By Earl Heath | Contributing Sports Writer
Joshua Báez wasted no time announcing his arrival in the major leagues.
The Boston native launched a home run on the first pitch he saw in the majors, sending the ball an estimated 450 feet before flashing a grin toward the St. Louis Cardinals dugout as he began his home run trot.
“There was a calmness and a smile, like, ‘I’m here,’” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “It’s rare for me to pick my head up to enjoy parts of it. He didn’t exactly give us an option but to actually take a step back and enjoy the heck out of what was going on there.”
There has never been a debut quite like it.
Báez became the first player to homer in each of his first three at-bats in the majors, powering the Cardinals to an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday at Wrigley Field.
Called up from Triple-A Memphis before the game, Báez had about 30 family members in attendance for the historic moment. His traveling party, including his mother, Yris, later gathered on the field for photographs despite the rain.
“It’s just unreal,” the 23-year-old Báez said. “To not only get a hit, but three home runs? It’s crazy.”
A Historic Debut
According to Major League Baseball, Báez became the first player in modern baseball history to hit three home runs in his major league debut.
MLB noted that it cannot say with certainty whether the feat occurred before 1901 because of incomplete game logs from baseball’s earliest years.
Still, Báez’s performance immediately placed his name alongside some of the most memorable individual achievements in baseball history.
His first major league at-bat provided the first glimpse of what was coming. Báez jumped on the opening pitch and sent it deep, then continued to punish Cubs pitching throughout the afternoon.
By the end of his first game, the Cardinals newcomer had transformed a highly anticipated debut into a piece of baseball history.
For Báez and his family, the accomplishment was even more meaningful with so many of them there to witness it in person.
What began with one swing on the first pitch became three home runs, a victory for St. Louis and a major league debut that will be remembered for years to come.