Even after waiting and working toward this moment for most of his life, Marcelo Mayer never thought the call would play out the way it did.
First, Triple-A manager Chad Tracy told him he wasn’t going to play the first game of the WooSox’s doubleheader. The Red Sox might need him, because Alex Bregman, who’d taken Mayer and the other top prospects under his wing during spring training, had a quad strain.
Then, while the big-league club was playing Game 1 of their own doubleheader 45 minutes down the Mass Pike (without traffic, of course), Tracy called Mayer back into his office and told him, “It would be hard to start Game 2 here if you’re going to be active in Fenway tonight.”
“I just felt like, the craziest rush through my whole body,” Mayer said as he stood in the Fenway clubhouse.
The first call he made was to his father, a “surreal” moment for the Mayer family.
“The emotions were running pretty high,” he said. “It’s something me and my family have worked towards ever since I started playing the game, so it was a moment that I definitely wanted to share with them before it got out to the media.”
Mayer’s parents would have to watch his big-league debut on TV, but he hoped they’d be able to fly out in time for Sunday afternoon’s game.
Shipping up to Boston, so to speak, was another hurdle. Mayer lost his keys about three weeks ago, but because minor leaguers are now given housing near their respective ballpark, he didn’t rush to replace them. But now, there was the greatest, most pressing need. One of the WooSox clubhouse attendants drove him, instead.
Mayer spent the drive focused on responding to texts from friends and family. But Boston traffic can penetrate even the happiest bubble. The streets around the ballpark were also crowded with hordes of fans coming to see his debut.
“The clubbie was making jokes to like, get a police escort to get everybody out of the way because he was getting more nervous than me,” Mayer said with a chuckle.
“It’s awesome to play for a city like this that cares so much about their team and is so passionate about the Red Sox and the Red Sox winning,” he added of the Fenway Faithful. “It kind of holds everybody to a higher level of play and it’s something that I’m looking forward to play for.”
Thankfully, the Red Sox didn’t need to recreate Doug Mirabelli’s May 2006 return. Mayer walked into the clubhouse moments after Rafael Devers won the top of the doubleheader with a walk-off RBI single in the 10th-inning.
Standing in there, on the cusp of the culmination of everything he’s done to get himself this moment, Mayer simply said it felt good and that he was ready to do whatever he could to help the team.
“It’s not really like how you draw it up, it’s not really how I envisioned it,” Mayer said, “but, you know, I’m super happy to be here and super blessed.”
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