[jksander]

The first inning went very well for me, a pair of groundouts and a flyball to left to set them down quietly. Red Worthington, our 23-year-old first baseman, doubled in the bottom of the first and came home to score when right fielder Pepper Martin hit a single into deep right, an E7 error giving him the room to skip past third. Their batters kept getting decent contact off me, but our fielding was far better here than I’m used to from my time in Houston, and we were able to keep them scoreless deep into the game. I made it into the seventh with the game still ours 1-0, but with two outs I allowed a double into left and our manager pulled me for veteran reliever Hal Haid, who kept the shutout intact. Thankfully we added on a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh, so when the bullpen gave up a run in the eighth it wasn’t a disaster, and in the bottom of the inning we scored four more to turn it into a blowout anyway -- we’d wind up beating them easily, completing the sweep with a 7-3 victory, our 81st of the season and my first feeling like a real member of this team.

It was a whole new experience dealing with the press after the game. I’d gotten through 6.2 innings with just four hits, and though I’d walked four and struck out four, nobody scored on me. Down at AA, there were few reporters even interested in covering us, let alone talking to the players for quotes. But apparently I’m up to #2 in the prospect rankings, and this being my first start I had several New York writers asking me about the experience, and questioning whether I thought I’d be making a jump to the majors in September.

“I’m just focused on improving my pitching,” I’d say. “I barely felt like I got my feet wet here today.”

I got my second AAA start on the 18th at home against the last-place Buffalo Bisons, and I came back down to earth fast, only making it through two outs in the fifth before I got pulled thanks to my 11th hit ... I gave up five runs, four earned, and left the bullpen a huge mess to clean up as we slogged our way to a 9-2 loss. But a few days later I bounced back with eight great innings, just letting the Jersey City Skeeters get four hits and one earned run off me as I got my second win. On the 29th I got my third win with another eight inning fight, with eight hits, two strikeouts and a pair of earned runs, and for the first time all year I really felt it was all coming together.

The entire team did ... we went into September on a hell of a winning streak -- by the time I came up to pitch again on the 3rd of September we were riding a 14-game winning stretch as we neared triple-digit wins and a playoff clinch. I got us our 15th in a row with another eight inning gem, allowing eight hits and four runs in what became a 7-5 victory, improving my record to 4-1 with a 2.80 ERA! The streak continued, reaching 20 in a row before we finally snapped it with a 4-3 loss against Buffalo on the road, giving us just our 37th loss in 140 tries.

I won my sixth game (and fifth in a row) with the Red Wings on September 13th, getting through eight innings with nine hits, three walks, five strikeouts and a pair of earned runs that kept my ERA at 2.47, and then I got the shock of my life ... the Cardinals, sitting at 77-60 and seven games behind the NL-leading Brooklyn Robins, want me on a train to St. Louis as soon as I can get there ... they may want to pitch me against the Giants next week during an extended home stretch at Sportsmans Park, where the team will play 14 of its last 17 games!

A real pennant chase, and I’m gonna be in the thick of it ... it’s only a September call-up, a “cup of coffee” as they call it around here, but it’s a chance to play real baseball as a professional for my favorite team. Trust me, I can’t pack my things quickly enough ... I love ya, Rochester, but if I’m lucky I won’t be back!


I got the chance during the long train ride to St. Louis to get to know Jack Berly a lot better. The 26-year-old reliever got the call-up with me, and he more than earned it this year in Rochester, going 4-2 through more than 52 innings, with a 1.89 ERA and 33 strikeouts. He had his first and only call-up back in 1924, throwing eight innings over four appearances for the Cardinals, so he’s been where I am, though in that case he hadn’t done as well as he’d hoped, allowing five runs during that stretch and getting sent back down.

“You can’t get hung up on it,” he told me. “You want to do well, but everybody stops playing this game at some point, and it’s never by choice. I won’t pitch well if I worry about my future, and that’s what I did last time. Never thought I’d get back up there, so this time I’m gonna soak it up and take the extra money ... if I can play well too and earn a spot, that’ll be gravy.”

I don’t want to get sent back down. I want to impress everyone, and win games, making myself valuable to the club. But I smile and take in his advice, and we spent the rest of the trip talking about our hometowns -- mine in southern Indiana, and his on the bayous of Louisiana .. don’t ask me to pronounce Natchitoches, I’m not even sure I’m spelling it right!

We’d left Rochester in the evening and got to St. Louis in time to be in uniform for the afternoon game on the 14th against the Giants. Both Jack and I were set to be extra bullpen arms for the pennant stretch, and with me coming off a full outing yesterday, I had no worries they’d be desperate enough to use me, so I got to soak up the Sportsmans Park atmosphere and bask quietly in the shadows of players I’ve only gotten to read about before ... I almost fell over myself when I got to shake Frankie Frisch’s hand before the game, and our starting pitcher Syl Johnson -- who has won 17 of 30 decisions this year -- smacked me on the shoulder as we walked onto the field and told me to “breathe it in, kid,” and then asked me to run back to the clubhouse to grab his chewing tobacco.

Me as new guy: “Sure thing, sir!”


From here on out I’m going to go to a “day by day” format now that I’m in the majors and can play out the games themselves. I’ll continue to post “in character,” to keep up the first-person nature of this project, but from here on you’ll get a lot more in-game moments as Jochen Fontaine hopes to keep that spot in the big leagues.