It began as a joke. Clint Frazier was commenting on his frequent shuttling between the New York Yankees and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre that he proclaimed himself a “RailRider for Life.”
Funny thing, though. The moniker stuck, and Frazier still embraces it to this day.
“I think it started around the time I got optioned to the minor leagues in 2019,” Frazier said. “I was doing relatively well at the big-league level. When I came down here, there was something in the media about September roster expansion
and the Yankees were kind of vague on whether I was going to be coming back. I remember parking in a parking garage and seeing this sign that said ‘Scranton Life,’ and I was like, ‘Dude, I don’t want to be a Yankee. I want to be a RailRider for Life.’ It was a facetious comment and I ended up running with it because it was kind of funny. People obviously took notice to it because I put it on my Twitter bio and it’s been there for like 10 years.”
With Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rebranding for next season, the team brought Frazier back for what proved to be the final game as the RailRiders on Saturday night at PNC Field in northeastern Pennsylvania. He signed autographs for fans, posed for pictures and threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Frazier admitted he was a little surprised and a bit disappointed when he heard that the team was retiring the RailRiders nickname.
“I’m not a part of the Yankees anymore, and I’m not here in Scranton,” Frazier said. “So if they want to rebrand or it’s something the fans want, you give it to them. But other than that, I was kind of like, ‘Damn, I guess I won’t be a RailRider anymore. I’ll be whatever they are, but I’ll still be a RailRider at heart.”
Drafted fifth overall by Cleveland in 2013, Frazier joined the Yankees organization on July 31, 2016, in a trade along with Justus Sheffield, Ben Heller, and J.P. Feyereisen for reliever Andrew Miller. He was assigned to the RailRiders and helped them win the International League Governors’ Cup title, then capture the Triple-A National Championship with a 3-1 win over the Pacific Coast League champion El Paso Chihuahuas.
He wound up playing 213 games with the RailRiders between 2016-19 and batted .263 (213-for-811) with 55 doubles, nine triples, 33 home runs, and 96 RBIs. Looking back, he enjoyed his time in Scranton.
“This is a really good environment for a minor league facility,” Frazier said. “The revamped clubhouse, it looks a lot different now than it did then. I think it’s good for guys to be in an atmosphere like this because you have to go through Scranton to get to New York. They’ve done a really good job making this place feel like a major league clubhouse. The fans show up, the stadium is great. I don’t really have anything bad to say other than I lived above a funeral home all year my first go-round. That’s the one thing I remember the most.”
On July 1, 2017, Frazier made his MLB debut with the Yankees in Houston. After striking out in his first at-bat, he doubled in his second at-bat off Astros pitcher Francis Martes, leading off the top of the sixth inning for his first major league hit. In his next at-bat, leading off the top of the seventh, he hit his first home run off Tony Sipp.
“I think it’s really cool to be able to say my first moment in the big leagues, I was able to capitalize by hitting a home run and contributing to the game,” Frazier said. “I don’t know how I could really top that feeling. If you saw where I was from, to make it to the major leagues from Loganville, Georgia, to be with the New York Yankees and to homer in my debut. I was so young and so desensitized to what was actually happening. To look back on it from where I am now, the home run in my debut has to be the best thing I went through. It was awesome.”
Seven days later at Yankee Stadium, he hit his first walk0ff home run — a three-run blast off Corey Knebel of the Milwaukee Brewers to give the Yankees a 5-3 win. He was the second Yankee with nine extra base hits before his 15th game. The first? Joe DiMaggio.
Things took a turn, however, in February 2018. During spring training, he crashed head-first into an outfield wall and suffered a severe concussion. Then, in September 2020, he suffered a second concussion, again colliding with an outfield wall. This time, he kept it secret for fear of losing his roster spot. The lingering effects from both concussions impacted his career.
“That was a really tough time to go through,” Frazier said. “It was a very scary injury to have. It’s not like any other one, like getting Tommy John (surgery) or a sprained ankle. You know the exact time frame it’s going to take to fix it. A lot of the unknown is what I went through. I was pretty symptomatic in terms of having a lot of trouble being able to track pitches. I would get extremely dizzy or feel nauseous every single day. That was a really tough time to go through because physically I was fine. It was cognitively something that was affecting my ability to live my life and, even more so, play the game I played my entire life.
“As I sit here today, I feel significantly better. Time was the only thing that was going to heal the stuff I was going through. Unfortunately, in a baseball season or offseason, you don’t have a lot of time to be able to go through those certain things. I rushed sometimes to get back on the field. I was going with what my gut was telling me was the right thing to do. I’m just glad that, sitting here today, I’m not really hampered the way that I was when I was going through those issues.”
After five seasons with the Yankees (2017-21), Frazier was released. He played one season with the Chicago Cubs in 2022. Following a brief stint in the Texas Rangers organization, he played one season with the Chicago White Sox in 2023. He then spent 44 games in 2024 with the Charleston Dirty Birds of the independent Atlantic League before retiring in July. His seven-year major league totals read 29 home runs and 101 RBIs in 280 games with a .235 batting average (190 for 810), 45 doubles, and six triples.
Even though his career was cut short by the concussions, Frazier doesn’t think “What if?” and holds no bitterness on how it ended.
“In the moment I might think to myself, ‘I wish I didn’t run into that wall,’ but I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about it,“ Frazier said. ”I certainly have moments. But I played baseball, and it always was about the next at-bat. So I get over things pretty quickly. I don’t know if it’s healthy or not, but it’s something I’ve learned about myself once I got out of playing. I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about the past. I get over it pretty quickly.”
As for the next phase of his life, Frazier doesn’t have any aspirations to coach in baseball. He might do some broadcasting. But he said he has been offered a deal to potentially play professional pickleball.
“It’s a crazy thing to say, but dude, it’s so much fun! And they pay well. It’s some high-level stuff,” Frazier said. “I get very passionate about it because so much of what I’ve done in my baseball career translates so well to how that sport is played. I kind of feel like I have a little bit of a head start in terms of picking up on the way the new sport would be. The next time you see me, I could be in that world.”
No matter what he does, Frazier will always be a “RailRider for Life.”
