Clint did a great job contributing to that team. So I&#8217;m excited,&#8221; Wade said.</p><p>Fast forward to the third week of July and Wade is back with the RailRiders, after a nine-game stint with the Yankees.</p><p>Wade said on Monday that the big-league game wasn&#8217;t too much for him. While his numbers were down in a small sample size with the Yankees, compared to Triple-A, his mentality never changed.</p><p>&#8220;I felt comfortable. I felt good,&#8221; Wade said. &#8220;I felt the same in the box as I did up there. Some balls weren&#8217;t dropping up there. That&#8217;s just part of the game. It&#8217;s going to happen, but I felt the exact same as I (do here) as I did (two weeks) ago.&#8221;</p><p>RailRiders hitting coach P.J. Pilittere wasn&#8217;t surprised one bit that Wade said nothing was overwhelming for him in the bigs.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s really good at preparing every single day to get ready to play, and I think that translates,&#8221; Pilittere said. &#8220;Yeah, you go to the big leagues and, yeah, the lights are brighter and the stage is bigger, but it&#8217;s still the same game. I think that&#8217;s what these guys fall back on &#8212; that routine, that preparation &#8212; and that&#8217;s why we try to stick to it hard on a daily basis because when stuff&#8217;s hitting the fan or things start going really fast that&#8217;s what you&#8217;re going to lean on. That routine and that prep.&#8221;</p><p>The Yankees&#8217; instructions to Wade were simple for when he returned to Triple-A. Just get at-bats and continue working on his craft until they call his name again.</p><p>So in the mean time, Pilittere is working on getting Wade a &#8220;little more set on his lower half&#8221; to help get his swing shorter. Since Wade was seeing &#8220;big, big fastballs&#8221; in the bigs, Pilittere is getting the Murrieta, Calif. native to shorten his swing as much as possible.</p><p>&#8220;I think he had really good at-bats. Didn&#8217;t find some hits,&#8221; Pilittere said. &#8220;The one thing I like is it hasn&#8217;t effected his confidence coming back here, and he knows he can play there and now he wants to just keep going as well as he can here so when he gets back, it&#8217;s not an if he goes back but a when he goes back in his mind.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders utility man Tyler Wade fulfilled a dream last week when he played for the New York Yankees. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_TTL062617RailRiders_5_CMYK2017720154346816.jpg</photo0><caption0>Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders utility man Tyler Wade fulfilled a dream last week when he played for the New York Yankees. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis file photo | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

RailRiders Weekend Feature: Playing in the bigs a dream come true for Tyler Wade