Injury elicits memories of ‘Moonlight’
It didn’t take long for the best day of Dustin Fowler’s baseball career to become the worst. The New York Yankees rookie outfielder, playing in the very first inning of his very first big-league game Thursday night, slammed into the wall beyond the foul line in right field at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.
He ruptured the patellar tendon in his right knee, requiring surgery Thursday night and ending his baseball season right then and there. He was helped off the field before he even had his first major-league at-bat.
The incident brought to mind “Moonlight” Graham, whose baseball legend revolves around never getting an at-bat in the big leagues. In Field of Dreams, the story goes that Graham got called up to the New York Giants in 1905, played half an inning in the field, but the on-deck circle was the closest he got to the plate. Fowler, speaking to the New
York Post’s Kevin Kernan on Friday, said that won’t be him. The 22-year-old outfielder is something of a surprise for the 2017 Yankees. He was drafted in the 18th round in 2013 and wasn’t really on the fast-track to the big leagues before this season. But then he was hitting .293 with 14 home runs at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and earned a promotion.
“It’s just an unfortunate situation,” said Fowler, who apparently slammed into an unpadded box on the railing. “I’m going to do everything I can to get to a ball, that’s how I play, and I hit the wrong part of the fence, it was just kind of a freak accident that you can’t really do anything about.
“I’m glad I was there for one day,” he said, “but I’m pretty bummed out I am not going to be there for the rest of the year.”