Lou Marson & Jason Donald Olympic bronze medalists
double bobble head.
Donald makes the most of his day
off
Tony Zonca
It was Easter Sunday, and Jason Donald was forcing his body to respond to a morning of boring drills at the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Fla.
He was in desperate need of a day off, and he was promised one that afternoon, courtesy of his manager, P.J. Forbes.
Then, late in the morning, minor league field coordinator Bill Dancy delivered the then-bad news: Donald would be one of five minor league players to accompany the big club to Dunedin to face the Toronto Blue Jays.
Donald didn’t say anything, but he regarded Dancy the way a kid would look at the bad man who had kidnapped the Easter Bunny.
“Basically I thought I was going to have to sit there the whole time, because it was later in spring training and the starting guys were going later in the game and getting their four at-bats,” Donald remembered. “I didn’t think I had too much of a shot at getting any playing time.”
Wow, was he ever wrong.
You may have heard about it: The right-handed hitting shortstop stroked a pair of late three-run home runs, and the Phillies enjoyed a 15-7 romp.
This is the stuff that dreams are made of. This is where your imagination takes you while you’re a kid bouncing a rubber ball off the garage door in Make Believe Land.
Then it actually happens. Your dream comes true, and for days your world is topsy-turvy. It is Christmas morning, New Year’s Eve, graduation day and your first heady kiss all rolled into one.
It is not the only reason you play the game, but it is a good enough one.
Donald was called on to hit for Jimmy Rollins with the Phillies up 7-2 in the sixth with one out and runners on second and third.
The first thing he noticed was that the Blue Jays had brought the infield in, even with a five-run deficit.
“I had a feeling they brought the infield in because they saw the No. 90 on my back, and I didn’t have a name on the back of my jersey, and I was facing a pretty good arm (in right-hander Brandon League),” Donald said. “(But) I was able to get a ball up (in the zone) and put a pretty good swing on it.”
The ball cleared the fence easily in right-center.
“I knew I had hit it good,” he recalled. “I basically put my head down and ran around the bases. The first one it was like I was floating around the bases. The moment didn’t come to me till I got back in the dugout. I thought, ‘Wow, that was unbelievable!’
“I remember everything was just kinda slow motion when I walked to the plate. When I got into the box I just tried to slow things down, because I had heard of the guy who was throwing that day, and he threw hard – mid- to upper-90s, and his ball runs and cuts a little bit. So my plan was to look for a ball up and put a good swing on it.”
The Jays had cut the lead to 10-7 going into the eighth inning. Once again Donald stepped to the plate with two runners on.
“When the second one came it was almost surreal,” he said, “because the last time I had a multi-homer game was in high school, let alone to do it in a big-league game. It was awesome.”
The Jays’ John Parrish had hung a slider, and Donald didn’t miss it, sending this one over the fence in left.
This time he was greeted in the dugout as though he had just hit a walk-off homer in a pennant race.
“The big-league guys were all fired up,” he said. “They were probably as excited as I was. Wes Helms was pretty fired up for me, so were Charlie Manuel and the coaches. It was fun.”
Upstairs in the press box, the writers were searching the press guide for Jason Donald background information. The kid had added a significant page to a growing scrapbook.
The 23-year-old southern Californian had hit a combined .304 last year at Lakewood and Clearwater with 12 homers and 71 RBIs in 134 games while playing all-star caliber shortstop. Despite a bad laceration on his throwing hand that cost him three games so far this season, Donald was batting .294 in nine games.
“When I got back on the bus after the game, I had text messages from guys in minor-league camp and some friends,” Donald recalled. “That’s when it all started to sink in.”
Funny thing is, Donald had never felt comfortable hitting in that ballpark last season while a member of the Threshers. He always felt as though the pitcher was right on top of him.
Dancy, for his part, certainly had known about Jason Donald before that weighty day in Dunedin.
“I tell everybody if you want a video of the proper way to field a ground ball, to play through the ball, to backhand the ball, to get your footwork right, he’s the guy you’d want your younger players to watch on really how to play the game,” the former shortstop said. “I think he’s going to play shortstop in the big leagues.”
Donald attempted to put his big day in perspective.
“People might say it was just a spring training game,” he said, “but when you’re trying to put a positive impression on an organization, something like that helps and opens some people’s eyes.”
Actually, he admitted his uncommon performance ranks at the top of his professional portfolio, and why not?
“I was kind of upset initially that day,” he said, “but by 4 o’clock I was riding pretty high.”
From now on, when Easter Sunday rolls around each year, Jason Donald should be able to smile as he recalls that giddy dress rehearsal for a life fulfilled.
