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The Road Back
How
Jack Patterson’s love of the game helped him return from two straight Tommy
John surgeries
By: Brendan King
This is a story that originally was being written for a South Bend Cubs game program back in 2019. It was my second year here, and the lead-up to the 2019 Midwest League Championship, the first South Bend won as a Chicago Cubs affiliate.
A left-handed pitcher named Jack Patterson was quickly making a name for himself in the at the time Low-A Midwest League. So quick in fact, that he wasn’t with South Bend long enough for a story to be published. But now, that story has become one of the most inspiring in all of baseball.
Patterson, one of the newest Cubs draft picks, was selected in the 32nd round of the 2018 draft out of Bryant University. Yes, way back in the day when the draft was still 40-rounds.
Patterson was a selection of the Cubs in the Theo Epstein led front office. He has seen the organization move from one stage to another since putting on the blue and red for the first time. From the tail winds of the 2016 World Series,
to a top ranked farm system in all of Major League Baseball.
“The organization has definitely grown a lot since my first day,” Patterson said. “I felt like when I entered, the buzz from 2016 was still around. Then Theo left, and now seeing all of the prospects and farm system teams that we have, it’s been really cool to watch. When I first got here we didn’t have too many Top 100 prospects, but now we are filling that list up. These guys are coming in, dominating, and getting up to Wrigley.”
A guy with quite a bit of college experience, who was being fast tracked to the Big Leagues. We’re talking the paths of Luke Little and Daniel Palencia, only this time it was Patterson. He was one of the first players who was doing that in the Theo Epstein era.
The 2019 season was the difference maker for the southpaw from Suffield, Connecticut.
South Bend was Patterson’s first assignment of the 2019 season.
With current Chicago Cub Christopher Morel playing behind him, Patterson prepares to set into his motion pitching for South Bend in 2019.
Credit: Casey McDonald.
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Originally, he joined the bullpen as a long reliever, and he set the tone from day one. Displaying his patented wicked slider, Patterson turned heads in the Midwest League with a 2.34 ERA, and 47 strikeouts in just north of 42 innings. He was a huge part of the playoff push for that team. Guys like Patterson,
Christopher Morel, and Nelson Velazquez helped propel South Bend to the postseason.
“That run all started with Buddy Bailey in how he carried his business and that bled into the rest of our team,” Patterson added. “All of the guys on the field and now three or four years later are Major Leaguers in unreal. Morel tore it up at third base and Velazquez was hitting bombs. It was a really tight-knit group. You can take all the skill we had but our togetherness is what carried us through that year.”
With his dominance, Patterson’s time with the Cubs was short. He was not in Clinton, Iowa to celebrate the title, but
he did get his ring; Which he still keeps at home on a mantle, and slips on for formal events. He would go to High-A at the time, Myrtle Beach, and not give up an earned run in 23.2 innings. Lastly, three outings at Double-A Tennessee awaited him to finish the campaign.
In one summer, Patterson joined the top-30 prospects list for the Cubs, and was ready in the next year to make the next jump; Triple-A Iowa, and ultimately Wrigley Field.
“It’s a great feeling being that locked in,” Patterson said. “But this is a humbling game, and one injury or one bad pitch can turn really quick.”
Unfortunately, that’s where things took its aforementioned turn. The 2020 Minor League season, which is where Patterson may have earned his Big League shot, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
2021 came with injury. Tommy John surgery. Patterson would go on to miss the entirety of that season. However, things were not done from there. After a year of grueling and consistent rehab, just before he was going to be sent to
Patterson throwing a simulated game during the 2020 season for the Chicago Cubs Taxi Squad at Four Winds Field. Credit: Chris Hagstrom-Jones.
Patterson completes one of his two Tommy John Surgeries, waiting in the post-op room in Chicago. Credit: Jack Patterson.
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a Minor League affiliate, it happened again. Another UCL tear, and a second Tommy John surgery required.
(L-R: Cole Roederer, Dalton Geekie, Delvin Zinn, Zach Mort, Jack Patterson , Ryan Lawlor, and Stu D. Baker.) C redit: Chris Hagstrom-Jones.
Patterson’s MiLB player page online does not have a single game log from 2020-2023. Of course, it was the pandemic in 2020. But for a matter of three years, Patterson’s days were started and ended on the rehab fields at the Cubs Spring Training complex in Mesa, Arizona.
Entrenched in the dark cloud that is dealing with injury, Patterson used one big thing to keep him above water. His love for the game.
“It was tough,” Patterson said. “My favorite thing to do is compete. And it’s hard to replicate that when you’re playing catch everyday in a non-competitive environment. For me, I watched a ton of baseball. Cubs baseball. I tried
to put myself in that situation as much as possible where even if I’m not able to play, I want to be around it. It was hard, but it was all worth it.”
Patterson stayed ready for his opportunity, and now in 2024, those MiLB game logs are filling up again. Back to the South Bend. Things came full circle when he pitched in his first official game August 29, 2019 earlier this season.
He found a way back. And for Patterson, aside from the time away, nothing has changed. Slight detour, same intended destination.
“I feel like every time I take that rubber I’m getting better,” Patterson said. “I’m going to keep grinding. My only thoughts are competing and staying ready when my name is called."
Patterson returned to South Bend in 2024, as one of his first appearances back at Four Winds Field came in the pouring rain. Credit: Nathan Ganger.
Members of the 2019 roster participating in the Portillo's Tip-A-Cub fundraiser.
so much more than HEALTH INSURANCE
Running out of Rounds
Nick Dean went from nearly undrafted to dominating multiple levels in 2024 so far
By: Max Thoma
"I was honestly getting a little nervous there right toward the end of the draft and having these thoughts like this is a reality it might not happen for me,” said Nick Dean. “But then when I got the call in the 19th I was ecstatic, I mean I was really emotional and just grateful for the opportunity.”
Nowadays the MLB Draft is just 20 rounds and Dean, a starting pitcher coming off his senior season at Maryland had begun to think about the possibility of going undrafted.
Then, one of the more unlikeliest of teams swooped him up.
“So actually the last time I’d talked to the Cubs was in high school, so I hadn’t heard from them throughout college at all so that caught me off guard a little bit,” he said.
The Cubs hadn’t expressed an interest but they had undoubtedly seen him because the first round pick of the Chicago Cubs last year was a college teammate of his, Matt Shaw, who spent a few weeks in South Bend last August and dominated the Midwest League.
“I remember watching he early part of the draft and just being so excited for Matt, and then the 19th round came around and I saw I was also going to the Cubs, it was just a dream come true.”
Dean grew up in Philadelphia and on top of pitching in high school, he split time between shortstop and third base. In fact his senior season he batted .524 at Bensalem High School and his high school coach Harry Daut said he was probably the best hitter he’d ever seen in their program.
Nick Dean makes his third South Bend start, facing West Michigan. Credit: Ethan Levy.
Dean relaxing in the dugout prior to getting ready for a start. Credit: Ethan Levy.
The soon-to-be Maryland Terrapin grew up idolizing Ryan Howard and always wore number six in his honor. But he knew he wanted to be a pitcher and that his future was on the mound. He didn’t have to look to great a distance to find someone to model his game after on the hill.
“As far as pitching goes I always looked up to Roy Halladay a lot when he was with the Phillies,” Dean stated. “The mechanics, I used to watch a lot of video of him and try to replicate it a lot when I was younger. But as far as him just going about his business, mixing it up, locations, speeds, he was just a great guy to learn from.”
Dean started his college career with the shortened 2020 season that came to a screeching halt not too long after it started. But by 2021 the 6-foot-3 right hander was already dominating. In 53.1 innings, the third most on the Terps squad, in just his first full season, Dean twirled gem after gem and put up a 2.87 ERA, good enough for fourth best among
Big Ten starters.
The following year Maryland put up a banner season.
The Terps set a program record with 44 wins in the regular season en route to their first-ever Big Ten regular season Championship, as well as the program’s first regular season conference title in 51 years.
At home they went 24-2, another club record, and they hosted a regional in College Park for the first time ever.
The young kid from Philly made 15 starts that year and threw in a Terapins win in their regional as they eliminated Wake Forest before eventually losing to Connecticut in the Regional Final.
The next year they went back-to-back and won the Big Ten, again. Dean once again faced the Demon Deacons, who he’d help eliminate the year prior, only this time they were the No. 1 team in the country. He took the loss and Maryland didn’t make it out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“I mean I wish we made it a little farther in the regionals but for sure
Dean won back-to-back Big Ten titles with Maryland. Credit: Yahoo Sports.
On Cancer Awareness Night at Four Winds Field, Dean caught the honorary first pitch. Credit: Ethan Levy.
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it was a great feeling winning the big ten back-to-back years, that part was awesome,” said Dean. “At Maryland obviously baseball isn’t the biggest sport there so that was really huge and the entire community, I mean a lot of people, showed up. It was huge for the program.”
The 19th rounder began his first pro season in 2024 on the Opening Day roster in Low-A Myrtle Beach. He impressed, going 2-0 with a 2.33 ERA with the Pelicans and in his last two starts there he combined went 10.2 scoreless innings.
While he was at dinner with his girlfriend he got a call from manager Buddy Bailey; he was getting promoted.
On May 21 he joined the South Bend Cubs and made his High-A debut two days later with five shutout innings, earning the win vs Wisconsin, the best team in the league at the time. He threw five more shutout innings in his first road start and as of writing this the Cubs are 5-0 in Nick Dean starts.
He goes out there with a gameplan and dominates.
“Honestly I’m mainly thinking about strike one and getting the leadoff batter out. Then from there I get in the moment and get into a flow state and think about what the best pitch is in the situation and trying to execute.”
In High-A he’s trying to keep hitters
off balance by mixing up the off-speed. His velocity has picked up as he’s synced his movements down the mound and the curveball is being used to get more and more swings and misses.
Through his first five starts with South Bend, Nick Dean is 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA. If the Cubs are going to make a run in the second of the season, it could be in large part thanks to what we see from Nick Dean in the final 66 games of the season.
The 19th round pick from Maryland tosses his warmup pitches prior to a June start.
Credit: Ethan Levy.
2024 SOUTH BEND CUBS COACHING STAFF
Nick Lovullo - Manager
Nick Lovullo’s time with the Cubs organization began as a coach two years ago. A former Boston Red Sox prospect, the 30-year-old was drafted in the 20th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by Boston, after a collegiate career at Holy Cross. He grew up and played his high school baseball in Thousand Oaks, California. In his first pro season, Lovullo was promoted as high as Double-A Portland. His professional career concluded in 2021, in a stop with the Miami Marlins organization, as well as independent baseball. The son of Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, Nick became the Double-A Tennessee Smokies bench coach in 2022 and managed the Arizona Complex League Cubs in 2023.
Bruce Billings - Pitching Coach
Bruce Billings joins South Bend following a successful year with Low-A Myrtle Beach as their pitching coach. Under Billings the Pelicans pitching staff posted the lowest opposing batting average in the Carolina League in 2023, as well as the second most strikeouts. The former big leaguer was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 MLB Draft. He was San Diego State’s all-time strikeout leader before Stephen Strasburg broke his record. Billings made his MLB debut with the Rockies in 2011 and pitched with the Oakland A's and New York Yankees. The right-hander also pitched overseas in Taiwan and China. Prior to joining the Cubs he coached within the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
Nate Spears - Hitting Coach
Nate Spears begins his first season with the South Bend Cubs as the team’s new hitting coach. Spears began his playing career with the Baltimore Orioles, after they selected him in the fifth-round of the 2003 MLB Draft. The Fort Myers, Fla. native was traded by the Orioles to the Northsiders in the Corey Patterson deal in 2006. Spears played for former South Bend manager Buddy Bailey in 2008 with Double-A Tennessee, and made it to Triple-A Iowa. His career then took him to the Boston Red Sox, where he made his MLB debut. Spears played for Boston in 2011 and 2012. As a coach, he stayed with the Red Sox, and wound-up coaching Nick Lovullo when the new South Bend skipper was a Red Sox prospect.
Kyle Moore Bench Coach
Nick Roberts Athletic Trainer
Kelcey Mosley Strength and Conditioning Coach
Collin Andrews Dev Coach (hitting)
Andrew Rueter Dev Coach (pitching)
CATCHERS
THE NUMBER ONE GOAL IS TO STAY HEALTHY
Aaron Perry’s long battle through injuries has found him thriving in year one with the Cubs
By: Max Thoma
Perry sits in the Cubs first base dugout with a big smile adorned on his face as he readies for an interview. He’s an optimistic right-handed pitcher who just oozes with positivity.
The journey here for the now 25-year-old from West Virginia has been arduous and you just have to stop and appreciate his attitude and demeanor because his path to this moment was daunting.
The undersized hurler, standing at 5-foot-11 was a shortstop at Hurricane High school and in his words really just pitched on the side. He started to hit the showcase circuit as a potential two-way player, and then as fortune would have it, he began to throw a lot harder.
“I would say going into senior year some teams showed some interest and
all of a sudden it was a big velo jump so I was sitting like mid-90s in high school and then that’s when a lot of scouts started calling,” said Perry. “I went to a couple of showcases down in Florida and that’s when a lot of teams started hitting me up.”
He signed a letter of intent with the University of Kentucky, under then head coach Gary Anderson. The plan remained for him to stay as a two-way guy until a coaching chance brought in Nick Mingione as the new skipper.
The new staff brought in the young talented kid to see what he thought his role would be and everyone agreed his future would be exclusively on the mound.
“Once I got that settled I knew pitching was what was going to take me to that next level,” said Perry.
Everything seemed to be flowing in the right direction, he was to focus on pitching and go play ball in the SEC, while also having an opportunity to get drafted out of high school that summer.
Then midway through his senior season in high school he broke his olecranon. Bend your arm and cup the point
Perry pitching at home on Cancer Awareness Night. Credit: Ethan Levy.
... continued from previous page. of your elbow; that’s what he fractured.
Elbow injuries during senior campaigns in high school can see draft stocks plummet, but that didn’t occur with Perry, who heard his name called in the 14th round by the Boston Red Sox.
“Immediately after I signed I went down to Fort Myers, Florida and started the rehab process… it was kind of like my career got put on hold at the beginning. Then I came back the following spring training and ended up getting Tommy John.”
Back-to-back elbow injuries meant the 2017 draftee wouldn’t appear on the mound in a minor league game until 2019. That year he was able to make nine appearances (five starts) with the Red Sox rookie affiliate down in the Gulf Coast League. He impressed with a 3.00 ERA despite 18 walks in 21 innings.
He had crushed his rehab and continued to chase his dream of making it to the big leagues.
But the following year he only threw 23 innings, and in 2022 just three total frames with the Greenville Drive in High-A.
In the final year of his deal with Boston, 2023, he managed a career high 19 appearances, totaling 21.1 innings. But the numbers weren’t great, his ERA was 9.70, and the Red Sox didn’t pick up his contract in the offseason.
In his first season with the Cubs organization, Perry has continued to impress.
After finally working all the way back from two different injuries to his right elbow, the 2020 season was ripped away from Perry, as it was from every minor leaguer after the season was cancelled due to Covid.
“You never realize when something is gone how bad you’re going to miss it, and that was a goal just signing with another team”
Perry inked a deal with the Lexington Legends of the independent Atlantic League. It wasn’t too far from his family in West Virginia, and the Legends have had success with signing guys into affiliated baseball.
He made his team debut on April 26, in front of a sellout crowd on a Friday for an Education Day. He dazzled across six innings, striking out 12 and only allowing
Photo Credit: Ethan Levy.
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three hits.
“I felt good, didn’t really think too much of it, you know packed my stuff went to the field the next day. Then I was walking with my buddy and the manager yelled for me to get my butt in his office. I mean first thought I did something bad…”
In fact really the opposite had occurred. He’d been so good that after one appearance, the Cubs had signed him.
He called his parents. Two days later he was bound for Arizona and shortly after that he joined the South Bend Cubs in Lansing, Michigan. He made his Cubs organizational debut with two scoreless innings on May 5 vs the Lugnuts.
As of writing this we’ve reached the halfway point of the 2024 season and Perry is having a career year. Last night he punched out six batters in three shutout relief innings. An impressive 3.86 ERA is displayed at the end of his line from last night, and he’s now worked 30+
EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE
TRIPLE PLAY!
innings for the first time in his grinding career.
Perry’s been impressive no doubt, but his unbridled joy perhaps stems from him just simply being out there on the diamond
“Being healthy is an awesome feeling, it puts a smile on my face every time I come to the baseball field,” he said. “Like I get the opportunity with a different team, and this is an awesome group, coaches, players, and even organization. It’s just a blessed opportunity.”
After
Credit: Ethan Levy.
The
pitching just once in independent ball, Perry got swooped by the Cubs in late April.
Consistency is Key
South Bend Cubs official scorer
Pete Yarbro celebrates 20 years in the press box
By Brendan King
For eight-year-old Pete Yarbro
growing up in the state of Wisconsin, the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers were the creme of the crop when it came to baseball royalty. Rollie Fingers, Robin Yount, Paul Moiltor, and more. It was that era of baseball that unlocked a passion for Yarbro, the local South Bend area attorney, who is in the middle of his 20th season as the official scorer for the South Bend Cubs.
Growing up in Wisconsin, Yarbro first learned to keep score of baseball games, thanks to one of his friend’s fathers, who was the local sports radio station director and play-by-play announcer. Yarbro would attend the games that were broadcast, and that’s where the passion for this side of the game came from.
Fast forward some years, and Yarbro had the itch to get into baseball scorekeeping at a higher level. Practicing law for over two decades, he was looking for a new off the clock hobby.
Enter the South Bend Silver Hawks. It was 2004. With relocation rumors swirling, this was two years before former South Bend Mayor and Indiana Governor Joe Kernanbought the ball club. Yarbro figured he would reach out to the Silver Hawks about scoring their games.
“The worst they could say was no,” Yarbro commented.
At the time, the South Bend Tribune sent a beat reporter to every Silver Hawks home game. They would sit typically by themselves in the press box, and it was the beat reporter who would also act as the official scorer. There was no full-time scorer at the time.
“It’s kind of an old tradition going back to the 1930’s where a local newspaper guy would be the scorer,” Yarbro said. “This was because they were supposed to be neutral and were not working for either team. So I put together a resume that gave no qualifications for the job, but they got the sense that I had some idea what I was doing.”
The most important question Yarbro answered in his interview? If he was available for all the games. Be it that there are no courthouse trials beginning at 7:00 PM, it was a quick yes.
“My standpoint was that if I was bad at this they can just fire me,” Yarbro humored. “I read a few books, talked with some scorers around the country, and got to work. The first few games
In the pre-renovated press-box at Four Winds Field. Yarbro prepares to score and work a game in 2007.
Credit: Pete Yarbro.
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went a lot faster than I expected. When you’re watching it in the stands, baseball looks like it goes at a leisurely pace. But when you’re keeping track of every pitch and make decisions on the fly, plus trying to remember all the rules that I learned in a book, it goes fast.”
To try and keep up with the pace, Yarbro would bring in his own little radio to listen to the broadcasts in an old school version of “instant replay”. Eventually, he got comfortable and quickly adjusted to the job.
Yarbro brought with him his love for the game, along with a dry and quick sense of humor that kept things light in the press box.
The dry humor rose to another level when Mark Haley was named the South
Bend Silver Hawks manager. Haley also brought with him his experience coaching with the South Bend White Sox. They wouldn’t know it the first time they talked to each other, or made even the 100th time, but Haley and Yarbro would become very close friends.
Typically, those first few conversations were filled with plenty of jabs at each other. Official scoring is a lot more than just keeping tracks of how many hits each team has. Sometimes, there are disagreements on a call. Then and now, nobody had a way of expressing their disagreement more than Hales.
Of course, back in the early 2000s when Yarbro started, there was no replay. The call that Yarbro made was the call that the staff went with. If there was a question, Yarbro would have to
Yarbro poses while wearing a 2016 Chicago Cubs World Series Ring. Credit: Chris Hagstrom-Jones
Yarbro and fellow press box gameday worker Greg Weber share a photo together. Credit: Pete Yarbro
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ask what the radio broadcaster saw on a particular play, and then ask the opposing manager, and so on and so forth. If all of the vantage points added up together, Yarbro knew he had the right ruling.
“Hales has a version of every story that’s a little different from my version,” Yarbro joked. “He claims that I would demand a glass of maker’s mark in order to make a scoring change; Which is not true. I would accept it only after I made the change.”
The friendship that Yarbro and Haley built continues to this day. Anytime Hales is at the ballpark taking in a South Bend Cubs game, he will always stop in the press box to grab a bite to eat, plus to have a conversation with his old buddy.
“I couldn’t tell you how many little leaguers, high schoolers, minor leaguers, and current major leagues owe him for a big part of their careers,” Yarbro said. “He helped me do my job better.”
From watching Clayton Kershaw
pitch on Opening Weekend early in his tenure, to former Silver Hawk Emilio Bonifácio recognizing Yarbro at a Chicago White Sox game a decade after he played in South Bend, to scoring for three championship teams, Yarbro has carved out one of the most unique ‘side hustles’ Four Winds Field has seen.
It all goes back to falling in love with the 1982 Brewers, and the scorecards he would pencil in as a kid.
Former South Bend Cubs manager Buddy Bailey and Yarbro talk prior to the Midwest League All-Star Game in 2019. Credit: Dr. Tim Reilly
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