As you may recall from previous posts, we have been following the career of Thomas Neal as he worked his way through MLB's minor leagues, in the hopes of one day making it to the BIGS.
Well....
HE MADE IT! ~~~~ HOT DAMN!
We were introduced to Thomas through Susu's brother Jim who, as the story goes, bought Thomas his first baseball glove. Jim worked with Thomas' mom Vicky at AT&T in Southern California, and when Thomas was born Jim brought Vicky a baseball mitt for Thomas, apparently this was Jim's standard gift for newborn males. Well, there must have been some magic in that glove, and it finally paid off after 25 years.
Call it destiny if you'd like, but I must add that there was also a lot of hard work thrown in by Thomas that allowed his dream to come to fruition. I witnessed his work ethic in Richmond when he would be at the Diamond before the games for workouts and after the games as well. Seems there's something to be said for hard work, dedication, oh, and throw some tenacity into the mix.
Jim told Susu back in 2009/2010 that Thomas was coming to Richmond to play with the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the AA farm team for the San Francisco Giants. It was in Richmond we came to know Thomas, and meet Vicky his mom.
Clockwise from top left: Vicky (chartreuse blouse) takes in a Squirrels game with the King William Crew, Alex meets Darren Ford (called up to Giants and now with the Mariners) ~~ Alex meets Nick Noonan (now with the Fresno Grizzlies - SF's AAA farm team), Alex meets the man, Thomas Neal, and picks up an autographed bat, and trading cards. Save that bat kid!!
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KW crew takes in a game at the Diamond... Susu goes Nutzy, Thomas sets up at the plate.
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A good natured Thomas, (and others), puts up with Susu and Vicky's goofy "Bobby" antics.
It's a long story!
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Thomas left Richmond in July 2011 to play on the Akron Aeros, Cleveland's AA farm team, when he was picked up in a trade with the Giants. The games in Richmond lost a little of their luster, but Thomas was on the move.
Thomas spent all of the 2012 season in Akron and on August 31st he was again in Richmond for a game, this time against Richmond.
Susu and some of the KW crew made the game, and Susu sent me the following picture along with the message "Put him in!" Seems the Aeros has chosen not to play him and everyone wondered why.
Thomas Neal #8 Akron Aeros
Turns out they were protecting their investment and within a couple hours of this picture being taken the Aeros manager was telling Thomas, "pack your bags kid, you're going to Cleveland".
Indians Press Release
09/01/2012 9:46 AM EST
Indians add three players to Major League roster
The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled INF RUSS CANZLER and
LHP SCOTT BARNES from AAA Columbus and purchased the contract of OF THOMAS NEAL
from AA Akron.
*********** Neal, 25, has spent the entire season at AA Akron where he hit .314 (127-405)
with 24 doubles, 1 triple, 12 homers and 51RBI in 117 games. He also scored 77
runs and stole 11 bases (.400OB/.467SLG/.867OPS). He currently ranks tied for
4th in the Eastern League in runs, 2nd in OPS, 3rd in on-base pct. and batting
average and 8th in slugging pct. He has hit above .300 in every month of the
season with the exception of April (.278) and since July 23rd is hitting .344
(42-122) with 5 2B, 4HR & 10 RBI in 36 games. He has hit .317 (92-290) off RHP,
.304 (35-115) off LHP and appeared in games at all three outfield positions
(32LF, 62RF, 13CF). Thomas was acquired on July 30, 2011 from San Francisco in
exchange for INF Orlando Cabrera and will be making his Major League debut
wearing #36.
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Interesting to note there is another "Picker (Jim's last name & Susu's maiden name)" connection to this story. I was not clever enough to have seen it, but Susu pointed it out to me...
Thomas' number 36.
Susu's birthday 3-6.
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September 2nd Thomas was on the line up for an at home game against Texas, who was starting a left handed pitcher. It seems Thomas was picked up to be used against lefty pitchers.
I imagine Thomas was nervous that evening, but no more so than all his fans.
The play by play for the outing reflect the following for Neal's first MLB start.
Bottom 2
Thomas Neal strikes out swinging.
Bottom 3
Thomas Neal called out on strikes.
Bottom 6
Thomas Neal grounds out, shortstop Elvis Andrus to first baseman Mitch Moreland.
Thomas was robbed by a fantastic play by Andrus.
Bottom 8
Thomas has his first major league hit.
Thomas Neal doubles (1) on a line drive to left fielder David Murphy. Carlos Santana scores.
Pitcher M. Lowe
Batter T. Neal
Speed Pitch Result
1 83 Slider Called Strike
2 92 Changeup In play, run(s)
"The hit" can be found at the following link, look for the videos under Thomas' picture.
Texas 8
Cleveland 3
HOWEVER
The story doesn't end there... and in fact, gets much better for Moi.
Once Thomas' game with Texas was over, I looked at the teams schedule and realized they had a 3 game series on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of September, with the Rangers here in Texas.
The wheels began spinning.
I mentioned the series to Jim who was coming back to Dallas in September to visit Hayden. Alas, his visit was not until after the series. I mentioned it to Susu, but she was going to be back in Richmond just prior to the series. That left Hayden and myself as possible attendees at the Indian's games down in Arlington. I asked Jim to work it out with Hayden, and I would take the time off work for whatever game worked best for Hayden and his class schedule.
Jim finally got back to me at what felt like the 11th hour and said that the game on Thursday the 13th was best for Hayden, and that Thomas was going to get us tickets.
Yeah!..... Holy Smokes is just what I said too, although my version can't be used in mixed company.
So it was all set, Thursday the 13th, I had the time off and was set to pick Hayden up at 5:45 that afternoon for a 7:05 game. I thought it odd at the time that he didn't want to go earlier and catch batting practice. I occurred to me though, that he was taking 17 units, and going early might not be an option.
September 13th arrives, it's around 3PM, and I'm lolly gagging around the apartment and looking forward to the evenings outing, when my cell phone goes off and continues alerting to incoming text's.Wow, what the heck is going on?
Sept 13th 3:08 PM
Jim, Thomas just sent me a msg that if you can get there
by 5:15 he can get you on the field for BP.
Sept 13th 3:09PM
Hayden, Oh wow. I’ll text Matt right now.
Sept 13th 3:09PM
Thomas, If you guys can get here by 5:15ish… I can get
you on the field to watch BP… If I don’t
text back I’m probably busy but will put ur names down.
Sept 13th 3:10PM
Hayden, Hey my dad just sent me a text saying if we can
get to the field by 5:15 Thomas can get us on the field for batting practice.
Would it be OK if you picked me up at 4:15 so we could try to get on the field.
If you can’t that’s no problem at all.
Well, Well, Well.... Less than an hour to get cleaned up and ready, then over to SMU. Hmmm, can I make it?
HELL YES!
Hayden, I will see you at 4:15.
Got to Ranger Stadium in Arlington with time to spare and went over to the will call window where we encountered the only real snag of the evening. The visiting teams tickets left by players don't make it down to will call until about half an hour before game time. It didn't look good for BP!
I mentioned to the woman that the player leaving the tickets had told us to meet him for BP and he could get us on the field... I wondered aloud if there was some way to get in for the BP even when our tickets were still en route. She suggested, (I would have never thought of this), buying a couple of nosebleed tickets for entrance to the BP and coming back for our tickets afterwards.
Genius!!! Crisis averted!
I found it funny when Hayden suggested we didn't need to incur the extra expense and he would be happy just to see the game. God bless the young lad, must have heard how parsimonious I am. But not in this case kid. We are getting those tickets! 16 bucks later we were in!
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We made our way down to the field near the Cleveland dugout and caught Thomas' attention. He waved us down to the entrance gate onto the field where the guard stopped us and chased us back up the stairs. This comedic skit was replayed at least three times before we finally made it onto the field. I'm guessing we did a half mile on the stairs before making it to the field. Good pregame workout!
Security had us roped into an area on the field next to the dugout, which was fine by me and meant I wasn't going to get in the way. I had been worrying myself sick that I would find a way to commit some breech in etiquette and get and get kicked off the field.
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No surprise, Thomas was as gracious as he always is, or could be under the circumstances. He made his way over to briefly say hello and shake our hands, along with some other friends he had at the game.
Vicky, who's the tall, ditzy blond named Bubbles, that says she's close to being related to you?
KIDDING!!!
Being at the game was a treat, being there for BP was rockin, being there for BP and being on the field with the players was awesome!
Thank you Thomas for your kindness!
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~~~~~ Slide show ~~~~~
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~~~~~ Slide show ~~~~~
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The Hit...
CAUTION... if you are susceptible to motion sickness you may want to take Dramamine before watching the following video:
How awesome! Life in TX is looking up indeed. :)
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