PITTSBURGH – It’s early. Three games. Nine at-bats. Sixteen swings.
Besides, less than a week ago, he was playing in the minor leagues. So, yeah, consider the context.
But then this run of rookies making debuts and making noise means it might be time to start reconsidering the context. At the least, it makes for a fun story. It also begs the question:
How many of these guys do the Tigers have tucked away? And since when do 13th-rounders announce themselves with a hit and at least one RBI in each of their first three games?
Obviously, Brett Callahan isn’t going to keep this up. But then his 2023 draft classmates Max Clark (No. 3 overall) and Kevin McGonigle (No. 37) have, so why not him?
Not that Callahan is asking that. Though, would you blame him? He squared a 97-mph heater down and away and yanked it into the right-field seats and then left Clark hanging with a high-five at home plate.
He didn’t see him with all the giddy in his eyes. He felt bad, for a moment, until his teammates mobbed him in the dugout and dumped sunflower seeds on his head.
It’s good to celebrate the firsts, no? Especially in this sport, where the seconds and thirds and fourths are even harder to come by.
“I knew it was gone right off the bat,” he said. “It felt good.”
Good?
He’ll remember the moment the rest of his life. Remember, too, that his college baseball manager, Fritz Hamburg, drove over from Philadelphia, where he still coaches at Saint Joseph University, and where Callahan played, and for whom Callahan is now the only former Hawk to have homered in the major leagues.
Also in the crowd was his middle school coach and history teacher. They met up on the field after the game.
Callahan may have a long and productive career in the bigs, and he may play for a team that holds a parade some day, but he’ll never have another moment quite like that.
“Really awesome [they] could be here,” said Callahan, who had breakfast with Hamburg before the game Tuesday, Aug. 18.
You can guess what they talked about.
Why Brett Callahan belongs at this level
Speaking of talking, Callahan’s big-league manager, A.J. Hinch, likes what he sees in Callahan in part because of what he hears, too.
“Clearly, we like the swing,” Hinch said Tuesday after the Tigers lost to the Pirates, 4-1. “He’s confident in his swing.”
And?
“I love what he’s saying in the dugout and around our hitting coaches,” he said.
It’s a combo of humility, curiosity, and self-belief that seems to course through these rookies. You’d be thinking – humbly, of course – that you belonged, too, if you began your MLB career with a triple, followed that with a couple RBIs, and followed that with a home run.
The blast – a solo shot – came in the fifth inning at PNC Park against one of the hotter pitchers in the National League, Braxton Ashcraft. The high-heat hurler shut down Callahan’s teammates Tuesday, working eight dominant innings except for that homer he gave up to the Tigers’ latest rookie.
Not that the rookie outfielder was bragging after he’d taken him deep or even saying he belonged as he met with reporters in front of his locker. He didn’t need to. His smooth, powerful swing is saying it for him.
Whether he keeps it up or ends up back in Toledo is hard to say given the youth movement taking over the clubhouse. If nothing else, he’s learned he can relax in the batter’s box at this level and that his best bet is to keep letting his body do the work.
So far, it’s working. And that makes it compelling, just as first-ever home runs are compelling, too.
A 7-year old Pirates fan wound up with Callahan’s home run ball. The rookie met the kid and signed and took pictures in exchange for the keepsake.
“It was really cool,” he said.
A pretty fair trade, someone remarked, to which Callahan agreed, though he admitted he’d have given up more, too. For that was history, personal and public, and the youngster – he is 24 – is quickly learning where the two meet.
As Hinch said, “He’s really adjusting to this level like he belongs. And he does.”
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wait, another Tigers rookie is making history? Yes, Brett Callahan is
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
