This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Coming off a stint on the injured list on April 29, D-backs reliever Kevin Ginkel didn’t feel comfortable going two days without at least playing catch before seeing action in a big league game again.
The right-hander had already missed throwing that previous Sunday and Arizona had an off-day in New York on Monday before opening a series against the Mets the next day. Ginkel knew that starting pitchers like to stay on their throwing programs, so he figured someone would be available to throw with him.
Yes, Ginkel was told, Tuesday’s starter Eduardo Rodriguez was planning on throwing Monday, but not at Citi Field.
Rodriguez was going to throw in Central Park at a spot recommended by pitching coach Brian Kaplan. Ginkel asked if he could tag along.
“It worked out perfectly,” Ginkel said. “It was about 20-minute walk from our hotel. There was a perfect spot where there are some fields, some of which were being used for a softball game. Luckily, we had a field that was open, and it was pretty cool. You're in a big city and this is one of the coolest parks to be at in the world. I think it was just a perfect day, too. It was really sweet.”
Now, though this might seem unusual, it turns out a number of pitchers around the Majors do this in these types of circumstances, and it’s something Rodriguez has done a number of times.
“A lot of starters do that,” Rodriguez said. “That’s day four [of five] and you’ve just got to play catch and do some sprints. We’re in New York, and rather than take a long Uber ride over to [Citi Field], we just walked over there and played catch. I’ve done it before in Chicago. I’ve done it in a lot of places over the years.”
As they were finishing up playing catch, they saw a man with no shoes watching them intently. Ginkel walked over and started talking to him.
“The guy goes to me, ‘Wow, it looks like you’re throwing 97 mph,’” Ginkel said. “It just seemed like he loved the game. So E-Rod starts talking to him in Spanish and asked him if he wanted to play catch. It was pretty organic how it all came about.”
The man -- who was originally from Cuba -- had a glove, and he and Rodriguez started to play catch. It was such a cool moment that Ginkel quickly grabbed his phone and began shooting some video.
“We were thinking, ‘This guy probably knows how to play catch,’” Rodriguez said. “We could see he had a glove that was pretty well made. And we came out of the little field we were playing on and I just asked him, ‘Can you catch a ball?’ He said yeah, and we just started playing catch.”
The man said it was the first time he had ever held an official Major League ball, which Rodriguez gave him to keep.
“The good part was, at the end, he just said that we made his day because he had never had a professional baseball in his hand,” Rodriguez said. “But it was him who made our day.”
“It was just perfect,” Ginkel said.