It might have been the biggest day of young Grayson Rodriguez’s life. On Tuesday afternoon, just after getting called up by the Baltimore Orioles to make his major league debut, Rodriguez telephoned his mother to tell her the news. According to Temple Rodriguez herself, “I screamed like there had been a murder in Nacogdoches.” Twenty-four or so hours later, the Rodriguez family plus a large rooting section from his hometown of Nacogdoches had made the 175-mile drive to the Ballpark at Arlington to see Grayson pitch.
It wasn’t a perfect debut, but it was a strong one.