AF product Mather enjoys big-league stay in St. Louis

A full body extension later, the wait may have been worth it for Joe Mather.

And though he's now waiting again, Mather, a 2001 Mountain Pointe grad and the first Ahwatukee product to make it to the major leagues, knows the chance will come again soon.

"Obviously, it's been a dream for a long time now," Mather said from Memphis, Tenn., where he and the Redbirds, the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals were getting ready to take on the Albuquerque Isotopes, "and it lived up to everything I could've thought it would be and more, really."

A third-round pick in the 2001 draft, Mather had never been past Single-A prior to last season, but on May 30 - after he had hit .315 with 12 home runs and 24 RBIs at Memphis - the Cardinals called him up to the Major League roster.

He didn't get much of an adjustment period. Manager Tony La Russa threw him right into the starting lineup, and in the second inning a tailing line drive came screaming his way.

It took a full extension, but Mather laid out and made the catch. The highlight showed up later that night as a Top Play on ESPN's "SportsCenter."

"I hadn't had a ball I had to lay out for almost all year long and second inning, right away, there was one I had to fully extend to get," Mather said. "It was like, what can you do?"

That night, he also got his first Major League hit, an RBI single to left-center, in St. Louis' 5-4 win over Pittsburgh.

By then, his father, Paul, was already on his way to meet Joe. Not a big fan of airplanes, Paul Mather drove all the way to St. Louis to catch his son's second big-league game the following day.

"He drove home about two days later," Joe Mather said. "It was a long couple of days for him, but I'm pretty sure he was more than willing to do it.

"He was my coach, obviously, all the way up until now," he added. "We've played a lot of baseball together, he's thrown a lot of pitches to me and hit a lot of ground balls and fly balls.

"I feel like he was a part of it just as much as I was, along with the rest of my family and a lot of my close friends."

But Mather's highlights during his two-week stint in St. Louis didn't stop after the first night.

On June 2, he went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Then there was June 5 in Washington. In the first game of a double-header, a 4-1 win, he made a sliding catch.

In the nightcap, with the Cardinals tied at 8 in the top of the 10th inning, Mather's turn at-bat came up against the Nationals' Brian Sanches.

He swung at the first pitch - "a terrible swing," Mather said, on a slider when he was sitting fastball - watched two balls, fouled another off and then watched another ball. The count was 3-2, and he proceeded to foul the next four pitches off.

In the tenth pitch of the at-bat, Sanches came with another slider. Mather was ready, connecting to left field to give St. Louis a 9-8 lead and notch his first career home run.

The Cardinals would go on to lose 10-9 when Washington's Elijah Dukes hit a two-run home run in the bottom-half of the inning, but the moment remained for Mather.

"It was a battle, the whole at-bat," he said. "(Sanches) actually pitched me really well and I just kind of fought some pitches off and it got to the point where he had thrown so many pitches, it was bound to where he was going to throw one that I could actually hit.

"I was on it, so I got it and just sprinted around the bases and got to the dugout."

When a security guard went and retrieved the ball and had it sent to the dugout, Mather sent the fan that caught it a signed ball as a thank you.

Mather was sent back to Memphis earlier this week. He played in 13 games during his stint with the Cardinals, hitting .229 in 35 at-bats with the home run and three RBIs.

His big break may have come midway through last season, when, after hitting .303 with 18 home runs and 46 RBIs in 64 games at Double-A Springfield (Texas), Mather was promoted to Triple-A for the first time in his career.

"Going into (last) season, I felt comfortable, but I didn't really know because I'd never played Double-A or Triple-A," Mather said.

Then he got off to the hot start.

"I felt, at that point, I knew I could make it," Mather said.

He would hit .241 in 70 games the rest of the season at Memphis, clubbing 13 homers to go along with 31 RBIs and 10 doubles.

"This game is such a game of adjustments," Mather said. "I've been in the system since 2001, so I think it was a matter of I was able to make some adjustments and, along with the amount of at-bats that I've had and the amount of baseball I've seen, I just felt like I understood the game a little more."

Mather almost got the ultimate break earlier this season when he was called into Redbirds' manager Chris Maloney's office in mid-May and told to pack his bags for the big leagues. But, after he had already called his friends and family to tell them the news, Mather then got another call a few hours later: injured outfielder Rick Ankiel, who Mather would be replacing on the Cardinals' roster, wouldn't be going on the disabled list after all. Mather wouldn't be needed.

"It's funny because the first time they told me, it really didn't feel like I thought I would (be going to the majors)," Mather said. "I was pretty excited and everything, but the second time around (when he got the call for real), it felt right that time and it felt like this was actually going to."

In his first game back at Memphis, Mather homered and scored two runs. The following day, he hurt his back and hasn't played since.

And though every player from Little League to Triple-A wants to be playing in the majors, Mather knows this: at least he's comfortable in Memphis.

"There's so much attention and so much going on in St. Louis and at that level," he said. "Everything's just so important, and not that it's not here, but you can imagine. Those guys are getting paid millions and millions and their job is to win. Our job is to win but also to get better and almost play individually.

"It's a different feel, but it's not an uncomfortable feeling," he added. "Guys down here are great. I do feel a little more comfortable down here, I kind of feel like it's a little more at-ease because I know I've made it now."

Besides, he's only a phone call away.

"I've made it up there and I know I can do it," Mather said. "That's kind of where the comfort comes in."

Contact writer: (480) 898-4906 or rcasey@ahwatukee.com.