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He waited his whole life for this kind of moment, and suddenly, it was upon him like a rocket.
Then Greg Golson relied on his rocket arm to create a major sight.
He entered a game for the New York Yankees last year as a reserve, and made a gem of a double play from the outfield to finish off an extra-inning victory.
This was down in Tampa Bay in September, just a few minutes from where the Yankees hold spring training. Only Golson had been training for big major league moments for six seasons in the minor leagues.
The Yankees sent him in as a defensive replacement – a good choice since defense has always been his forte. He gloved a fly ball in medium right field for the second out of the 10th inning. Carl Crawford of Tampa Bay tried to tag up from second base and go to third on the play, but he never made it.
Because Golson unleashed a beauty of a throw for the game’s final out.
“That was awesome,” Golson said. “It was the best part of my life so far.”
As he opens the seventh minor league season of his life back in Triple-A with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Golson sometimes replays that moment in his mind, because it reminds him what he is capable of when given a chance.
The Yankees finally opened a door of opportunity for Golson, giving him 24 games in his first extended major league playing experience. And Golson wasn’t about to drop the ball.
Everyone knew he could catch it, because Golson has been chasing down every ball he should and some he probably shouldn’t, ever since the Phillies made him a first-round draft choice in 2004.
But it’s the way Golson handled himself at the plate that boosted his value to a major league level.
Back to work
He batted .261 with a couple of doubles over three callups to New York last year, nearly matching his .263 lifetime minor league average – which is exactly what he batted for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2010.
“The thing about New York,” Golson was saying, after the SWB Yankees were rained out at Lehigh Valley on Friday, “is that you’re at Yankee Stadium. I think every baseball player understands that’s a pressure situation.”
His situation hasn’t changed all that much, even after a couple of major league moments to build on from last year.
Golson goes back to work at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, trying to play his way back to New York again.
“As long as I take care of my business here,” Golson said, “everything else is going to take care of itself.”
He sure took care of first things first. Golson came out swinging in the Triple-A opener Thursday, picking up the first multi-hit game of the season for the SWB Yankees. Along the way, Golson had a double, a run scored and extended his International League hitting streak to 10 games, going back to last season.
“I think one of the biggest things about baseball is confidence,” Golson said. “To go up to New York, get a couple starts, get some hits really helped me.”
He goes back to that thrilling outfield play of September as a motivator.
“Once that play happened,” Golson said, “it was like, ‘Here we go.’”
He is going to be all right trying to fight his way to more major league playing time. Because once he got a taste of some major league success, Golson got hungry for more of the same.