Hunter Dobbins Forgot It's Easy To Research Info In A Digital Age

No folks, Lance Dobbins never played for the New York Yankees. But his son thinks so and that’s just stupid.

Hunter Dobbins might be the first pitcher in a while to make headlines not for what he did on the mound, but for the tall tale he spun off it. And in my honest opinion—this guy might be completely unhinged.

Before his first career start against the Yankees, Dobbins—just 25 and barely through his first cup of coffee in the big leagues—fired off a headline-grabbing quote: he’d retire before ever pitching for New York. Okay. Bold. A little dramatic, and let’s be honest, no one cares.

But then he went from petty to full-blown fantasy.

In a profile that ran in the Boston Herald just before his outing, Dobbins claimed his father, Lance Dobbins, had been drafted twice by the Yankees and later traded to the Diamondbacks. Oh—and apparently, he was boys with Andy Pettitte, too. Seriously, that part is a joke… or is it? The guy tossed out this story like he was reciting family lore at Thanksgiving dinner after too many bourbons.

Except… literally none of it is true.

The New York Post did the legwork and found zero trace of Lance Dobbins in any MLB draft record, Yankees transaction, or Diamondbacks anything. And Pettitte? No connection whatsoever. But here’s the kicker: you didn’t need the Post to tell you that. One click on Baseball-Reference.com shows you exactly who Lance Dobbins was—an independent league pitcher who played for the Meridian Brakemen in 1996 and 1997, and briefly for the Ohio Valley Redcoats in ’97. 

That’s it. No Yankees. No big-league draft. No “friends with Andy Pettitte” moment. This guy’s MLB résumé is as fictional as Rookie of the Year.

So what’s Hunter’s explanation now that the internet’s lit up with the truth? He basically shrugged it off.

He says the whole story came from his dad, and he never thought to fact-check it. “At the end of the day I don’t go and fact-check my dad,” he said. Right. But maybe—just maybe—if you’re going to go public with a story about your dad being drafted by the Yankees twice and traded to another organization, it’s worth spending 30 seconds on Google before you say it out loud. Especially if you’re doing it the day before you pitch against the Yankees. I mean, what are we doing here? I mean, he’s basically calling is old man a liar.

The fact that this even became a story isn’t bad luck—it’s bad judgment. Dobbins made it a story with his own mouth.

This isn’t the ‘80s when Sports Illustrated could get away with publishing an April Fools story about Sidd Finch throwing 168 mph. That was clever. That was deliberate. What Dobbins is doing is just a lie.

He said he’s only talked “a little, but not really” with his dad about the whole mess. Because his focus, he claims, is on his next start. As it should be. Because clearly, the less time this guy spends talking, the better off we all are.

In a world where every stat, draft, and trade is archived and accessible with a few clicks, Dobbins still chose to run with a story that crumbled under the weight of the internet’s simplest search bar.

And again, just to be crystal clear—my personal take? This guy needs a reality check and maybe a psych eval. Forget the scouting report—someone in Boston’s clubhouse should just hand him a fact-checker and a muzzle.