Austin Kearns expected to be in Cincinnati -- he did not expect to get there this early into the 2002 season. An injury to Reds first baseman Sean Casey opened the door for Kearns.
photo by Tim Evearitt (file photo)
The following article concerns Austin Kearns' - his call up from the Chattanooga Lookouts and his first day with the Cincinnati Reds. It appears on the Cincinnati Enquirer web site.
Kearns got a single in his first game. Sunday he hit his first career home run against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
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Austin Kearns exchanges handshakes with first-base coach Jose Cardenal Wednesday, and then touches the bill of his cap to acknowledge the cheers.
He looks up into the stands, scans the crowd of 14,527 and notices most of the fans are on their feet. They are applauding his run-scoring single to right field in the fourth inning of the Reds-Astros game at Cinergy Field.
“Wow!” Kearns says to himself. “We don't get crowds like this in the minors.”
Just then — right before Kearns steps away from the first-base bag to take his lead — Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell says to him warmly: “Congratulations. That was a good one.”
Which is why Kearns finally smiles, for the first time since arriving at the bag. He takes his lead off first base; he is beaming.
He knows this is a day he will never forget.
“Coming from him, with all that he's done in his career, it means a lot,” Kearns said of Bagwell's comment. “I appreciate what he said. He didn't have to say anything.”
What Kearns doesn't know is that Bagwell also made his debut here — 11 years earlier — on Opening Day 1991.
“I was on overload that day,” Bagwell said. “The troops had just come back from Desert Storm; some of them were being honored. The Reds had just come off winning the World Series; the fans were jacked. Me? I wasn't quite there.”
But Bagwell remembers his at-bats vividly.
Hitters who can't tell you what they had for breakfast can tell you what they did on each of their debut-day at-bats five or 10 or 20 — or in the case of Frank Robinson, 46 — years ago.
“I went 0-for-3,” Bagwell said. “I walked on my first at-bat. Tom Browning was pitching. Then I made a couple of outs. On my last at-bat — Rob Dibble was pitching — I lined out to end the game.”
Who caught the lineout?
“Barry Larkin. He was standing up the middle. He caught the guy off base. Double play.”
Does Bagwell remember anything else about that day?
“I remember listening to the national anthem in the dugout, and I was shaking,” he said. “I couldn't stop myself from shaking. I can't tell you anything that happened in the field. I remember my father was there. I couldn't even tell you if my mom was there. But yeah, I remember those at-bats.”
Why does Bagwell think he was so nervous?
“There's so much going through your mind: "I can't believe I'm here. Am I good enough to be here? I'm gonna play today, but am I good enough to stay here?'”
Kearns says the most nervous he ever was in a big-league uniform wasn't Wednesday night, but two years ago when he got his lone at-bat in a Reds spring training game, against Randy Wolf of the Phillies.
“My knees were shaking,” Kearns said. “I was thinking, "Geez, can people see my legs shaking up here?' I said to myself: "Try not to do anything too stupid. Hit like you normally hit.'”
Kearns relied on the only thing a person has in such a moment: instinct.
So, how did he do?
“I hit a home run,” he said, smiling.
• • •
When the Chattanooga manager called Kearns off the field in the sixth inning of the Double-A Lookouts' game Tuesday night and told Kearns he was going to the big leagues, the outfielder didn't know what to say.
“I had a weird feeling all over, a tingling feeling,” he said.
Shortly after leaving the game, Kearns called his father, Dan, back home in Lexington.
“I'm going to Cincinnati tomorrow and I'm starting the game in right field,” Austin told his dad.
“You're kidding,” Dan said.
“Nope. They're calling me up.”
“Man, are you excited?”
“Yeah!”
When Dan awakened Austin's mother to tell her the news, she let out a scream of delight.
“I didn't sleep much after that,” Jan Kearns said. “But it was worth it. It was good. It was a nice non-sleep.”
Kearns also had a hard time getting to sleep that night, but when he finally did, he slept well.
But on the plane ride to Cincinnati, he felt some butterflies in his stomach.
After Kearns had lunch with his buddy and fellow Red, Adam Dunn, he checked into his hotel room and then went to the ballpark.
And what was the one thing that jumped out at him like nothing else he would encounter this day?
The unbelievably white, freshly pressed uniform top hanging in his locker.
KEARNS — 48.
Clubhouse manager Rick Stowe didn't have to do any scrambling to have it ready. He had a feeling Kearns would get the call.
Former Reds catcher Johnny Bench, now a special consultant to Reds general manager Jim Bowden, stopped by Kearns' cubicle to congratulate him and urge him to enjoy the day, relax and have fun.
Just before the game was to start, Kearns put on his uniform. Perfect.
And the tingling feeling returned.
“When you figure out you're serious about baseball, this is what you want someday — your name on the back of a major-league uniform,” Kearns said.
“Before you ever get here, you dream that you're in the big leagues, putting on a uniform. That's the best way I can explain it. Hopefully, this will be one of many times I get to put it on.”
After the game — in which he flawlessly fielded his position (left field, not right as he originally had been told) and ran the bases like a big-leaguer — he met with his family and waved goodbye to them as they headed home. Then he signed his name for the remaining autograph seekers.
He hustled back to the hotel just in time to order room service: a club sandwich.
What, he didn't get to sample the food in the Reds' clubhouse?
Postgame, there was grilled chicken marinara and provolone cheese; bowtie pasta, couscous, and steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Pregame there was ground sirloin and chicken burgers; asparagus, artichoke hearts, red peppers, potato wedges, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and tossed salad.
Nobody eats as well as a big-leaguer.
Well, most big-leaguers.
“I didn't even know there was a spread,” Kearns said.
He's learning.
Reporters have found Austin Kearns to be a somewhat reserved, shy, and laid-back young man.
photo by Tim Evearitt (file photo)