The prized game ball and the lineup card with his name on it are in his parents’ Pearl City home, but the memories of what happened a year ago today are as etched in Jordan Yamamoto’s mind as the mounting collection of tattoos are in the length of his left arm.
“Just a couple of nights ago I was telling my fiancee, ‘Wow, the (first) anniversary of my Major League debut is almost here,’ ” Yamamoto said. “It is kinda crazy how time flies.”
In the space of those 12 months, Yamamoto’s world has spun faster even than his 94 mph fastball.
One day he is about to get on the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp team bus for the long overnight ride to Birmingham, Ala., where he is scheduled to pitch a Class AA Southern League game. The next thing he knows, he’s told to grab his bag and instead head to Miami, where he will debut as the Marlins starter against the St. Louis Cardinals.
By the time his overflowing tears of joy had dried, he was bound for the mound at Marlins Park, where he authored seven scoreless innings of a 9-0 victory against the Cardinals.
He would end the season with a 4-5 record, get engaged to Madison Ahearn, a Florida kindergarten teacher, and be penciled in as part of the Marlins future, all at the age of 23.
The pandemic-enforced halt to the baseball season has given Yamamoto time to step back, take in and reflect upon all that has transpired since he left Saint Louis School as a 12th-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2014 MLB Draft.
Even as he yearns to get back on the field, step back back into jersey No. 50 and secure his spot in the pitching rotation, Yamamoto said he has come to be appreciative of his blessings and count them on a daily basis. “I have a soft spot for a lot of people who have lost someone or something through this whole coronavirus (period). I’m respectful of those who may be going through tough times,” he said.
As he has worked on his own home in Jupiter, Fla., and helped others with repairs on theirs, he is driven by the reminder that hard work has allowed him to capitalize when opportunities have come his way.
The trade that sent eventual MVP Christian Yelich from Miami to Milwaukee before the 2018 season brought Yamamoto to a Marlins’ organization, where he quickly marked himself as an up-and-comer. Then, an injury to Jose Urena put the Marlins in immediate need for a starting pitcher for June 12. Yamamoto, as it turned out, was supposed to start that night at Birmingham.
It was all so sudden that Yamamoto barely had time to beseech his family to hop on a series of flights to get to Miami in time for the game.
“It was kinda funny, before the game I was looking at the (Cardinals’) lineup card,” Yamamoto said. “And, I’m like, ‘so many of them are guys I have watched growing up and admired. Now, all of a sudden, I’m going to be facing them. This is a dream come true.’ I thought if the Marlins believe in me enough to bring me up and allow me to make my debut, I must be good enough to be here. ‘So, take it and run with it.’ ”
Yamamoto said, “You have to have confidence. If you don’t, you won’t do well at all. Coming off the mound after that seventh inning, it was ‘Dude, I can actually do this.’ I believed in myself in the sense that I am a big leaguer competing with these guys.”
A year later, that is a feeling that drives him to be ready for when the resumption of baseball comes.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
