About Us

The Rake City Baseball organization got it's start in the spring of 2017.  But what is Rake City?  The question is asked quite frequently. Is it a place?  Where is Rake City?  The answer is no, it's not a place.  The answer is that it's an attitude.  An approach.  An ability to put the attitude and approach to the game into action both on the field and off.  Originally, the 'Rake City' mantra was coined by Houston Astros All Star and World Series Champion 3rd baseman Alex Bregman.  Bregman is originally from Albuquerque, NM.  Albuquerque has long been known as a city that has produced some very high quality hitters.  In baseball terms, guys who can really hit are guys known to 'rake.'  Bregman and some of his friends and teammates from the Albuquerque area started calling their city, Rake City.  The name stuck and the Rake City line was born while Alex was playing college baseball at LSU.  So what started as some dugout talk from some great hitters turned into some t-shirts being made and the rest is history!

Coach Kurt Kristynik served as a graduate assistant coach at Texas Tech in 2001 and their pitching coach was Ryan Brewer.  In 2003, Ryan joined the highly successful Albuquerque Baseball Academy which has produced dozens of collegiate and professional players, including Bregman.  When coach Kristynik and a few other coaches decided to start a team for their sons in late 2016, the needed a team name.  Bregman had recently made his MLB debut in Houston and Coach Kristynik had helped Alex with a camp the previous year.  He reached out to Coach Brewer to see if Alex would be interested in a team taking the Rake City name.  He was on board immediately, even helping design the first uniforms for that 11U team that started in the spring of 2017!  In the spring of 2018 a younger team had come into the Rake City fold and that summer, the first high school age team was formed.  The program has continued to grow and has had nine players from their first two graduating classes move on to play college baseball.  Our teams pride themselves on playing the game the right way, producing great teammates and young men who are ready for the next levels of baseball and life.