Jake Adams Speaks Softly and Carries a Big Stick

With one month of the season now logged in the slim pages of a new franchise's history book, the Fayetteville Woodpeckers have still chronicled plenty of memories and new records that may stand for years to come. Through those first 26 games in their inaugural season, it was the very first game that still stands the tallest. In a 15-0 clobbering of the Potomac Nationals on opening night to announce their entrance into the Carolina League, it was a dominant performance led by first baseman Jake Adams that iced the "Welcome to the League" cake for Fayetteville. Adams tied a career high with four hits, set a career high with seven runs driven in, and cemented his name in history as the first Fayetteville Woodpecker to hit a home run, a grand slam to left field. With a month now passed, Adams still holds the appreciation and determination to achieve days like that at the top level.

"Above all, it was just great to get back to playing again. It was a long spring, and I know it's going to be a long summer, I'm used to it, but yeah, to start out with a day like that is something special. It's not every day you get four hits, let alone everything else I did, and the guys did."
One of the best players in the Big 10 during his time at the University of Iowa, Adams was no stranger to not just success, but also the mobility needed by a minor leaguer. A standout at Des Moines Area Community College for two seasons, Jake slid an hour west to Iowa City to join the Hawkeyes for his junior campaign to take things another step further. The University of Iowa was not aware of how lucky they were, however.
Only playing for one year at Duane Banks Field, Adams cemented his name in Hawkeye history in just 61 games, as the lumbering first baseman crushed 29 home runs, averaging a long ball nearly once every other game. It was a 2017 campaign for Jake that broke the University of Iowa single season record for round-trippers, put him atop the career slugging percentage board in the Richard O. Jacobson Athletic Building with a .747, earned him the Big 10 player of the year award, and finally ended with the slugger being taken in the sixth round of that year's draft, the highest a Hawkeye has been selected in 20 years.
Quickly mashing his way through the Astros system, Adams made the professional transition as smoothly as a NASCAR driver shifting into second gear. The fourth pitch that Jake saw in his professional career, he sent into center field for a solo home run. Adams would smack 10 home runs in 48 games with Short Season Tri-City, a combined 39 long balls in 109 games over his final year at the University of Iowa and his first year in Minor League Baseball. Never one to rest, Adams hit another eight home runs with Single-A Quad Cities over the first half of the year to earn a promotion to the former Buies Creek Astros, where he hit another seven homers.
"I know it's a climb, it's a grind, but I'm so glad to be making it."
Not to say that the numbers tossed up by Jake since his only year in Iowa City didn't catch eyes, they absolutely did, but Jake pays it all no mind.
"Even now I still don't pay much attention to a lot of that stuff on social, and yeah some of it can be praise, and some not, I just do my thing…but, yeah, when [Jeff Luhnow] tweeted that, and the guys showed me, I was pretty pumped to see that of course."
Luhnow, the general manager of the Houston Astros, tweeted his disdain for the lack of recognition for Adams' historic opening night of 2019.
Um... hello... how about @Jakeadams23 and his 4 hits and 7 RBI for the @WoodpeckersNC first ever game? @astros
The GM was retweeting an article on the top performers on the opening night when he wanted to make sure fans understood how historic of night it was. It was just another example of the attention given to the entire organization from the highest level in Houston, something never lost on the players.
"I'm extremely grateful to have been drafted by this organization," Adams said, "They just do it right, they know how to develop players, and [SEGRA Stadium] is incredible, one of the best facilities for us." Having settled in to their state-of-the-art facility in downtown Fayetteville, it's just a new stop on the long journey for great players like Jake Adams as they make that climb up to this same success with the big leagues.