The sports culture in Texas is inexplicable to non-natives.
Jake Duer certainly can speak to that. Duer, who was born in Los Angeles but spent seven years during his childhood in Stony Point, had quite the culture shock to contend with.
Duer was a star for the Stony Point All-Stars travel Little League program, which, in 2014, lost in the New York State championship to Maine-Endwell. Two years later, Maine-Endwell won the Little League World Series.
But directly after Stony Point flirted with a state title, Duer’s mom got a job in Texas, prompting the family to head south late in 2014.
“(Jake) was young so it was tough for us to leave,” Joe Duer, Jake’s father, said. “It was a hard decision leaving after that season because we were so invested in that team.”
However, changing states ended up introducing the family to a new level of play on the diamond, one that fueled his lifelong goal of playing professional baseball.
“My goal in life, and I told my dad about it at a young age, was to play professional baseball,” Duer said. “He just took that to heart and moved us to where baseball’s at its hottest, and that’s Texas.”
On Sunday, nearly 12 years later, the gamble finally paid off. After a four-year college career, split between three schools, Duer was picked in the 18th round, 536th overall, by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“My heart started going a million miles per second,” Duer said. “Honestly, it was a dream come true.”
Jake Duer’s journey from Texas to three different colleges to the pros
The moment was all the more meaningful to the 23-year-old outfielder because of his journey through amateur baseball. Upon moving, Duer had his entire world flipped. While it proved to pay great dividends, Duer’s introduction to the Lone Star State came with an adjustment period.
“I was nervous,” Duer said. “I had my entire childhood with the same group of kids and the same core group of friends who I always hung out with. Then, boom, I’m starting middle school in another state. That was definitely nerve-wracking for me, and I felt disconnected from the culture.”
Duer grew to appreciate his new home, as it shared a similar love for baseball as he did. He attended Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas — a suburb of Dallas — before going on to play at Texas Christian University (TCU) for two seasons.
Even in high school, the level of interest placed on baseball in Texas was a stark contrast from the quiet scene that he was accustomed to in Rockland County.
“I flew one of my friends from the Northeast down to catch a game, and he was blown away by the difference,” Duer said. “For an outsider, he said he’s never experienced anything like that.”
In Duer’s freshman season at TCU, the Horned Frogs were one of the final eight college teams standing, as they went to the College World Series. However, Duer only appeared in eight games across two seasons.
In his eyes, he was doing everything properly, but never got an opportunity from the coaching staff to prove himself. Thus, he entered the transfer portal after his sophomore season with a fire lit under him in his junior year at Florida Atlantic.
“One of the last things that the coach at TCU said to me was that I’m better off playing at a mid-major and they think I’ll do decent there,” Duer said. “That stuck with me. I still remember that to this day.”
Duer’s lone season with Florida Atlantic proved that he was more than a mid-major player. He hit .428 for the Owls in 2025, and as he put it, “oversucceeded,” back out of mid-major baseball. That year, Duer transferred to Texas A&M for his senior year, and thrived.
‘Dude, this place is no joke,’ Duer succeeds at highest levels of college ball
“When I got to Texas A&M, my coach said, ‘dude, this place is no joke,’” Duer said. “I didn’t know what that meant. Every single game I was playing in front of 12,000 people and all chanting. It was no joke.”
A .304 batting average and career-highs with 13 doubles and seven homers proved he was up for the challenge. After all, though, Duer’s high school days of facing future NCAA Division I commits sharpened him before he ever stepped foot on a campus.
That level of high school competition, Duer said, was a stark difference from the landscape of New York varsity baseball.
“Every one of our district games in high school we saw a Division I arm — no matter what school it was,” Duer said. “I was seeing 90-93 miles per hour every single game. It gets you ready. I feel like the competitive nature of Texas taught me not only how to maturely play the game, but how to be a man.”
With back-to-back strong seasons to cap off his collegiate career, Duer took part in a few professional showcases, hoping to get drafted.
However, nothing was guaranteed. Therefore, Sunday became a stressful waiting game.
“It was a long day,” Duer said. “I think I was in front of my TV for seven hours, staring at it, waiting, and just hearing names. Finally, my agent texted me and said, ‘Diamondbacks. Right now.’”
“It blew my mind,” Joe Duer said. “When Jake was seven years old back in Stony Point, he was by no means the best kid. He was on the skinny side, and there were kids that were much bigger than him. He’d say he wanted to play in MLB and I told him, ‘You practice an hour a day as long as you want to do it and I’m with you with it. Hearing his name called justified everything we’ve gone through as a family and all the sacrifices and hard work that went into it.”
Even with much of Jake’s development and success coming in the south, the entire family holds the Lower Hudson Valley close to their heart.
“That’s my childhood,” Duer said. “That’s everything to me. That’s probably the deepest part of my heart. I feel like I’ve grown so much in Texas, but I can’t forget my roots, and that’s New York for me. That’s Rockland County.”
George Caratzas is a sports intern for The Journal News/lohud.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Diamondbacks draft pick Jake Duer reflects on his youth in Stony Point
Reporting by George Caratzas, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By George Caratzas, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
