Bakeberg selected as Mariners 'Ultimate Fan' for all Alaska

Judy Bakeberg loves baseball. Specifically, she loves the Seattle Mariners. She's been following the team since its inception in 1977, and she's been a fan of baseball since she was a child.

Now the Wrangellite has been chosen as the Mariners' 2021 Ultimate Fan for Alaska, a title that comes with lots of perks and bragging rights.

On Oct. 1, Bakeberg and her daughter, Leslie Cummings, will be flown to Seattle and treated to a two-night stay and fan celebration in a box suite at T-Mobile Park. Bakeberg will also receive a personalized jersey and trophy. Cummings entered her mother a few months back in competition run by the Root Sports channel, which broadcasts Mariner games.

For the past 21 years, Bakeberg has been tracking the team and favorite players' stats, writing down the results of games and storing them in large, three-ring binders. It's a passion that goes back to her childhood.

"I was a tomboy in school," Bakeberg, 83, said. "I had three brothers, and I played a lot of sports, basketball, softball and all of that. When I graduated from high school, I earned a four-year scholarship to the University of Oregon to be a girls' P.E. teacher. I ended up working at the high school."

She decided teaching wasn't for her and went to work for the U.S. Forest Service for 32 years.

As a child, her mother, who Bakeberg describes as "a strong Swedish woman who taught us girls could do anything boys could do," would make her brothers do the dishes and have Bakeberg carry wood in. That strong upbringing and her need to stay active could be what's helped her through her latest ordeal – one that could have derailed her plans to attend the Ultimate Fan celebration.

Back in July, while traveling through Washington in their RV, Bakeberg's husband, Jerry, had to slam on the brakes. She had been standing, and the sudden stop threw Bakeberg to the floor of the vehicle, breaking her back. Two days and two hospitals later, Bakeberg underwent surgery to fix her back. Less than two months later, she is awaiting physical therapy and has gotten off the painkillers doctors prescribed.

There was a time, however, when Bakeberg had stopped watching her beloved Mariners because they weren't doing so well. She began watching the Minnesota Twins. That was short-lived and she returned to rooting for The M's.

Bakeberg isn't the only one in her house with a love of the game. Jerry Bakeberg had a brush with baseball infamy back in his military days.

"I played [baseball] in the service. I struck out Mickey Mantle," Jerry Bakeberg said. "They came to play an exhibition game. The night before, we went out to the bar. We tipped a few. The next day we went to play, and he was still up in his cups, I think. He just swung at everything I threw."

The Bakebergs haven't been to a game in two years. October's game against the Anaheim Angels will be the first in-person game Judy Bakeberg has been to since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. But Jerry Bakeberg will stay behind with their dogs, Jasper and Patsy, while mother and daughter cheer on the team.

But the couple, married 37 years, are planning to get back to games regularly.

"Gas prices dropped a little bit, so that helps," Judy Bakeberg said with a laugh.

When asked if she's a die-hard fan from now on, Judy Bakeberg responded the way only an ultimate fan would. "Yes. Especially if they could get going. They're doing better this year than they have in a long time," she said on Sept. 9. "Right now, they're 76 and 64, so they're 12 games over 500. And a lot of times ... they never got above 500."