LOS ANGELES – Mitch Walding ignored the first 14 calls, slamming the end button to send the annoying rings straight to his voicemail.
It was near 3 a.m. and Walding did not recognize the number that kept calling every few minutes as he tried to sleep in Allentown. Walding answered the 15th call, just to make the caller stop. He’s glad he did.
“It was Gary Jones, our manager at triple A, letting me know that I was going to the show,” said Walding a few hours before he would make his major-league debut with the Phillies.