"Welcome to the big leagues, kid" -- Al Lopez's major league debut.

In the final week of the 1928 season, a young minor league catcher named Alfonso Lopez arrived at Ebbets Field to join the Brooklyn Dodgers. Fresh off the train from Macon, Georgia where he had just finished up a full season in the Sally League, Lopez's .326 batting average that year had earned him a late season call-up. The 20 year-old rookie joined a Brooklyn club that was struggling thru a .500 season and an eventual sixth-place finish in the National League. In joining a veteran ballclub with four established catchers already on the roster, Lopez expected his playing time to be minimal.

In an interview with the author in March, 2005, Lopez recalled his first day in the major leagues. "The year I went to Brooklyn, they had four catchers on the club that were major league catchers. They had Johnny Gooch, Butch Henline, Val Picinich and a guy by the name of Charlie Hargreaves. I said "What chance do I have to even get in a ballgame? I don't know why they called me up". And they were playing Pittsburgh, Burleigh Grimes was the pitcher for Pittsburgh. He had been with Brooklyn. He was a spitball pitcher. I never had seen a sptiball pitcher in my life. And they put me in the lineup to hit against Burleigh Grimes in the major leagues. Here I had been a busher in the minors. The reason I got in was because Burleigh had been with Brooklyn and they didn't get along very well. One of the catchers for us spoke up and told our manager, Robby (Wilbert Robinson), "Robby, what'd ya bring that young guy up for? Why don't you let him catch?" Cause they didn't want to hit against Burleigh Grimes.

And so on September 27, Al Lopez took the field for the first game of a scheduled doubleheader versus Grimes and the Pirates. Pittsburgh got off to a quick 4-0 lead against Brooklyn starter Jesse Petty before the Dodgers scored three runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to tie the game at 6-6. When Brooklyn tallied a single run in the bottom of tenth to win 7-6, young Al Lopez's debut was over after 10 innings. For his part, Lopez went 0-4 at the plate. Despite crouching for 10 innings, Lopez soon learned his day was only half over. He was tasked with catching the second game as well.

In the second game, Brooklyn cruised to an easy 8-1 win over Pirates starter Homer Blankenship, who was, as it turned out, was making the final start of his big league career. Lopez's performance included his second 0-4 of the day at the plate. But the real story was the total of 19 innings Al Lopez spent behind the plate on his first day in the major leagues. Lopez himself summed it up best by recalling, "Well, the catcher said "put the kid in" and they did. They put me in".

NOTE: Hall of Famer Al Lopez died on October 30, 2005, just 7 months after being interviewed at his Tampa home by the author. He was 97. To see extended excerpts from the interview( as published in The Tampa Tribune ) CLICK HERE: http://markstangbaseballbooks.com/media/documents/al-lopez.pdf