David Bote signs with LA Dodgers

David Bote, son of longtime Niwot High School baseball coach Bob Bote, signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers Dec. 14, with an invitation to major league spring training camp. Other than the Dodgers' starting infield, the only other utility infielder on the major league roster is 35-year old Miguel Rojas.

Bote, who grew up in Longmont and played for Niwot Youth Sports teams, signed with the Chicago Cubs out of Neosho County Community College in Kansas in 2012 as an 18th round draft choice. He played most of his high school career for Faith Christian High School in Denver.

Bote made his major league debut for the Cubs in 2018. Though he primarily played second base and third base during his Cubs career, he saw action at every position except catcher and centerfield. He pitched one scoreless inning in 2024 for the Cubs in a mop-up role, while hitting .304 on the season. His playing time dropped significantly after the Cubs acquired former All-Star third baseman Isaac Paredes mid-season.

The Cubs designated Bote for assignment in late August in a cost-cutting move, in spite of the fact that his batting average was 20 points higher than anyone else on the team. Bote is the answer to the trivia question, "Who led the Cubs both in batting average and earned run average in 2024?"

Bote battled injuries during his time with the Cubs, spending the entire 2023 season at AAA Iowa after surgery for a dislocated shoulder suffered during the 2022 season.

The highlight of his Cubs career came on August 12, 2018, in a home game against the Washington Nationals. Bote had started the previous four games, going 4 for 14, but Cubs manager Joe Maddon gave him the night off against Max Scherzer who was coming off winning his third Cy Young Award. Until the 9th inning, that is.

Scherzer held the Cubs scoreless for seven innings, and Cubs starter Cole Hamels gave up only one single in seven innings, but that batter advanced to third base and scored on a sacrifice fly. Neither team scored in the eighth inning, but the Cubs gave up two runs in the top of the 9th giving the Nats a 3-0 lead.

In the Cubs ninth, Ben Zobrist grounded out, but Jason Heyward singled, giving the Cubs life. Albert Almora, Jr., was hit by a pitch, but Kyle Schwarber popped up for the second out. Willson Contreras was also hit by a pitch by reliever Ryan Madson, loading the bases.

Maddon sent Bote up to pinch hit for Cubs reliever Justin Wilson. Bote worked the count to 2-2 before hitting Madson's next pitch, a sinker, into the centerfield stands at Wrigley Field for an "ultimate grand slam" or "golden homer" as some have described it.

It had been 20 years since a game ended with a walk-off grand slam to overcome a 3-run deficit in the 9th inning, and you have to go back to 1936 to find another walk-off grand slam to erase a 3-0 deficit. Even then, Sammy Byrd's walkoff grand slam for the Reds against the Pirates on May 23, 1936, came with nobody out, and Bote's homer came with two outs, and two strikes.

As Jack Baer, writing for Yahoo Sports at the time put it, "So, basically, if you narrow the situation with both the score and number of outs and strikes, Bote hit a home run unprecedented in modern baseball history. It was the 25-year-old rookie's 34th career MLB game."