Team G-Rod packs house for debut 175 miles from home

ARLINGTON -- Temple Rodriguez was walking back into her interior design business on Tuesday afternoon when her phone rang. She was quite surprised to see the call was coming from the oldest of her two sons, Grayson Rodriguez.

“He called -- and he never calls; he texts,” Temple said.

Temple answered, and Grayson immediately asked where his dad, Gilbert, was. He was at home on the family’s 13-acre property in the tomato garden. So Grayson continued.

“He goes, ‘Mom, thanks,’” Temple recalled. “And I go, ‘Thanks for what?’ And he goes, ‘Thanks for everything, Mom. I’m trying not to cry.’ And I go, ‘What is it, son? Whatever it is, it’s going to be OK.’”

That’s when Grayson broke the news -- the Orioles were calling him up to make his Major League debut on Wednesday. Baltimore’s No. 1 prospect (and MLB Pipeline’s No. 6 overall prospect) would soon be en route to Dallas to take the mound against the Rangers in Arlington, about 175 miles northwest of his hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas.

“I screamed like there had been a murder in Nacogdoches,” Temple said.

Nacogdoches is a small city. Its population of 32,147 (per the 2020 U.S. Census) isn’t enough to fill the 40,300 seats at Globe Life Field, but its citizens sure tried to do so in support of Rodriguez, who tossed five solid innings in his first big league start in the Orioles’ 5-2 loss.

• Grayson Rodriguez was built for this moment

Nearly everybody with a connection to him made the near-three-hour trek to Wednesday’s game. His parents. His 15-year-old brother, Garner. His grandparents, including grandmother Lynda Greer, Temple’s mother.

“It’s a dream for me,” said Greer, a huge baseball fan who joked she just wanted to live long enough to see her two grandsons, Grayson and Garner, reach the big leagues. One down, one to go.

There was also a large contingent from Central Heights High School, including Rodriguez’s former varsity baseball coach Travis Jackson, former teammates, players from the current varsity baseball team, Central Heights Independent School District superintendent David Russell and more. Everybody was sprinkled throughout the stands, and you couldn’t walk around the concourse without seeing at least one Blue Devils shirt at every turn.

Jackson donned Rodriguez’s old No. 16 Central Heights jersey. Temple Rodriguez said the school was planning to live stream the game in the classrooms.

Also in attendance was, of course, Madison Freeland, Rodriguez’s fiancee. The two have been together for almost eight years, and she was in Norfolk, Va. -- where Rodriguez had been playing for the Tides, the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate -- when she got the news Tuesday.

“He told me as soon as it happened at 3 o’clock,” Freeland said. “I was actually shopping at Target and I had a bunch of cold stuff in my buggy, and I just pushed it to the side and was like, ‘We’ve got to go pack.’ So we packed in 15 minutes, left at 5 o’clock, and then here we are.”

Rodriguez didn’t face much adversity early in his baseball journey. He experienced success from a young age, was a first-round pick of the Orioles in the 2018 MLB Draft and rapidly ascended the organization’s Minor League ranks.

Things were much tougher over the past 10 months. Rodriguez missed three months of the 2022 season with a right lat strain, delaying his MLB debut. Then he didn’t break camp with Baltimore this year and was optioned to Triple-A on the final day of Spring Training.

Rodriguez never let the bad news get to him, and, as it turned out, his stint in the Minors lasted less than a week.

“He’s handled it very well, much better than I would have ever done it,” Freeland said. “He just has that composure in himself, just to keep himself calm and just go about things in the best way possible. So I’m just very proud.”

Temple Rodriguez was also proud, and she let anybody who would listen know it.

“I’m a bragger, and all my friends are sick of me,” Temple said. “It’s true. My Facebook page is just ridiculous.”

After Wednesday’s game, all of Grayson’s friends, family members and supporters packed the hallway outside the visiting clubhouse. He met with the media, then began walking down the rows of people, stopping to give each a hug along the way.

It was a memorable day, made even more so by all of those in attendance. And it’s what Rodriguez will remember most.

“Having your friends and family here, that’ll be the special part,” Rodriguez said.