HOUSTON – One year ago, David Fry enjoyed what – at the time – was perhaps the moment of his Major League Baseball career.
 
Playing roughly 30 miles from his prep alma mater, Grapevine (Texas) High School, Fry had an RBI single in his first Major League Baseball All-Star Game at-bat, driving in the final run of a three-run frame for the eventually victorious American League.
 
"That was pretty nuts," said Fry, whose Cleveland Guardians open the second half of the 2025 season at home Friday against the Athletics. "People talking about it like, 'You went to an All-Star Game.' I still don't really believe it. It's that time of the year now, and everybody's like, 'You did that last year.' I still can't believe I went to that game last year. It's nuts."
 
Fry's one-year All-Star anniversary hit Tuesday as the 2025 edition was played in Atlanta.
 
The 12 months since the history-making moment for Northwestern State baseball – Fry became the first former Demon baseball player to appear in an MLB All-Star Game – have alternated highs and lows.
 
Just like the momentous May run where Fry put up numbers that equaled Babe Ruth, the postseason allowed the 2018 All-American and Southland Conference Player of the Year to again etch his name in the history books.
 
Twice during Cleveland's run to the American League Championship Series, Fry delivered a go-ahead, two-out, two-strike home run in the seventh inning or later – something no other MLB player has accomplished in his career.
 
Those home runs are engraved in both Guardian and Demon fans' minds alike, especially those who share those specific allegiances. It took Fry some time to recall those moments, especially the walk-off, two-run home run against the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
 
During his postgame interview, Fry said he "blacked out" when it happened. Since that moment, he has had help in piecing together those memories while creating others.
 
"In the offseason, (daughter) Evelyn would point at the TV and say, 'Dada,'" Fry said. "She'll want to see videos of home runs, so we'll watch it every now and then. It's still nuts. Getting to experience the playoffs in general, you're like, 'That's all I want to do. I want to get back to that.' I want to find a way to get back to that. This season, we're struggling a little bit, but that's still the goal. We just have to find a way in. Once you're in, that's the most fun baseball you can play."
 
Fry played through the back half of his breakout 2024 season with an injured arm that required offseason surgery – a second Tommy John operation on his right elbow. It delayed the start of his 2025 season until late May when he began and completed a nine-game rehabilitation assignment before rejoining the Cleveland roster.  
 
For all Fry learned during his four years at Northwestern, perhaps the most valuable piece he accessed recently was how to overcome a physical setback. Ahead of his senior season of 2018, Fry underwent his first Tommy John surgery after playing with an injured elbow throughout the 2017 campaign.
 
"Coming back from surgery, I definitely like leaning on that experience," Fry said. "It stinks having two Tommy Johns, but it's nice to have a little experience of what's going on. It's been a crazy, crazy year. It's nice knowing different check points. I might get sore at this time, but I remember that from last time, so it doesn't scare you. I'm maybe a little ahead of where I was last time, so it's definitely encouraging."
 
Fry also has found a different form of encouragement and an escape away from the field in his family, which includes wife Rebekah, Evelyn and another daughter on the way.
 
"I was talking about it with (former Northwestern State head coach Bobby) Barbier when he was in town," Fry said. "It's the perspective of being on the road in Chicago, and we're getting to go to the zoo and to the kids' museum. We're getting to do all this stuff. We're going to the beach. I'm not going to remember my four at-bats in Chicago in there years. I'm going to remember going to the beach and the zoo with Evelyn and with Harper on the way. Having two girls, that's the stuff you're going to remember much more than what did I do in this one at-bat."