For many Capital Region baseball fans, the season has been long over, with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox now eliminated from contention. But not for Bob and Karen Anderson, who watched their son, Ian, pitch his Atlanta Braves into the World Series last week.
Anderson, who is a Rexford native and graduate of Shenendehowa High School—he graduated the same year as NBA basketball star Kevin Huerter—and was drafted third overall by the Atlanta Braves in the 2016 Major League Baseball Draft, held the always formidable Los Angeles Dodgers to just one run over four innings. While that didn’t put him in line for the win, it did catapult his team, which has had solid late-inning pitching all season, toward its first World Series berth since 1999.
The Braves are set to face the American League champion Houston Astros, starting on Tuesday, October 26, at 8:09pm. Anderson will likely start Game 3 on Friday, October 29, and will be pitching on five days rest.
Houston here we come !!!! pic.twitter.com/Bkf5x9y8Pu
— Bob Anderson (@BobRanderso) October 24, 2021
Bob and Karen were at last Saturday night’s game, in which their son helped pitch his team to the National League championship and World Series bid, and Bob tweeted out a photo with the simple caption, “Houston here we come!”
Anderson was one of the highest touted pitching prospects in the Braves’ system, getting his official call-up last August and showing off his electric stuff: He one-hit the hometown Yankees.