ALLENTOWN — Cole Irvin can still hear the roar of the crowd from his major-league debut as he stepped in front of a full stadium for the first time.
He was nervous, the Phillies pitching prospect conceded, when he walked to the infield at Angels Stadium. But Irvin was not carrying a glove and he did not throw a pitch. Instead, he was in the majors as a teenage groundskeeper, pushing a broom around the dirt and freshening up the basepaths between innings for the Los Angeles Angels.
“It was an experience,” Irvin said.
Irvin spent parts of two seasons on the Angels grounds crew, racking up service hours for high school and receiving a taste of his big-league dreams.