John Mayberry, Jr. debuts in Frisco RoughRiders comeback win
Day baseball always sounds like a good idea -and it is- as long as you don't live in Texas. I've had today's game circled for a long time, but as the temperature has risen over the last week or so I thought about bowing out gracefully.
Yet and still my son and I loaded up the van and made the trip from the southside up towards Oklahoma to check out the boys in Frisco. With an 11 o'clock 1st pitch I figured we'd miss the brunt of the heat. Not so much. It was a scorcher from the start.
Things were going well until the 4th inning, when it seemed that hell literally broke loose. The Midland RockHounds scored 8 runs in the top half of the 4th to take a 9-0 lead. Not to be outdone, the RoughRiders scored 5 runs in the bottom half of the inning, which had to have been one of the longest in my baseball watching career. I know for sure it was the hottest inning I've ever seen.
The one thing that made the trip worthwhile was getting to witness John Mayberry's first Double-A game. If points were awarded for looking like a major leaguer, Mayberry would get more than his share. The 6'6" center fielder, drafted in the first round by the Rangers in '05, was promoted from Class A Bakersfield after leading the California League in home runs (16). At the plate he reminded me of a young, right-handed Darryl Strawberry.
Mayberry had a pop up that was caught near the first base dugout in his first at-bat. But he did get his first hit, first RBI, and first run scored for Frisco in that never ending 4th inning. Mayberry lined an 0-1 pitch to the left field gap in his second at bat that drove in a run. Not a bad day for Mayberry's first AA ballgame.
Oh yeah, Frisco won the game. Catcher Salomon Manriquez hit a 3-run walkoff homer, his second 3-run homer of the game, to give the RoughRiders a 13-11 come from behind win. I wish I could say that we saw it, but we had to settle for Scott Garner's call on 990 AM. The heat had put little man down for the count in the back seat, and I took a pretty good beating out there myself. I think we'll catch the 7:30 start next time.
