2021 Bakersfield Train Robbers Season Recap - A Historic 33-5 Season Defined by Dominance, Controversy and Dakota McFadden
The 2021 Bakersfield Train Robbers produced one of the most remarkable regular seasons in Pecos League history.
Bakersfield finished an incredible 33-5, setting the best regular-season record in league history and overwhelming most of the competition placed in front of them.
It was the first season with Relly Mercurio as field manager, beginning what would become a four-year run in Bakersfield from 2021 through 2024.
The Train Robbers dominated a Pacific Division that included the Wasco Reserve, Santa Cruz Seaweed, Monterey Amberjacks and several Bay Area clubs whose rosters were affected by the difficult circumstances surrounding professional baseball's recovery from COVID-19.
But what appeared destined to become a championship season took an extraordinary turn late in the summer.
A COVID outbreak, a public dispute involving released players and a restructured playoff format prevented Bakersfield from participating in the Bay Area portion of the Pacific Division postseason.
Instead, the 33-5 Train Robbers were moved into a different playoff path and ultimately faced the Tucson Saguaros at Sam Lynn Ballpark with a direct trip to the Pecos League Championship at stake.
Tucson defeated Bakersfield and then went on to defeat the Roswell Invaders to win the Pecos League Championship.
For all of the controversy surrounding the ending, however, the 2021 season also produced one of the greatest individual players ever to wear a Train Robbers uniform: Dakota McFadden.
Baseball Returns During an Unusual Time
The 2021 season was unlike a normal Pecos League season.
Independent baseball was attempting to return to normal operations after the COVID-19 pandemic had dramatically disrupted the sports world in 2020.
The effects were still obvious throughout the league.
Roster availability was inconsistent, travel presented challenges and several clubs entered the summer without the depth normally expected from professional baseball teams.
Bakersfield was different.
The Train Robbers assembled a powerful roster and immediately separated themselves from their competition.
Relly Mercurio Takes Over in Bakersfield
The 2021 season marked the beginning of the Relly Mercurio era at Sam Lynn Ballpark.
Mercurio took over as field manager and inherited a club capable of dominating the Pacific Division.
Bakersfield began winning and rarely stopped.
Over the course of the regular season, the Train Robbers lost only five games.
Their final record was 33-5.
That record established a new standard for regular-season success in the Pecos League.
The Train Robbers did not simply finish first. They completely separated themselves from the rest of their schedule.
Bakersfield Dominates the Pacific Division
The Pacific Division included teams such as the Wasco Reserve, Santa Cruz Seaweed and Monterey Amberjacks along with other Bay Area opponents.
Many of those clubs were dealing with depleted rosters and the lingering effects of the COVID period.
Bakersfield took advantage.
The Train Robbers consistently overwhelmed their opponents and established themselves as the unquestioned regular-season power in the division.
The difference between Bakersfield and much of its competition was significant.
The Train Robbers could hit.
They could score in bunches.
They had enough pitching to protect leads.
And night after night they simply kept winning.
By the end of the regular season, Bakersfield had produced a 33-5 record that appeared to position the club for a serious run at the Pecos League Championship.
Dakota McFadden Becomes a Pecos League Superstar
At the center of the Train Robbers' historic season was Dakota McFadden.
McFadden wasn't merely Bakersfield's best player.
He became one of the biggest stars in the entire Pecos League.
McFadden hit .441 during the season and blasted 18 home runs, producing the type of offensive numbers that made him one of the most feared hitters on the schedule.
His combination of power, athletic ability and personality made him an ideal independent baseball player and one of the defining figures of the 2021 Train Robbers.
When looking back at a team that won 33 of 38 regular-season games, there were contributions throughout the roster, but McFadden was the player who stood above the rest.
He was the star of a historically dominant team.
And his career was only beginning.
The Season Takes a Dramatic Turn
For most of the summer, the biggest story surrounding Bakersfield was its remarkable record.
Late in the season, that changed completely.
A COVID-19 outbreak developed within the Train Robbers organization.
According to reporting by Bakersfield television station 23ABC, ten Train Robbers players tested positive for COVID-19.
Two players, Malcolm Smith and Clarence Carter III, subsequently spoke publicly to the television station after being released by the club.
The players disputed the circumstances surrounding their releases and criticized the team's handling of the situation.
Mercurio gave a different account to 23ABC, saying that the two players had been released for insubordination, repeatedly being late to report and missing practice.
The television report also quoted a message attributed to Mercurio in which he told players that his own COVID test had come back positive and that he was staying away from the club rather than putting additional people at risk.
What had been a story about the most dominant team in the Pecos League suddenly became a public controversy involving COVID, player releases and the upcoming playoffs.
A 33-5 Team Without a Normal Playoff Path
The consequences extended beyond the clubhouse.
Bakersfield did not participate in the playoff structure involving the Bay Area teams.
San Rafael, Monterey, Martinez and Santa Cruz instead competed among themselves for the Bay Area side of the postseason.
That created one of the strangest situations in Pecos League playoff history.
The Train Robbers had just completed the best regular season in league history at 33-5, yet they would not follow the conventional playoff path against the teams they had spent the summer competing against.
Instead, Bakersfield was placed into the Mountain Division playoff side of the bracket.
The change produced a completely different challenge.
Rather than continuing against the depleted California clubs they had dominated throughout the regular season, the Train Robbers would have to face one of the Pecos League's established powers.
The Tucson Saguaros were coming to Sam Lynn Ballpark.
One Series Away from the Championship
Despite everything that had happened, Bakersfield still had an opportunity to turn its historic regular season into a championship appearance.
The scenario was straightforward.
Bakersfield would host Tucson at Sam Lynn Ballpark with the winner advancing directly to the Pecos League Championship.
The matchup represented an enormous change in competition for the Train Robbers.
Bakersfield had spent much of the regular season dominating teams that were struggling with roster depth during the COVID recovery period.
Now the Train Robbers were facing the Saguaros, one of the strongest and most established teams in the Pecos League.
Tucson proved to be the stronger club when it mattered most.
The Saguaros defeated Bakersfield and ended the Train Robbers' extraordinary season short of the Pecos League Championship.
A team that had gone 33-5 was suddenly finished.
Tucson Finishes the Job
Tucson's victory over Bakersfield was not a fluke.
After eliminating the Train Robbers, the Saguaros advanced to face the Roswell Invaders for the Pecos League Championship.
Tucson defeated Roswell and captured the 2021 Pecos League title.
Bakersfield therefore ended its season against the team that ultimately won the championship.
For the Train Robbers, that provided some perspective but little consolation.
They had produced a regular season unlike anything the Pecos League had seen, but the unusual circumstances surrounding the postseason meant the 33-5 record would not end with a championship trophy.
The Beginning of the Mercurio Era
Although 2021 ended in disappointment and controversy, it also marked the beginning of an important period in Train Robbers history.
Mercurio would return in 2022.
He would return again in 2023 and 2024.
Over four seasons, he would eventually become the winningest manager in Bakersfield Train Robbers history.
The foundation of that record was established immediately in 2021 with a 33-win season.
No future Mercurio team would match the extraordinary winning percentage of his first club.
But future seasons would feature much stronger competition and a more normal Pecos League landscape as baseball continued moving beyond the COVID period.
Dakota McFadden's Story Was Just Beginning
While the Train Robbers moved forward from 2021, Dakota McFadden was beginning a baseball journey that would make his name recognizable far beyond the Pecos League.
After hitting .441 with 18 home runs for Bakersfield, McFadden joined the Savannah Bananas the following year as the organization began assembling its first crop of professional players for the emerging Banana Ball format.
It proved to be a perfect fit.
The same combination of baseball talent and personality that made McFadden a star in Bakersfield helped make him one of the most recognizable players in Banana Ball.
He later became a player-coach with the Firefighters and developed into one of the most popular personalities in the history of the rapidly growing Banana Ball phenomenon.
Long before the enormous crowds and national attention surrounding Banana Ball, Pecos League fans had already seen what McFadden could do.
They saw it at Sam Lynn Ballpark in 2021.
For the Train Robbers, McFadden's later success became one of the greatest player stories to emerge from the franchise.
A Record That Defined the Season
No discussion of the 2021 Train Robbers can escape one number.
33-5.
Thirty-three wins.
Five losses.
It was the best regular-season record in Pecos League history.
The circumstances surrounding that record were unusual. The league was emerging from COVID, several opposing teams were operating with depleted rosters and the competitive balance was very different from what Bakersfield would face in later seasons.
But Bakersfield still had to take the field and win the games.
The Train Robbers did that at a historic rate.
A Season Unlike Any Other
The 2021 Bakersfield Train Robbers season cannot be summarized simply as a great team that failed to win a championship.
It was much stranger than that.
It was the first season of the Relly Mercurio era.
It featured the best regular-season record in league history.
It featured one of the greatest individual stars ever to play for Bakersfield in Dakota McFadden.
It took place during an extraordinary period when professional baseball was still dealing with the effects of COVID-19.
It included a COVID outbreak within the club and a public disagreement between released players and the manager over why those players had been let go.
It resulted in Bakersfield being separated from the Bay Area playoff group despite having dominated the Pacific Division during the regular season.
And it ended with the Train Robbers facing a much different opponent in Tucson with a direct trip to the championship on the line.
The Saguaros won that matchup and ultimately won the entire league.
Bakersfield was left with a record that may never be duplicated and the lingering question of what might have happened under ordinary postseason circumstances.
The Championship Never Came, but the 33-5 Record Remains
Championship banners normally define the greatest seasons in professional baseball.
The 2021 Bakersfield Train Robbers are an exception.
They did not win the Pecos League Championship.
They didn't even get the opportunity to follow the normal Pacific Division playoff path their regular-season performance had earned.
Instead, their season became a combination of overwhelming regular-season dominance, COVID-era uncertainty, controversy and an abrupt playoff matchup against the eventual league champions.
Years later, the 2021 Train Robbers remain one of the most fascinating teams in Pecos League history.
Relly Mercurio's first Bakersfield club went 33-5.
Dakota McFadden hit .441 with 18 home runs before eventually becoming a star in Banana Ball.
The Train Robbers dominated the regular season but never got to complete the postseason journey everyone expected.
It was a historic season, a controversial season and a season that could only have happened in the Pecos League during the extraordinary summer of 2021.
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