05/14/2026
The term “dirtbag” is a compliment in baseball. It describes a player who is gritty, tough, and willing to do the dirty work to help the team win. Players who are often described this way are guys who grind out at-bats, steal bases aggressively, take hard slides, or play through pain.
In Game 1 of the 2A South State Championship Series Jake Lee, a junior at Clardale took a wild pitch directly off his left hand while batting, that resulted in a clean break. His X-ray (provided by his parents) is below. Most kids would’ve been done for the season …. not this DIRTBAG! Jake refused to come out of the game and continued to play centerfield with his glove hand broken. After being evaluated by a doctor and informed that his hand would need surgery to repair, Jake opted to let it ride. Fast forward to the third and final game, his team needed their #2 arm on the mound to get them to Trustmark.
In today’s society players are typically quick to sit due to minor injuries and 99% would be in street clothes over a broken hand, but it’s that 1% that still exist that make you root for them no matter the situation, no matter the odds they make you feel like there’s always a chance.
Jake Lee may be in the 1% of the 1%. His team needed him, his coaches, his school, the community and it was no way he wasn’t going to toe that rubber. So with an ACE bandage and a heart full of grit he not only started the game, but EIGHT INNINGS AND 122 pitches later he finished it!. Throwing an amazing 90 pitches for strikes, striking out 7 and only walking two, he left everything he had on that mound for his brothers and the estimated 1000 spectators that would never have been able to tell, that in a few days he will have pins a plates inserted to fix his injury. Three outs later Clarkdale would fall short by a single run and no doubt the pain of the loss hurt worse than Jake’s hand did. But to a player like Jake Lee, the pain would have been greater if he had been watching from the dugout in street clothes.
The only word that can accurately describe him is …… DIRTBAG!!!👊🏼💪🏼
Clarkdale Baseball
