By Rob Rains
For the coaches, scouts, teammates and managers who were a part of the journey that led to the major-league debut of the Cardinals’ Joshua Baez, what he did in that first game was more than historic – it was personal.
From the stands at Wrigley Field to a golf course outside of Boston; from the Dominican Republic to a beach in Australia; from a living room in Pittsburgh to a hotel swimming pool in St. Louis, from ballparks in Peoria to North Carolina … all will never forget where they were last Saturday when Baez became the first player in major-league history to hit three home runs in his first game, coming in his first three at-bats.
There were tears, there was laughing, there was uninhibited joy.
Here are their stories of that momentous day:
Johnny Hernandez
Johnny Hernandez was helping his daughter move in Miami on Friday when he got a phone call from Baez with the news of his promotion to the majors. As soon as Hernandez determined that Baez was serious, the tears began to flow.
“Like a baby,” Hernandez said.
Baez bought Hernandez and his wife a plane ticket for an early-morning flight from Miami to Chicago, and Hernandez was part of the 30 family members and friends in the stands for the game.
“I’m going to tell you the truth,” Hernandez said. “When he came up to hit, because I know him, I was not surprised that he hit a home run in his first at-bat, on the first pitch. I cried again. Everybody was hugging each other.
“On the second at bat, I was thinking about his dad (who died in 2023). It was just unbelievable. Everybody was crying then.”
When Baez homered in his third at bat, Hernandez said he was like, “That’s it. I can’t take it anymore. Oh my God.”
Hernandez was part of the group that went onto the field after the game to take photos with Baez.
“We prayed, we thanked God,” Hernandez said. “I said to the family, ‘He earned this. It was not given to him.’”
Dan Donato
Dan Donato was the baseball coach when Baez spent his last two years of high school at Dexter Southfield outside of Boston. A former minor-leaguer himself, Donato was playing in an annual golf tournament over the weekend with his brother Ted, the longtime hockey coach at Harvard who is now an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils.
He knew Baez was making his debut, but was committed to playing in the tournament.
“We were on the course and I hit a ball, and was standing there when a cart pulled up and the guy says, ‘How cool was that?’” Donato said.
“I said, ‘How cool was what?’ He told me what had happened and showed me the replay on his phone. I got chills; not that he hit the ball a mile, it was the reaction of the dugout.
“It just reminded me of how his teammates loved him. He’s one of those guys who you are not going to want to go to the fridge to get something to eat when he’s coming up. He’s one of those types of hitters.”
After the second homer, another golfer said to Donato, “That was unbelievable. I said, ‘What’s that?’ He said, ‘That kid homered twice.’ I didn’t know it was in his second at-bat. Then it happened again, in his third at-bat.
“As soon as that happened, my phone started lighting up like a Christmas tree.”
After his round of golf was completed, and the Cardinals game was over, Donato was in the clubhouse when one of the other golfers said, “’That’s his coach.’ It was kind of funny. Somehow I became a hero. It was definitely cool,” Donato said.
Donato’s nephew, Ted’s son Ryan, plays for the Blackhawks.
“He was excited because they went to the same high school,” Donato said, “but he’s a Chicago fan now.
“I talked to Joshua a couple of weeks ago because I was getting frustrated for him because he had not been promoted, but he said they were just waiting. To have that happen was a really special feeling.
“I was enjoying the golf but to be honest I would have much rather been watching him.”
Jim Negrych
Jim Negrych spent nine years with the Cardinals as an area scout and in 2021 was responsible for the northeast part of the U.S. He recently left the organization to become an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh, his alma mater.
With his eight-month-old son on his lap, and his three daughters and wife in the house, Negrych was watching the game in his living room when Baez came up to bat for the first time.
“I told my daughters, ‘Look at the TV. look at that guy. Daddy helped sign this guy,’” Negrych said. “Then he hit the ball. My wife (Nikki) has been around the game for a long time and she was like, ‘Oh my God. How did he hit th ball that far?’”
By the third homer, Negrych’s daughters had left and his wife had gone out to run an errand.
“I’m not really an emotional human being,” he said. “When he hit the third one, I actually started laughing. I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s insane.”
Negrych started firing off text messages, including one to his wife, “Pretty good day. Three home runs.’
“She called me and said, ‘Did he really do that?’ I said, ‘He really did, and by the way, no one else has ever done that,” Negrych said.
Negrych had seen Baez hit long homers before, including one at a Double A stadium in Hartford, Conn., that cleared the scoreboard. That came just as Baez was starting his senior year in high school, his draft year.
“That was one of the few times I’ve watched a high school kid and just went, ‘Wow,’” he said. “You couldn’t stop thinking about it for an entire year. It was the beginning of the draft process and people still brought it up at our draft meeting. People just don’t do that.
“Nothing Josh has ever done is something that norma people do. Nothing. No one should be that big and that strong and that fast; and also be so humble and be a good kid.
“When we drafted him he was the only guy in the nine years I was there that every scout you talked to in the northeast was rooting for. That’s how much of an impact he had on everybody. It’s just a testament to the type of kid he is; unbelievable.
“The adversity that kid has gone through has just been insane. He was in the minors for a long time … That game was fun to watch.
“I was just happy for him; it was not about anything other than that.”
Randy Flores
As the assistant general manager of the Cardinals in charge of amateur and pro acquisitions, it’s hard for Randy Flores and his family to get away for a summer vacation. That’s why they were enjoying a staycation at a St. Louis hotel.
Flores was in charge of the 2021 draft when the Cardinals selected Baez in the second round with the 54th overall pick.
“I was watching the game on the phone with my son when Joshua hit the first homer,” Flores said. “I ran into the other room where my wife was to show the replay to her. Then I took the phone to the pool and was watching there when he hit the second one.”
Flores had to keep a low profile, because nobody at the pool knew who he was or his connection to the Cardinals and Baez. To those around him, it looked like he was just one of the fans.
“What a special moment,” Flores said. “To see him smile when he hit the first one; it was so authentic. I knew there were a ton of smiles in the organization for Joshua.”
By the time Baez hit the third homer, everyone at the pool was watching a phone or television, Flores said.
“You heard the poolside erupt,” he said. “It was kind of surreal. It was cool to see all of the fans tuned into the game and going crazy at the pool.
“What I saw on the replay was what his teammates were doing in the dugout. They were just in disbelieve. I think I saw (Ivan) Herrera with his hands on his head like ‘Seriously?’ Then I came across the video of the Memphis locker room and it was just incredible.
“You can’t script it better than that.”
Jake Burns
The first game as a professional for Baez was on Aug. 2, 2021 when he was on the rookie Complex League team, playing against the Nationals. Baez was hitless in his two at-bats.
One of his teammates in the game was Jake Burns, also 18, who had signed as an international free agent out of Australia. That game was special for Burns too, who hit his first professional home run.
Burns’ career did not work out as either he or the Cardinals would have liked, and he is now back living in Sydney, Australia, playing for the Melbourne Aces in the Australian Baseball League.
He still follows the game in the U.S., however, and he saw that Baez was going to be making his major-league debut.
“In true Australian fashion, I was going to miss it because of the time difference,” Burns said in an email. “I was actually camping on a beach on the south coast of Sydney.
“Coincidentally we got hit with a storm that woke me up around 4:30 a.m. After tossing and turning for a bit, I thought I’d check in on the game – and sure enough Josh had homered on the first pitch he saw.
“What followed was unbelievable but at the same time, it somehow wasn’t off-brand for a guy like him.”
Burns did go back to sleep, and read about the second and third homers when he woke up, bringing back a lot of happy memories of their time together in the Cardinals organization.
“Like most people, your first thought when you see him is, ‘Wow that is a large human being,’” Burns said. “I homered in our first game together, but even then I knew that it wouldn’t be long before my home run tallies were going to be blown out of the water by this guy.
“The first thing that came to mind after watching his debut in the show was that he deserves every single piece of this moment … the work he put in and the perseverance he showed to get to where he is today is a huge testament to the kind of person and player he is.
“To guys like myself, watching Josh hit balls off the Marlins building in left field at Roger Dean Stadium it didn’t exactly make it look like he was ‘struggling’ at the time but he certainly had his challenges … his path through the minor leagues wasn’t always straightforward.
“He showed up every single day with a smile on his face ready to go to work. That’s what stands out to me the most when I think about his debut. For the people who had the chance to be around him along the way, you saw the work, setbacks and perseverance that came before that moment. That’s why it was so special.”
Roberto Espinoza
Just 15 months ago, Baez was playing for the high Class A Peoria Chiefs, managed by Roberto Espinoza, who also was the manager of the rookie league team when Baez made his pro debut in 2021.
It was in May of 2025 that Espinoza got to tell Baez that he was moving up to Double A Springfield, the next step of his journey. Even though Baez has not been a part of Espinoza’s team since, the manager has not stopped watching him.
He was in his office at Dozer Park in Peoria, Ill., preparing for that night’s game on Saturday. The television in his office was on, as it was in the coaches room and the player’s locker room.
“It was something special,” Espinoza said. “I was just proud. It felt good. It’s something you can talk to the rest of the group and let them know, ‘He was just here last year. Look at what he’s doing now.’
“After the second homer, everybody was excited to see what was going to happen next.”
The preparation for his game had to go on, so after the third homer, Espinoza was on the field for batting practice. He asked a member of the team’s front office staff to put the game on the jumbotron in case Baez made even more history.
Even when Baez lined out to left in his fourth and final at-bat, the feelings and excitement of what he had done were still reverberating around the ballpark.
Espinoza’s thoughts turned back to that first summer they spent together five years ago.
“He was young, but no one questioned his work ethic,” Espinoza said. “No one questioned his discipline. He just wasn’t having the results that he or the organization were expecting.
“When he started to have success last year, it was a great story to share with the young minor leaguers. It’s a great example not just for the Cardinals but for a lot of people who want to play in the major leagues some day.”
Ryan Ludwick
Now the Cardinals’ minor-league outfield coordinator, Ryan Ludwick has been one of the organization’s roving instructors for years and has spent time with Baez since he joined the organization.
When Baez made his debut, Ludwick was in the Dominican Republic, working with the youngest players in the organization who had a game that morning.
He was in a car on his way to dinner, watching the game on his phone, when Baez hit his third homer.
“I got kind of teary-eyed,” Ludwick said. “I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ It was really cool.”
Like everyone else who has known and worked with Baez over the years, Ludwick appreciated the historical nature of what Baez did in that game, but he also was happier because it was Baez who did it.
“I’m super proud of him,” Ludwick said. “It wasn’t easy for him in the beginning. We spent a lot of time together on the back fields, working on offense and defense. A lot of people worked with him.
“He came into the organization very confident. He went down in the valley but he never lost his confidence and continued to work. He’s like a bull. He doesn’t quit charging.”
Ludwick spent 12 years in the major leagues and hit 154 home runs in his career, including 37 for the Cardinals in 2008.
“I only hit three home runs in a game once in my entire professional career and that was in Triple A,” Ludwick said. “He did it in his first game in the first three at-bats. That’s insane.
“I really was almost crying when he did it.”
Ben Johnson
As the manager of the Triple A Memphis Redbirds for the last eight years, Johnson freely admits that the best part of his job is getting to tell a player he is going to the major leagues for the first time.
He gave that news to Baez before the game on Friday night in Durham, N.C., in the locker room in front of his teammates.
“He’s such a great teammate and a great person,” Johnson said. “It was a great moment for everybody in our clubhouse. These guys were genuinely so excited for him.
“I’ve never seen a player like Chase Davis, who was more excited for Josh than I think Josh was for Josh. What more can you ask for from your teammates. It’s a testament to the teammate that he is. He’s that good of a guy.”
And all of that was before Baez hit the three homers. Jurrangelo Cijntje filmed the reaction in the clubhouse as the Memphis players watched the third home run on television, and the video went viral on social media.
Johnson had watched the first two homers in the clubhouse but was on the field by the time Baez hit the third one.
“Somebody came out and told me he hit the third one and I said, ‘You’re messing with me,’” Johnson said. “Sure enough not only did he hit it, he hit it the other way. I’m never going to forget that moment. It will stick with me forever.
“One (homer) was almost perfect for the setting. Two? OK, not surprising because it’s Josh But three? That made you think, ‘Is there going to be a fourth?’”
Johnson, of course, had already not only seen Baez hit three homers in a game, he saw him hit four. On June 16, the anniversary of his father’s death, Baez homered four times against Nashville.
“That game we were kind of all scratching our heads like, ‘Why do they keep pitching to him?’” Johnson said.
“It’s hard to put into words. It’s just incredible. It’s one of those moments only sports can provide.”
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Photo by The Associated Press
