The Giants' Matt Duffy has a great call-up story
Call-up stories are my favorites, and Matt Duffy’s is a doozy.
Duffy has played a small but important role for the Giants in the NLCS, scoring from second on a wild pitch to tie Game 2 and dropping a critical sacrifice bunt in Game 4.
Not bad for a guy whose only goal at the start of the season was to finish at Triple-A — and who ended up skipping that level entirely.
Duffy, 23, was still at Double-A on July 31, the day of the non-waiver trade deadline, when he was given an order — take your bags off the team bus and wait for a call.
Naturally, Duffy thought he was getting traded. The Giants, in fact, were trying to acquire an infielder. They essentially put Duffy on hold in case they could not — but of course, they did not tell him he was the backup plan.
Finally, Duffy got a call from assistant GM Bobby Evans.
“Tell your parents you’re going to the big leagues,” Evans told him.
Duffy said he paused for about 10 seconds, then asked Evans if he was serious. Evans assured him that he indeed was not joking, and Duffy jumped off the phone quickly, wanting to inform his parents immediately.
He called his father and both started crying on the phone.
