What do professional baseball and farmer’s markets have in common?
Maybe farming breeds fitness? Maybe farms offer space to build baseball diamonds? Don’t we all know of famous players, past and present, who grew up pitching baseballs through tires tied to trees on the back forty?
Jake Goebbert with the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field while playing the Cubs in July of this year. (Photo provided)
Maybe young, talented athletes ought to have grandparents who live in Sun City. Earlier this year, we reported on Jimmy Garoppolo, who made it to the pros in football to the joy of local grandparents Anthony and Jane. Now, we are talking about Jacob (Jake) Goebbert, whose grandparents, Jim and Esther, watched him soar to Major League Baseball this summer with the San Diego Padres. Jim and Esther have been residents of Neighborhood 4 in Sun City since September, 1999. They have seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Maybe there’s just something special about growing up “down on the farm,” as some country-western songs express it.
Jake, as he is known to his family and friends, didn’t just grow up on a farm. He is now a prominent member of one of the best-known farming market families in the Chicago area. His great-grandfather, George, opened a roadside vegetable stand in Arlington Heights in 1948. It later expanded to South Barrington and Hampshire. Jim bought the business from George, his father, in 1972. Today, 66 years later, the enterprise is a cultural icon that combines a nursery, farm product sales, flowers, shopping, online services, seasonal festivals, pumpkin and Halloween parties, and family entertainment at two highly popular northwest suburban locations. The business is currently operated by Jim’s sons, Larry and Lloyd (Jake’s dad), and their wives.
The business is Goebberts Farm
Jake grew up in this family farmer’s market environment and found a way to combine sports with it.
“When he was two years old, he was carrying a baseball bat around with him everywhere,” his grandmother, Esther, said. “His sister, Jessica, and brother James also enjoyed sports, and all three pushed each other to excel.”
“He got involved in little leagues in several sports, and he played three sports at Hampshire High School,” said grandfather Jim. “By the time he got to high school, he had 11 years of experience in basketball, football, and baseball. He excelled at all three at Hampshire, and he earned a scholarship to Northwestern University.”
He concentrated on baseball at Northwestern and played well enough to catch the attention of professional scouts. In 2009, he was drafted by the Houston Astros and spent the next few years in their minor league system. In 2013, he was traded to the Oakland A’s, and just before the start of the 2014 season, he was traded again to San Diego.
He was called up to the Padres in June, and his career reached a professional and emotional peak in July when he was named a starter when the Padres played the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The game turned into a gala “homecoming,” with many of his friends and local fans on hand to welcome him back to his sports and family roots.
“Many of my teammates jokingly hassled me about the number of Goebbert T-shirts, jerseys, and signs that encompassed Wrigley throughout that series,” Jake himself told an area newspaper. “Some said they had never seen anything like it.”
Jim and Esther described Jake as always a self-motivated person.
“When he was 22 years old, Jim said, ‘If I’m going to stand in anybody’s field, it’s going to be in my own.’ He always has been mature beyond his years.”
He and Esther estimate that they have attended about 800 games that Jake and their other grandchildren have played in several sports over the years.
The Sun Day caught up with Jake by phone recently in between a busy schedule of Padre games on the west coast. Jake was an outstanding pitcher/first baseman at Hampshire, and in pro ball, he has been an outfielder and first baseman.
“I enjoy playing first base best, and occasionally I get a chance to do that,” he said.
He is hitting .253 this summer for the Padres and looks forward to being back with the big league team for spring training next February. Regarding the trades, he said, “It was nice to hear I was wanted by other teams.”
Despite all of the hoopla and fame of Major League baseball, Jake has never forgotten his farming roots.
“When this season is over, I’m coming back home and going to work on the farm,” he said.
“Many people know him because he waited on them at the market,” his grandfather said.
Jake takes it even further with: “I hope I’m fortunate enough to play baseball for the next few years,” he said. “But when I’m done with that, I’m coming home to work on the farm.”
After the Padres-Cubs series in July, Jake wrote a thank you to his friends and fans that was published in the Northwest Herald. Here is an excerpt:
“Stepping foot on the sacred grounds of Wrigley Field, knowing whom I may have shared a locker with, touching the ivy, and hearing my name called during the starting lineup with be something that I cherish for the rest of my life. There are no promises in this game, there is no guarantee for tomorrow. So I relish in the fact that I had the opportunity to experience what I did that week. My family motto and my father’s favorite quote is, ‘Things will come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.’ Thanks (to my friends and fans) for being there from my years in high school to now. I will always be a small-town kid.”
To others like him growing up, he said, “Don’t fear failure. Failure is most often an idea with no relevance to future outcomes in life. Search for little victories in everything you do. If you dream, shoot for the stars and there is no telling where you will end up.”
