PHILADELPHIA – Joey Terdoslavich got his first hit in his second major league at-bat Friday night, and the Braves rookie got to share the moment with the person he most wanted to have there. His father, Joe.
“It was definitely a cool experience, especially with my dad here,” said Terdoslavich, who hit a sharp single to right field off Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon with two out in the ninth inning. “He was sitting behind the dugout. I looked over at the dugout, looked above it and saw him, he was really excited.
“To get the hit was special, but to look up and see how excited he was, was just as special, if not more.
Terdoslavich, 24, spent countless hours of his youth in Florida working on his baseball skills with his father on ballfields and in batting cages, from Little League through high school and right up to last winter, when they focused on eliminating a bat waggle he had developed the previous season in the minors.
The work paid off when Terdoslavich impressed Braves officials and players with a strong showing in his second big-league spring training. Last week he was called to the majors for the first time after hitting .318 with 24 doubles and 18 homers in 85 games at Triple-A Gwinnett.
The Braves rallied from a 5-0 deficit before losing 5-4 on Saturday, the only negative in an otherwise perfect night for “Joey T” and his dad.
“I was walking in (to the dugout after the last out), grabbed my stuff and came back up just to say hi to him,” Terdoslavich said, “and he couldn’t even say anything. It was pretty cool. He was just, like, ‘Awesome…awesome.’ That’s all he kept saying. ‘That was awesome.’”
Joe Sr. is a native New Yorker and longtime Yankees fan whose son followed suit. Which only added another fun wrinkle to Friday’s game.
“It’s pretty cool because growing up I was a Yankees fan, you know, obviously I didn’t like Papalbon too much growing up when he was with the Red Sox,” Terdoslavich said, smiling. “Wasn’t too much of a fan (of his). So to get my first hit off of him….
“To get that first one, against the Phillies, packed house, off of Papalbon — it’s unexplainable. I took a nice, deep breath at first out there. ‘I did it,’ you know? I’ve got a batting average now.”
