Indians' Trevor Bauer brings drone that injured him to press conference

Bauer had been scheduled to pitch in Game 2 of the ALCS before he cut himself repairing a drone. He's scheduled to start Game 3 on Monday night.

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Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer is scheduled to start Monday in Game 3 of the ALCS after suffering a pinky injury repairing his drone, one of the more obscure sports injuries in recent memory.

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At Bauer’s press conference Sunday, the drone narrative continued as the 25-year-old brought the drone with him for a show-and-tell with the media in advance of his start against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Bauer told reporters that his drone’s propellers weren’t spinning like they normally do even with the battery plugged in. Unfortunately, one of the propellers spun at max throttle and cut Bauer, a freak accident that eventually sent him to the emergency room for stitches on his right pinky finger.

“I custom-designed this entire frame, I designed it on a CAD program, 3-D printed some of the parts with my 3-D printer, put it together by myself, assembled it myself, the whole process,” Bauer said of his drone. “Like I said, [drones are] kind of my escape, and I’ve been doing it for three or four years, two years, three years, actually. And this is the first time anything like this has happened.

“I was a mechanical engineering major in college, technology and physics and stuff like that has been a passion of mine my entire life. And this is just a great outlet for me to kind of get away from baseball a little bit and enjoy technology.”

Bauer’s passion for drones stems from a 2013 drone racing video he saw, which reminded him about his love for Star Wars movies and a scene that had speeder bikes racing in it. For the Indians and Bauer’s sake, hopefully the next time he is repairing a drone, it is after the season and not in the midst of the current playoff push.