On June 24, Tyler Webb made his major league debut for the Yankees, throwing 1 1/3 shutout innings against the Rangers. He will of course cherish the memory, as did the 19,039 Major League Baseball competitors who preceded him (thanks, Baseball-Reference).
Two days prior, Webb got his first call-up to the majors, another notable milestone. For Webb, though, this day carried a value to which most of his contemporaries couldn’t relate.
At first by happenstance and then by choice, Webb never had attended a major league team sporting event – not MLB, not the NFL, not the NBA and not the NHL – until he was in uniform for that June 22 Angels-Yankees game at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Webb said earlier this week. “The first day was a rush. I found out late, I had to rush up here [from the Scranton area]. I barely made stretch. So that was an ordeal.
“I sat in the [enclosed] room in the bullpen. It was kind of muffled in there, but I didn’t want to rock the boat or anything. I was kind of feeling my way around the bullpen.
“The next night, I was like, ‘I’m going to sit outside for the first three or four innings.’ That was pretty neat. That’s a really good seat out there. The roll call and all that stuff, that was pretty overwhelming. I think it was good to sit out there before I got in a game, kind of get acclimated a little bit.”
He required a bit more acclimation because of his background. Webb, who will turn 27 on July 20, grew up on Virginia’s Eastern Shore; his high school, Northampton in Eastville, sits 204 miles from Oriole Park at Camden Yards and a whopping 614 miles from Atlanta. The Nationals weren’t an option in Webb’s wonder years – they didn’t arrive in Washington until 2005 – and besides, they played 207 miles away. None of the other major pro sports offered closer options.
“It was a process to get to a major league game,” Webb said. The International League team in Norfolk, the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate for many years, played about an hour away, and Webb said he thought he attended at least one Tides game.
So this all occurred organically. Then, while pitching for the University of South Carolina, it became a thing.
Webb showed enough potential pitching for the Gamecocks that he secured the well-known Beverly Hills Sports Council as advisers before the draft. “I think it was my junior year, I told them [about not having attended a major league event],” he said. “They were like, ‘You’re not going now. We’re not giving you tickets.’ But it was cool. I thought it would be a cool experience.
“It wasn’t too hard to stay away. There was an NBA game I missed out on. [Jordan] Montgomery [Webb’s teammate at South Carolina and now with the Yankees] and another buddy went to a [Charlotte] Hornets game. I was a little upset about that, but I had to bite the bullet.”
He also took a tour of Nationals Park after the Gamecocks won the College World Series (which they did in 2010 and 2011, and Webb said he can’t remember which year the tour occurred) and visited President Barack Obama at the White House. An empty major league park, though, does not constitute a major league game.
The streak became a technicality of sorts as he took in life at South Carolina. After all, the school competes in the SEC. “I’ve been to football games with 80,000 people,” he said.
Yet the fast of sorts became a motivational carrot. He couldn’t go to a big-league game until he earned the right to do so.
I asked Webb if he felt it was worth the wait. If his arrival in the big leagues felt sweeter (not that he would have a comparison, to be honest) because of his decision.
“Oh, yeah,” he said smiling.
This starvation tactic probably isn’t for everyone. Webb gets to share his tale, though, because he got his jubilant beginning that doubled as a happy ending.
This week’s Pop Quiz question came from Gary Mintz of South Huntington: In a 1963 episode of “Mr. Ed,” Wilbur – trying to watch a Dodgers game on TV – complains to Carol that she is “hiding” one of the Dodgers’ players. Which player?
The answer is Willie Davis.