A’s Fowler tries to dodge Moonlight Graham fate
Injured before his first at-bat
MESA, Ariz. – Dustin Fowler was due to lead off the top of the second inning for the New York Yankees in his major league debut on June 29, but the outfielder crashed into a sidewall in right-field foul territory at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago in the bottom of the first and ruptured the patella tendon in his knee on an exposed electrical box. The gruesome injury left Yankees manager Joe Girardi in tears as Fowler was taken to a hospital for season-ending emergency surgery.
Sent to the Oakland Athletics organization in a trade-deadline deal for starter Sonny Gray, Fowler is still awaiting his first major league at-bat.
“I got through it,” he told For The Win at the club’s spring training facility last week. “You ask yourself, why on my debut? Why something so serious? But the way I look at it, things happen for a reason. You can’t explain it, and you never will be able to explain it or know why it happened.
“Thankfully I was able to go home and kind of get away from baseball a little bit, focus on my knee, not get too down on myself.”
Fowler spent eight months rehabbing his injury, first in New York, then, following the trade, in Oakland.
He watched as the group of young players with whom he developed in the Yankees system exceeded expectations and fought to within one game of a World Series berth.
“I worked so hard to finally get there and play with them,” he said. “I was drafted by them, and I wanted to play with them. It was tough seeing how well they were doing and how well the younger guys they called up were doing because I wanted to be a part of that. But that’s part of it. I pulled for them, and I’m glad they did as well as they did.”
The trade to Oakland cleared a fairly straightforward path for Fowler to finally get that first atbat, and soon. He ranks among the club’s top five prospects heading into 2018 and maintains a shot at an opening-day job in center field. After taking extra plate appearances in minor league games to shore up his timing following the long absence, Fowler feels good, and normal, and happy to be playing baseball.
“He looks great,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Looks like he’s made some strides here, and he’s more comfortable at the plate.”
Until that first at-bat comes, Fowler exists alongside Moonlight Graham in a fraternity of 60-some position players in major league history to appear in a game without getting a single plate appearance.
Fowler says he “can’t wait to finally get (his first at-bat) over with and get this tragic story behind me,” but, naturally, one time to the plate does not make for a satisfying big-league tenure.
In the Rangers camp in Surprise, Ariz., manager Jeff Banister understands that better than anybody. Banister nearly lost his leg as a teenager to bone cancer and an ensuing infection, then broke three vertebrae in his neck in a home-plate collision in junior college in 1983 but nonetheless fought his way to the majors with the Pirates in 1991. He notched a hit in his lone appearance as a pinch-hitter in a 12-3 blowout of the Atlanta Braves on July 23 of that year but never played in another bigleague game.
“I’ve gotten over the fact that I wish it had been more — it was a long time ago,” Banister said. “You beat yourself over it — should’ve been more. Absolutely, it eats at you, for as long as you’re playing. … There is something to be said, in the old school
Baseball Encyclopedia, or Baseball-reference.com, when you actually see a measurable number beside your name. It’s kind of that mark that says you were there. It’s kind of hard to be that Moonlight Graham, where, your name is there, you showed up in a game, but there’s no number to show you participated.
“None of us is guaranteed that. It’s better than zero. I had a player that played for me last year — a pitcher that has been up twice and has yet to be in a game, and I watched him get hurt on a spring training field.
“Any time I see that, any time you hear that type of story, I feel for them. I got an opportunity. I respect the fact that these guys continue to push and pursue their dream.
“I think the greatest chal- lenge is, I hope each one of these guys understand that just reaching it shouldn’t be enough. They need to set their sights on reaching it and beyond, because you can get caught up in the fact that you reached it — kind of the pinnacle — and not set yourself up for what’s next.”
“It’s kind of hard to be that Moonlight Graham, where, your name is there, you showed up in a game, but there’s no number to show you participated.” Rangers manager Jeff Banister On Dustin Fowler