Friday wasn’t the first time Matt Bauer was honored in front of Yankees fans.
Last year, the retired slugger was inducted into the Milroy Yankees Hall of Fame. Last week, he stood near home plate once again as Milroy public address announcer Donny Schmidt rattled off his career statistics as Bauer was inducted into the Corn Belt League Hall of Fame.
“Thank you to all the Corn Belt League managers … this is kinda cool,” Bauer said after receiving his plaque. “Thanks to all the volunteers in all the locations — we are really lucky with how nice of ballfields we get to play on. Thank you to the fans as well.”
Bauer finished with a .383 batting average in 1,681 at-bats over 448 career games and had 643 hits (147 were doubles) and drove in 466 runs. The only Yankee with a better career batting average is Rich Kramer (.385), who played in the 1950s. Bauer’s 71 home runs are second only in Milroy history to Justin Schlemmer, a Corn Belt League Hall of Fame inductee in 2025.
“Most of all, he was remembered by the Corn Belt League for big at-bats and big hits at crucial times,” Schmidt said. “At Marshall’s Legion Field against Bird Island in the regions, he hit a home run to right field that cleared those evergreens behind the fence, and Braden (Flock) thinks it was still climbing when it went over the last one.”
Schmidt noted that besides his gaudy stats and towering home runs, Bauer was a great teammate and a great and quiet leader for 16 years.
“We are so honored that the Corn Belt League would recognize him as one of the best players in that whole league,” Schmidt said.
Bauer, primarily a catcher and third baseman for the Yankees, won a state championship with the Raymond Rockets in 2016. Now 38, he is the father of two young children and currently lives in Sioux Falls, SD.
