Right-hander Edgar Santana couldn’t get through to his mother. Seated on the Class AAA Indianapolis team bus outside a ballpark late Friday night in Columbus, Ohio, Santana had just been told by manager Andy Barkett he was headed to Pittsburgh to join the Pirates. Santana knew his mother already would be asleep, but this was a good reason to wake her.
On the fourth try, his mother answered.
“I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to the big leagues,’ “ Santana recalled. “She said, ‘Oh, my son, I always told you to keep going.’ She was so happy. Everybody woke up and threw a party back home.