Tears of joy for Turang in Ep. 3 of Brewers' docuseries

PHOENIX -- Brice Turang held his phone in one hand and covered his teary eyes with the other. This was the sort of thing a kid dreams about from the day they pick up a baseball bat.

Fans have already seen the moment Turang was informed by Brewers manager Craig Counsell that he’d made the Opening Day roster. Now they can see the moment he FaceTimed his parents and his four sisters to share the news in the third installment of the Brewers’ docuseries about their top prospects.

The first three episodes were released weekly on Brewers.com, with Episode 3 dropping Tuesday, and more are coming during the regular season. After Episode 1 introduced the players and Episode 2 followed them off the field, Episode 3 explores the backstories, from Boston to Michigan to Los Angeles, of Sal Frelick, Joey Wiemer, Garrett Mitchell and Turang, who rank Nos. 2-5 on MLB Pipeline’s list of Milwaukee’s top prospects.

Near the end of the latest installment, Turang talks about what it would feel like to crack the big leagues.

“It would mean everything to me to get that callup,” Turang said. “All your hard work you put in, all the patience you’ve had, all the people who support you. It's like, 'You did it.' I want more than just a big league callup. I want to stick there. I want to be there for a long time.”

Cut to Turang being called into manager Craig Counsell’s office. General manager Matt Arnold is waiting on the couch.

“Tell me about camp,” Counsell says.

“I thought it went great,” Turang said. “At the start … I told myself, ‘Let’s just make it as hard as I possibly can for the [club’s] decision.’ I thought I did that. I left it up to you guys.”

Counsell agrees, telling Turang he gave the organization a tough decision.

“I think what we’re going to do is we’re going to option you to Chicago,” Counsell says.

In the footage, it looks like Turang might be confused. But Counsell told reporters on Monday morning that it took only a second to see in his eyes that he got it. The Brewers were bringing Turang to Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

“You want to play Opening Day?” Counsell asks.

What came next was just as special. The team’s film crew had already left, but Counsell chased them down and told them they should come back.

Turang was dialing up his sports-crazed family on FaceTime.

“Hey,” Turang tells his parents and four sisters, “you need to book your flights to Chicago. I’m going to the big leagues.”

He is barely past the word “Chicago” when you can hear the screaming. Sitting in a chair next to him to witness the moment, Turang’s teammate Aaron Ashby is crying. Turang is choking back his own tears.

“Dude. Dude. Dude,” says Brian Turang, Brice’s dad, who played for the Mariners in the early 1990s. “Oh my God, dude. You did it.”

“You deserve it, dude!” says one of his sisters.

Brice buries his head in his arm, overcome with emotion.

“Thank you for everything,” he tells them.

Then, it was time to go to work.

“I’ve known him since high school,” said Mitchell, who also made his first Opening Day roster. “We’ve probably played at least 200 games with or against each other since we were 15 years old. I know how hard he’s worked and how great of a baseball player he is. For him to finally get a shot, know how that feels. I’m very happy for him.”

Mitchell’s promotion last August wasn’t captured on film, but it induced similar emotions. His first phone call was to his now-wife, Haley Cruse Mitchell. Then he FaceTimed his parents.

“It takes you back to thinking about the first time you picked up a baseball,” Mitchell said. “When you felt like, ‘Man, I want to be a Major League baseball player.’ You go through the process of all the feelings you had as a kid -- all of the ups and downs, the challenges, the failures, the success -- you’re feeling all of it in an instant. You get consumed by that, and you don’t know what to do.

“When I saw [Brice’s] face, I was like, ‘I’ve seen that face before. I know what you’re thinking.’ It was really cool.”

More cool moments are coming. The Brewers plan to release more episodes of “The Freshmen” during the regular season, including a forthcoming one already in the works that features top prospect Jackson Chourio.