As he began his baseball career, the odds did not seem in Ulrich Bojarski’s favor. All he had was a dream and a cracked bat.
“I went to one of my first Australian professional games,” Bojarski recalls. “I managed to get a cracked bat from one of the Brizman Bandits players back then. Dad cleaned it up, fixed it up, glued it all back. That’s the bat I used."
Bojarski really didn’t have much of a choice. Growing up in Australia, baseball equipment was apparently tough to come by. Without any alternative, the 20-year-old managed to turn a negative into a positive.
“It was a really heavy bat but at that age it helped me a lot, becoming bigger and stronger,” he said.
After years and a ton of hard work, Bojarski started playing pro ball down in Australia. By chance, he happened to catch the eye of a scout from the Detroit Tigers.
“I happened to have a really good game and I fell on the radar. They watched me throughout the year in the Nationals, then the MLB Academy, and eventually played well enough to sign with them,” Bojarski said.
Now in his first full year with the Whitecaps, Bojarski is starting to make a name for himself. He’s batting .317 with 10 homers, and he was recently named to the Midwest League All-Star Game.
"He’s the guy on our team,” said manager Lance Parrish. “He’s the one that had the most success. He’s obviously going to the All-Star team. It’s an indication he is doing things the right way.”
“It means a lot to represent the Whitecaps,” said Bojarski. “Yes, it was just a wonderful thing to hear.”
The cracked bat is long gone but his dream remains the same.
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