SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The primary time Jeff Banister stepped right into a big-league clubhouse, it was 9 o’clock.
Within the morning.
That evening’s sport wouldn’t begin for one more 10 hours, however once you’ve waited your complete life for that second, there’s no level in placing it off even a second longer.
The very first thing Banister noticed when he entered the darkened room was a No. 28 Pittsburgh Pirates’ jersey hanging in a locker together with his identify, in black letters and gold trim, operating from shoulder to shoulder. Within the lockers on both aspect hung the jerseys of Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla.
“There was a security light. It was like a beacon on my jersey,” Banister mentioned final month, his voice catching at a reminiscence that’s now 34 years outdated. “It kind of got real at that moment. Like, ‘Hey, I’m in the big leagues.’”
Within the seventh inning of that evening’s sport, an in any other case uneventful 12-3 win over the Atlanta Braves at Three Rivers Stadium, Banister got here to the plate as a pinch-hitter and grounded a 1-1 pitch into the outlet at quick, beating the throw to first for an infield single. 4 days later he was gone, optioned again to the minor leagues. Banister would by no means seem in a significant league sport once more.
However he’s by no means forgotten the one he did play in.
“It was a surreal moment to walk out on that field,” he mentioned. “I’d seen it so many times on TV, but just the feeling of all the first moments — the first time in the stadium, the clubhouse — they become a little overwhelming.”
Because the first big-league sport in 1876, 20,790 males have performed within the majors, in accordance with the Baseball Almanac. Extra will be a part of that checklist as spring coaching offers technique to the common season. But it stays a small quantity; greater than twice as many individuals completed the Chicago Marathon final fall.
And Banister’s identify will at all times be amongst them.
His identify can be among the many 1,519 gamers whose big-league profession lasted only one sport, in accordance with the Baseball Reference web site, an inventory that runs from Frank Norton, who struck out in his solely plate look for the Washington Olympians on Could 5, 1871, to Giants pitcher Trevor McDonald, who threw three hitless innings on the ultimate day of the 2024 season.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Trevor McDonald threw three hitless innings towards the St. Louis Cardinals on the final day of the 2024 season.
(Tony Avelar / Related Press)
In between, Corridor of Fame supervisor Walter Alston, made an error in two possibilities at first base and struck out in a single at-bat in his solely big-league sport in 1936. Eighteen years earlier, Brooklyn Robins’ pitcher Harry Heitman confronted 4 batters, giving up 4 hits and 4 runs, then fled the stadium earlier than the ultimate pitch to hitch the Navy.
Larry Yount, brother of Corridor of Famer Robin Yount, got here out of the bullpen to pitch for the Astros in 1971, however damage his arm warming up; his profession ended earlier than he threw a pitch. Then there’s Archibald Wright “Moonlight” Graham, who twice hit higher than .325 in eight minor league seasons however didn’t get an at-bat within the majors, taking part in two innings in proper subject for the New York Giants in 1905 with out touching the ball. Three years later he gave up for baseball to follow medication within the small mining city of Chisholm, Minn.
Larry Yount, above pitching for the Denver Bears in 1973, damage his arm warming up after coming into a sport for the Houston Astros in 1971.
(Barry Staver / Denver Submit by way of Getty Pictures)
The pathos of Graham’s transient big-league profession is romanticized in W.P. Kinsella’s novel “Shoeless Joe” and later within the Kevin Costner film “Field of Dreams.” Graham made it to the majors, however by no means acquired to bat. Others, like Banister, acquired one at-bat, however by no means performed within the subject.
But there’s a narrative behind each considered one of these transient big-league appearances.
“I’m proud of what I accomplished. And I think that I accomplished something unique,” mentioned catcher Jack Kruger, who performed one inning for the Angels in 2021. “But I think I was capable of more.”
For others like Banister, considered one of 53 gamers to retire with a 1.000 batting common, there aren’t any regrets.
“Absolutely zero,” he mentioned. “I loved every minute of it.”
“A cup of coffee” is the idiom baseball has created to explain a brief keep within the majors. Listed here are the tales of 4 males who acquired to understand the dream of taking part in within the massive leagues, however solely stayed lengthy sufficient to have a cup of Joe.
It’s been 12 years since Brandon Bantz performed in his solely big-league sport. However he hasn’t forgotten how thrilling it felt the primary time he stepped onto a significant league subject in a uniform.
“I just remember looking at the third deck being like ‘it’s a lot bigger than I had remembered,’” he mentioned. “That was that first kind of ‘a-ha’ moment. That was the first time I was thinking ‘that’s pretty cool.’”
The New York Yankees’ Mark Teixeira, proper, scores forward of the throw to Seattle Mariners catcher Brandon Bantz throughout a sport on June 8, 2013 — the one considered one of Bantz’s MLB profession.
(Ted S. Warren / Related Press)
Bantz was known as up from Triple A Tacoma by the Seattle Mariners on June 5, 2013; three days later he would catch eight innings towards Andy Pettitte and the New York Yankees, grounding to quick and hanging out in two at-bats in a 3-1 loss.
Lower than every week later he was outrighted again to Tacoma. He would by no means play within the majors once more.
“A lot of times, you get only one chance,” Bantz, 38, says now. “There’s disappointment there, right? Any athlete that goes in has a dream, since you’re a little kid, of playing in the major leagues. Being able to achieve that goal, obviously that’s a big achievement.
“But I think the competitor in me definitely feels like I wasn’t able to really show the ability that I had.”
But Bantz overcame lengthy odds simply to get these two at-bats. Greater than 4 of each 5 gamers chosen within the Main League Baseball draft by no means make it to the large leagues.
Bantz, a catcher, wasn’t chosen till the thirtieth spherical of the 2009 draft; 892 others had been taken forward of him. However he caught a break on step one of the minor league ladder when John Boles, a particular assistant with the Mariners, noticed Bantz play for Seattle’s rookie-level group in Pulaski, Va.
“He actually came up to me after the game and said, ‘You’ve got a chance,’” Bantz remembered. “That kind of set the trajectory of changing how people viewed me in the organization.”
When an damage opened a spot in Single-A Everett, Wash., every week later, Bantz was promoted. Though Bantz struggled on the plate — he hit simply .234 and by no means had greater than 4 homers in seven minor league seasons — he threw out practically half the runners who tried to steal on him, so he continued to climb a stage every year, reaching Double A in his first full minor league summer time and Triple A a season later.
From there it was a brief journey — simply 33 miles up Interstate 5 — from Triple A Tacoma to Seattle’s Safeco Subject and its intimidating third deck.
Brandon Bantz grounded out to quick and struck out in his two at-bats for the Seattle Mariners on June 8, 2013.
(Otto Greule Jr / Getty Pictures)
Bantz’s solely big-league sport acquired off to inauspicious begin when he went out to heart subject to heat up pitcher Joe Saunders and threw the ball over his head, plunking a fan within the leg. However when the sport began, the butterflies went away.
“Once the game gets going, it’s just a regular game. It’s the same thing you’ve been doing your whole life,” Bantz mentioned. “If you’re just kind of like, ‘Oh, man this is crazy! That’s Andy Pettitte,’ you’re not in a position to compete.”
5 days later, Bantz was despatched again down the freeway to Tacoma and over the following 2 ½ seasons he could be signed and launched by the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins, with a 49-game stint within the impartial Atlantic League sandwiched in between.
His baseball profession was over earlier than his twenty ninth birthday.
“A lot of people around the game are two things,” mentioned Bantz, the founder and CEO of Catchers Central, which develops baseball and softball gamers. “They’re either bitter or they can’t close the yearbook. My career was what it was. Sure, every one of us wants to reach the big leagues, play for 20 years, go to the Hall of Fame, win the World Series. However, that’s not going to be the case for everybody.
“The reality is, it’s a game and the journey across that game is what should be celebrated. How my playing journey concluded, that’s what it was supposed to be.”
Jeff Banister’s baseball profession practically ended earlier than it had actually began. When he was 15, an examination of a painfully swollen ankle resulted in a diagnoses of bone most cancers. A bacterial an infection in the identical leg was consuming away on the bone marrow. If the leg wasn’t amputated, a health care provider informed him, he may die.
The evening earlier than the operation, Banister hugged his father and mentioned he’d reasonably die than lose his leg so his physician tried one other method and after seven surgical procedures, Banister walked out of the hospital a yr later, most cancers free.
A few years later he was again within the hospital after a baserunner, making an attempt to hurdle Banister on a play on the plate, as an alternative kneed the catcher within the head, breaking three vertebrae.
“I thought I was dead,” he mentioned.
And he would have been had any sudden motion interfered together with his respiration. He was briefly paralyzed, a situation that required three operations and one other yr of rehab to remedy. By the point he left the hospital with the assistance of a walker, he had misplaced practically 100 kilos. So when the Pirates chosen him within the twenty fifth spherical of the 1986 June draft — a spherical so deep it now not exists — it was as a lot a reward for his tenacity because it was for his expertise.
That, not less than, was the purpose Pirates scout Buzzy Keller made when he signed Banister for a $1,000 bonus over lunch at a Wendy’s in Baytown, Texas.
“He told me, ‘I’m not going to make you rich. But you’ve earned an opportunity,’” mentioned Banister, who at 61 has the tan, chiseled attractiveness and plain-spoken method of a Western film sheriff. “And so I got to thinking about that and he was right. What I did with the opportunity was make the most out of that.”
He struggled to hit at his first three minor league stops however put collectively a strong fourth season, hitting .272 in a yr break up between Double A and Triple A. So 4 months into the 1991 season, he was known as up by the Pirates after backup catcher Don Slaught pulled a muscle in his rib cage.
Banister, then 27, nonetheless remembers the date.
“July 23, 1991,” he says with out prompting.
The decision got here so quick, nobody in his household may make it to Pittsburgh for his big-league debut. “I didn’t leave a ticket for anybody,” he mentioned.
Supervisor Jim Leyland, conscious the Banister’s household lived in Houston, mapped out a plan to have him begin that weekend within the Astrodome, solely to see pitcher Bob Stroll scramble these plans when he strained a hamstring operating the bases. The Pirates despatched Banister again down and known as up Tom Prince, who went on to spend 17 seasons within the majors. Banister by no means performed a big-league sport once more.
That winter he blew out his elbow taking part in winter ball, necessitating extra surgical procedure. He would seem in simply eight extra video games in professional ball earlier than changing into a minor league supervisor, finally working his manner again to the majors as a coach and supervisor with the Pirates, Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Arizona Diamondbacks bench coach Jeff Banister was a part of the group that reached the World Sequence in 2023.
(Brynn Anderson / Related Press)
However he’s by no means forgotten what it means to stroll right into a big-league clubhouse for the primary — and perhaps solely — time.
“We’re not guaranteed 3,000 at-bats,” Bannister, starting his fourth season because the Diamondbacks bench coach, says. “We’re not guaranteed one.”
Jack Kruger’s big-league profession was so quick in case you blinked, you might need missed it. But the climb to get there was so difficult, it’s a surprise Kruger made it in any respect.
On Could 6, 2021, Angels supervisor Joe Maddon despatched Kruger on to catch the ninth inning of an in any other case forgettable 8-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, a sport that ended with Kruger standing within the on-deck circle. But Kruger’s father Tim mentioned he nonetheless will get chills enthusiastic about that evening.
“It was surreal,” he mentioned. “It was like being in a dream. I’m sitting there with my wife, holding hands and just thinking, ‘My gosh, our son is playing in a major-league game.’”
No gamers’ path to the majors is simple, however few have needed to overcome as many obstacles as Kruger. When he was 5, Kruger was recognized with Perthes illness, a uncommon situation by which the blood provide to the thigh is briefly disrupted, resulting in bone injury and stunting development.
However there was a silver lining to that black cloud as a result of after spending 18 months on crutches, Kruger was cleared by docs for only one bodily exercise: hitting a baseball.
Catcher Jack Kruger performed one inning of 1 sport for the Angels on Could 6, 2021.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Occasions)
So Tim started pitching to his son and as Jack’s bones healed and he started to develop, that follow started to repay. As a senior yr at Oaks Christian, Kruger hit .343 with seven homers and 37 RBIs. His dream, nevertheless, had by no means been to play within the majors, it was to serve his nation. So he enrolled at West Level.
Then got here the following setback. On the day he was to placed on his cadet uniform for the primary time, the college declared him medically ineligible due to his childhood illness. His dream was gone.
“It was devastating,” Tim Kruger mentioned. “He had his life planned.”
So Kruger made new plans, taking part in one season at Oregon, one at Orange Coast Faculty and one at Mississippi State, the place he made the all-conference group and drew the eye of the Angels, who took him within the twentieth spherical of 2016 MLB draft.
Kruger methodically climbed the minor league ladder and was in Salt Lake Metropolis for his first season in Triple A when supervisor Lou Marson known as him on the lodge. Angels catcher Max Stassi was happening the injured checklist with a concussion; Kruger was to get on the following airplane to Anaheim.
He was going to The Present — and Albert Pujols, a future Corridor of Famer, was one of many gamers designated for project to make room for him on the roster.
The subsequent 30 hours are nonetheless a blur, he mentioned. He acquired to Angel Stadium simply an hour earlier than the primary pitch, too late for batting follow and with simply sufficient time to drag on a jersey together with his identify in pink block letters and black trim above a darkish pink quantity No. 59. For the primary eight innings he sat on the bench alongside Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout earlier than Maddon despatched him on within the ninth to catch 20 pitches from right-hander Steve Cishek.
When he returned to the ballpark the following day a front-office staffer met him at his locker and informed him he had been designated for project.
“It came out of nowhere,” Kruger mentioned. “And he didn’t know my name.”
Requested about Kruger 4 years later Maddon, a catcher who spent 4 years within the low minors, remembered the ninth inning of that one-sided sport. And he remembered why he despatched Kruger in for the ultimate inning, making him a significant leaguer without end.
“I wanted to get him in that game,” he mentioned. “One more hitter gets on base and he gets to hit. Never happened [but] we did out best to make it a complete experience for him. I know it’s something he’ll never forget and he absolutely deserved it.”
Kruger, 30, went on to play two extra seasons with the Texas Rangers’ Triple A affiliate in Spherical Rock, Texas, hitting .243 in 66 video games. However he by no means entered a big-league clubhouse once more. After baseball, Kruger co-founded an organization known as D1 Scholarship to assist athletes in a number of sports activities negotiate the faculty recruiting course of.
“I did everything I could with the opportunities I was given. So I don’t necessarily have any regrets or think or wish I would have done something differently,” he mentioned. “It was great for what it was. And then I moved on to the next thing.”
For one transient, shining September afternoon, 18-year-old John Paciorek was the very best participant in main league baseball.
On the ultimate day of the 1963 season, Paciorek, went three for 3 with two walks, three RBIs, 4 runs scored and two splendid operating catches in proper subject for Houston’s Colt .45s in a 13-4 win over the New York Mets. In his final at-bat, he acquired a standing ovation — if the applause from a crowd of three,899 could be known as an ovation.
“It was like a dream,” he mentioned.
It was the one time Paciorek appeared on a big-league subject.
The eldest of 5 brothers who grew up simply outdoors Detroit, taking part in each sport that concerned a ball — and a few that didn’t — Paciorek accepted a $45,000 bonus to signal with the Colt .45s, the forerunners of the Astros, in 1962, whereas he was nonetheless in highschool.
He was invited to big-league spring coaching the next yr however hit simply .219 at Modesto within the Single A California League in his first professional season. He performed with verve, hustling to first after walks and sprinting on and off the sphere each half-inning, however he additionally injured his again and shoulder and developed a chronically sore throwing arm late within the yr.
He was summoned to Houston that September anyway, partly to have his again checked. With the Colt .45s languishing close to the underside of the 10-team Nationwide League standings, Houston supervisor Harry Craft determined to start out a lineup of rookies, amongst them Joe Morgan, Jimmy Wynn and Rusty Staub, on that remaining Sunday. Paciorek was quickly added to that lineup.
“One of the guys asked if I would like to play,” he mentioned. “I jumped at the opportunity. I wasn’t even thinking of my back. So I went to church and communion and everything else and got to the ballpark early.
“I knew I had to be stretched out and ready to go.”
Batting seventh, he drew a stroll within the second and scored on John Bateman’s triple; drove in two runs with a single to left within the fourth; drove in one other run with a single to left within the sixth; walked and scored within the sixth; then singled once more within the seventh.
“The hits I got were kind of like hits on the handle,” he mentioned. “I was physically strong enough to force the ball over the shortstop’s head.”
John Paciorek recorded three hits in his one MLB sport with the Houston Colt 45’s, now the Astros.
(Picture Courtesy of the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame and Museum)
But it surely was that energy and what Paciorek did to constructed it that contributed to the accidents that ended his profession.
“I was such a fanatic about exercise and building myself up,” he mentioned. “I was always doing exercises and doing drills. I had no idea about what I was doing.”
Whether or not that contributed to a continual again situation is difficult to say; one physician known as it an abnormality from start. What’s sure is the ache was accountable for his poor efficiency in Modesto, particularly after he tore muscle tissue in his higher again.
Nonetheless, his good sport on the ultimate day of the 1963 season acquired him invited again to spring coaching the next yr to compete for the beginning job in heart subject.
As an alternative, he struggled to do essentially the most staple items.
“I’d be charging a ground ball and bend over, oh my God it’s like a knife going through my back,” he mentioned. A few months later, after batting .135 over 49 video games at Single A, he underwent surgical procedure to fuse two lumbar vertebrae, then spent 10 months in a again brace.
.
“If I would have been more intelligently inclined and I would have known something about chiropractic application or practice, I probably would never had had the operation,” he mentioned. “I developed all kinds of injuries because the fusion limited my movement.”
Whereas recovering from the operation, Paciorek enrolled within the College of Houston, finally incomes a level in bodily training he would quickly put to good use. After two extra seasons in Houston’s minor league system, hitting .172 and hanging out in additional than 1 / 4 of his at-bats, he was launched and signed with Cleveland. He hit a career-best .268 with 20 homers and 73 RBIs in Single A in 1968, however a yr later he was launched once more and retired to grow to be a trainer on the non-public Clairbourn College in San Gabriel, the place he labored for 41 years earlier than he retired once more in 2017, months after the college constructed a batting cage and named it in his honor.
A yr after Paciorek give up taking part in, youthful brother Tom made his big-league debut for the Dodgers, starting an 18-year profession that will see him play in an All-Star Sport and a World Sequence. One other brother would play 48 video games for the Milwaukee Brewers and two of John’s 4 sons performed minor league baseball. However none of them matched the perfection of Paciorek, who stays the one main league participant to retire with a 1.000 batting common in additional than two at-bats.
“My record will probably never be broken,” Paciorek mentioned. “I was just so fortunate. I must have been predestined to demonstrate perfection to a certain extent.
“Maybe that’s why I’m carrying this on for 60 years, this whole idea of perfection.”
What, in spite of everything, may very well be extra good than taking part in within the massive leagues, the place the reminiscences of 1 sport can final a lifetime?
