Brewers’ Jake Bauers Almost Quit Baseball. Then, His Wife Got Pregnant
Matt Damon & Jimmy Kimmel's Rivalry Endures at the World Series
If you love a comeback story, this one knocks it out of the park.
Jake Bauers and the Milwaukee Brewers will face off against the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series when Game 1 begins Oct. 23.
But just a few years ago, the first baseman actually considered retiring from baseball. After a decade of playing in both the minors and major leagues—including for the Rays, Cleveland Guardians, Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees—Bauers was traded to the Brewers in 2023.
Around that time, he and his wife Lauren were growing their family roster with the birth of daughter Marlee Jane. And after the 2024 season, Bauers thought it might be time for him to pack up his bat and glove.
"I was beat up after a long season," the athlete recalled to Good Morning America Oct. 20. "We had our daughter. We didn’t necessarily know what was next. I was a free agent. There wasn’t a lot of interest around the league. I just felt like it could’ve been time to move on."
With the game plan being Lauren would return to teaching, Bauers continued, he told his agent that he had reached the last inning of his career. But then, life threw the couple a curveball: They were expecting a baby boy.
"To be completely honest with you, the only thing that brought me back was my wife got pregnant,” Bauers recently told Fox Sports, "and I’m like, 'All right, well, we need health insurance for these kids.'"
Since re-signing with the Brewers in 2025, the 31-year-old has kept his eye on the ball.
“Just tried to reexamine the way I approach the game,” he explained, “and just go out and compete and try and be free.”
Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images
And Jake knows he and his teammates have brewed up something special. After winning 103 games in the regular season, the Brewers won the National League Championship title and advanced to the World Series—sweeping the back-to-back champs Los Angeles Dodgers after being shut out by them the year before.
And it wouldn’t be off base to say Jake was a major contributor to their success. Along with stepping up to the plate at bat—including his 12-pitch walk in Game 2 of the NLCS and 11th pitch home run in Game 3—he was named the Most Valuable Player of that series.
But for him, the true MVP in his life is Lauren.
“She’s holding it down at home by herself a lot of the time, which it’s a lot,” Bauers said during an Oct. 12 press conference. "Those kids, they’re a blessing and we love them, but man, they’re a handful. So for her to do that and for her to allow me the opportunity to come here and keep going and just support me any way she can, it’s been crazy. It’s been crazy to see her growth as a woman and a mom.”
Admitting he didn’t always bat 1.000 at home, “She stuck by me this whole time when it wasn’t always easy,” he continued. “I wasn’t always the best husband. I wasn’t always the best father.”
But you don’t need to give a ballpark estimate to know much the Bauers love each other.
“He has built himself to be the man that he is and the baseball player that he is,” she told WDJT CBS 58 Sports Director Lance Allan. “So, he does deserve it and I’m just so proud of him.”
As the Brewers and Rays battle it out for the World Series title, cover your bases and read about more baseball couples.
Photo by Michael Mooney/USTA via Getty Images
Aaron Judge & Samantha Bracksieck
After meeting in high school, Yankees stud Aaron Judge and future bride Samantha Bracksieck decided to take a bit of a seventh-inning stretch. But when right fielder reconnected with the kinesiology grad in 2019, it was game on. Roughly three years after their Hawaiian vows, the couple welcomed daughter Nora in January 2025.
By the eight-time All Star's side as he broke the single-season American League home run record in 2022, "My wife has been with me through it all," Judge noted to the New York Post, "and she's cool as a cucumber, that's for sure."
Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Paul Skenes & Livvy Dunne
With Livvy Dunne set to make a splash in the 2027 Baywatch reboot, her boyfriend Paul Skenes is ready to watch her run with it. "Paul has been nothing but supportive of this," the former LSU gymnast told E! News at the May 2026 Fox Upfront presentation, "and he has his jobs and I have my jobs so we both want to execute at our best ability no matter what it is."
She first dove into a romance with the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher when they were in college and years in, they're still having a ball. Though they can't always huddle up, "He makes time to come to my events," she told People in February 2026. "I make time to go watch him pitch. I try to make every start I can."
Photo by Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF
Dansby Swanson & Mallory Pugh Swanson
Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson scored a huge assist when then-Braves teammate Jace Peterson set him up with sister-in-law Mallory Pugh Swanson. But the biggest win came days after his December 2022 Georgia wedding to the U.S. women's national soccer team standout when he signed the seven-year, $177 million deal that reunited him with his bride in the Windy City.
"It means the world for me to be able to be here with her," he noted during a press conference of the Chicago Stars FC forward. "It was tough at times not being in the same city and able to enjoy life together as a married couple." They added another roommate with the November 2025 arrival of daughter Josie. "The biggest blessing is being your mama," she wrote in a May 2026 Instagram. "I love you my girl."
Marion Curtis/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock
Justin Verlander & Kate Upton
By the time Florida-bred Kate Upton met recently retired MLB pitcher Justin Verlander in 2012, they already had the makings of a power couple. Named the Rookie of the Year in the 2011 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, Upton had long shed her catalog model roots while Verlander had won the Pitching Triple Crown, the AL Cy Young Award, the AL Most Valuable Player Award and the Sporting News Player of the Year Award.
So he was awash with confidence when he decided to shoot his shot on the set of the MLB 2K12 commercial they were filming, telling his friends he was going to get her number. Only snag, "I had my microphone on and didn't realize," he shared with Us Weekly. He was slightly mortified, but as he told the mag, "It worked."
Five years later, the couple, now parents to daughter Genevieve and son Bellamy, wed in Italy mere days after he won the World Series with the Astros. As he put it to People, "It's such a crazy dream-come-true moment and two of those happened within a span of a couple days."
Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Bryce & Kayla Harper
Hailed as the most exciting sports prodigy since LeBron James before he was drafted no. 1 in 2010, Bryce Harper, the Phillies' $330 million man is busy building a team of his own with sons Krew and Hayes and daughters Brooklyn and Kamryn.
To hear 2012's NL Rookie of the Year tell it, his high school sweetheart Kayla Harper, a former soccer player at Ohio State University, is already an all-star mom. "He's so lucky to have you as his mother and I'm so lucky to be your husband," the right fielder wrote in a November 2019 tribute. "Thank you for always being there for me and no matter what always having my back. I love you for the eternities!"
Bob Levey/Getty Images for Wins for Warriors Foundation
Gerrit & Amy Cole
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole had to do quite a bit of heavy lifting to score a date with future bride. Twelve full months after he met softball player Amy Cole in the UCLA weight room, she finallllly decided to accept his offer. It only required him driving 90 minutes to help her move and arriving with a bouquet of birthday flowers for her mom.
He proposed days after playing in the 2015 All-Star game (alongside her brother, Brandon Crawford), making the most of the break by booking a night away. "It was our week to celebrate his huge accomplishment, yet he still managed to make it about me," she shared with Inside Weddings after their November 2016 Santa Barbara vows. "That pretty much sums up Gerrit."
Now he has even more teammates to dote on, the two welcoming son Caden Gerrit Cole in June 2020, mere days before Cole was to report to Yankee Stadium. Brother Everett joined the squad in 2023.
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Max & Erica Scherzer
A mere two days after welcoming second daughter Kacey in July 2019, three-time CY Young Award winner Max Scherzer got the signal from his wife Erica Scherzer. "She wants me pitching," Toronto's hurler told The Washington Post of the former University of Missouri softball player urging him to get back on the mound for his scheduled start. "We got the in-laws in. We got help. She's a baseball wife. She's a pitcher. She wants me out there competing."
She was also the one encouraging him to push past an excruciating trapezius injury ahead of the Washington National's World Series-winning game in 2019. "I have to give my wife a ton of credit for believing in me," the two-time world champ, also dad to daughters Brooklyn and Nikki and son Derek, told USA Today Sports. "Even when I was at my worst moment, she had the belief in it. She had this dream as much as anybody."
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Express
Kris & Jessica Bryant
A year before Verlander made the whole World Series win-wedding double-header trend a thing, Kris Bryant, Chicago's blue-eyed 2015 Rookie of the Year was marrying high school sweetheart Jessica Bryant in their hometown of Las Vegas roughly two months after the Cubs made history.
And while their nuptials, complete with endless florals, sparklers and doughnut escort cards, was the stuff of fantasies, the couple's origin story is every bit as dreamy. Now parents to Kyler, twins Carson and Colson and their youngest, a girl, the two were high school athletes back in 2006 when Jessica's mom mentioned the cute boy that was playing on her brother's baseball team. "I told her to stop," she recalled to Martha Stewart Weddings of the athlete, now with the Colorado Rockies. "But then I met him and thought, Mom was right."
Javier & Irmarie Baez
Some six years after they met as middleschoolers in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, Irmarie Baez was thrown a curveball when the future Detroit Tigers shortstop returned to the island from his family's new Florida home and asked her out.
A year after that 2013 date, she was packing up for Chicago to join him as he made his MLB debut. Her new life forcing her to take on the roles of cheerleader, assistant, cook (she whips up his favorite dish of rice, beans and carne asada after games) and mom to sons Adrián and Aiden, "People don't understand how hard it is," she told Chicago site Splash. "Our lives are always up in the air."
Yet she wouldn't have it any other way. As she wrote on Instagram after the three-time All-Star's April 2018 proposal, "Can't Wait To Spend The Rest Of My Life With You."
Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Mike & Jessica Trout
Well before Mike Trout signed his $430 million, 12-year contract, the 12-time All-Star, three-time MVP had a tendency to go big. There was the way the Los Angeles Angels outfielder first attracted his now-wife Jessica Trout, acting up in Spanish class at their New Jersey high school so the teacher would move him to the seat behind her. And the way he proposed, years later, through skywriting.
Their December 2017 vows featured some 750 candles and a stack of Christmas gifts the couple donated to hospitals. "It was the biggest, craziest, most awesome and loving day of my life," he said. And their grandest adventures await, the pair welcoming son Beckham in July 2020 and his little brother Jordy four years later.
Josh Bell & Arlia Duarte
Everyone could use a teammate like lawyer student Arlia Duarte-Bell. One part stylist (she helped select Josh Bell's much-discussed 'fit for the 2019 All-Star festivities last year) and one part gut check, she was the Minnesota Twins first baseman's sounding board when he was contemplating attending a Pittsburgh protest that had devolved into a riot. More than anything, though, she's his most dedicated fan. As she wrote on Instagram in June 2019, "Watching this guy live out his dreams is up there with my favorite things."
Though she's since added a few more. Months after their July 2021 vows, the pair welcomed daughter Noa, with her sister Liv joining the squad in June 2023. Son Ari rounded out the team in April 2025.
Mookie Betts & Brianna Hammonds
You could say Dodger's star outfielder Mookie Betts found The One right off the bat—dating Brianna Hammonds since they were 12-year-old middle schoolers in Nashville. Four years after marking their engagement, the Middle Tennessee State University grad gave birth to their daughter Kynlee in November 2018. It came on the heels of the eight-time All-Star winning a championship with the Red Sox, collecting American League MVP, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger honors along the way.
And if he were asked to compare the two experiences, it wouldn't even be close. Calling Kynlee's arrival a day "forever engraved in my heart," he wrote in an Instagram tribute, "You've come into this world and have shown me what the meaning of 'love' is." His heart expanded even further with the April 2023 arrival of son Kaj. Daughter Khari claimed her spot in the lineup three years later.
Allen Berezovsky/WireImage
Clayton & Ellen Kershaw
For the Clayton Kershaw and Ellen Kershaw, home isn't in California, where he recently retired with the Dodgers, or even their native Texas, where they met as high schoolers. It's wherever Dad is.
Each year the brood of five (married since December 2010, the duo are parents to Cali, Charley, Cooper, Chance and Chloe) would travel between Dallas (their off-season spot), Phoenix (for spring training) and Los Angeles, where the three-time Cy Young award winner began pitching in 2008. "That's something I really want to instill in our kids, is family comes first," Ellen told the Los Angeles Times in 2017. "So while they're not in school we are going to travel with Dad, and you are all going to learn how to be on plane flights and in different stadiums and in different time zones."
The 11-time All-Star has had to be flexible as well. Gone are the days of spending the hours leading up to his start at the mound in quiet contemplation. "He has to wake up and be Dad," noted Ellen, cofounder of their charity Kershaw's Challenge. "The kids don't care if it's game day or not, so they expect him to be all there and he's really been great."
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