The dream flickers.
Walk down the runway, spikes clacking on concrete, and ahead, almost in mists, is that electric green field. The scene is illuminated by great towers of lights, beacons shining on you. And the crowd, vast and murmuring, roars your name.
Aaron Holbert dreams that scene. All the time. The crowd roars his nickname - "Hobie!" He tugs his cap's bill, ready. He's been ready for a thousand nights, and steps into the spotlight.
It happened once. Aaron Keith Holbert, 29, is a shortstop for the Tacoma Rainiers, a professional baseball player for 12 years and on a Sunday in April 1996, the dream came true. Aaron Holbert played one game in the major leagues.
Of the 14,000 men who have played big league baseball since 1900, about 600 have the joyously sad numeral 1 in the column of games played. One game in the majors.
Tacoma has two of them. First baseman Ron Wright, a lifetime minor leaguer, was recalled by the Mariners and made his debut April 14 in Texas. In three at-bats, Wright managed to strike out, hit into a triple play and hit into a double play. Six outs in three at-bats.
By a karma beyond any of us, Wright's Tacoma teammate Holbert had his one day in the majors on an April 14th. In 1996. Holbert remembers everything.
Holbert grew up in Long Beach. Older brother Ray Holbert played in 115 games for the Padres, Expos, Braves and Royals. He retired last year and works in real estate in Phoenix.
As a kid, Aaron Holbert decorated his bedroom with posters of Lamborghini Diablo and Countach models - Italian sports cars costing more than $300,000, cars for the wealthiest of athletes.
"I don't even know anyone who has one," Holbert said.
Holbert thought a Lamborghini was in his future on a glittering June day in 1990. He was drafted in the first round by St. Louis, 18th pick in the draft.
Holbert recalls a Long Beach Press-Telegram reporter accompanying him to Jordan High School on draft day.
"I told him I saw myself in the majors in four years," Holbert said. "I thought I'd get my opportunity and never look back."
He received a $195,000 bonus and a trip to Johnson City, Tenn. - first stop in the minors. After six years of modest production and slow progress through the Cardinals system, opportunity knocked while Holbert was on a bus in Louisville, Ky., headed to a game. Joe Pettini, manager of the Louisville Redbirds, told Holbert to grab his bag and get off the bus.
"You're going to the big leagues," Pettini said.
Holbert was in the big leagues for five days. While Holbert was in St. Louis, the Cardinals signed catcher Pat Borders and brought him to Busch Stadium for a physical exam.
"Holbert thought I was on the grounds crew," said Borders, a 39-year-old catcher for Tacoma. "I had on dirty jeans, some old boots and a work shirt."
"I saw this guy and thought, 'Man, this is cool. They give physicals to the grounds crew,'" Holbert said. "Then I saw him putting on a uniform."
In Holbert's game on April 14, 1996. he started at second base and led off. The Cardinals beat Philadelphia, 6-5.
"Sid Fernandez was the pitcher. High gas, all fastballs," Holbert said. "First time up, I worked the count to 3-2 and hit a fly ball to the warning track. (Jim) Eisenreich caught it on the track.
"Second time up, I popped to catcher. Third time, I flied to center. Then they took me out in a double-switch."
After the game, Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith, who was on the disabled list, told Holbert, "You hit the ball up, your average goes down. You hit the ball down, your average goes up."
Smith came off the disabled list the next day. Holbert returned to Louisville.
Holbert has had stops in Orlando, Fla., Tacoma in 1998, Durham, N.C., Pawtucket, R.I., Calgary, Syracuse and Tacoma again. He never returned to the big leagues.
Holbert blames injuries. He thinks he was labeled as injury-prone, somebody who could not play with pain.
"He's primarily a shortstop, a steady guy," Mariners vice president of player development Benny Looper said. "He runs OK, not great. He throws OK, not great. He hits all right. He has numbers and can swing the bat. Good guy to have on a club.
"He just hasn't got a shot because whoever was in the big leagues ahead of him, they were better. With us, it's Carlos (Guillen), then (Mark) McLemore and (Desi) Relaford. (Charles) Gipson can play there.
"If we needed a shortstop, I would take a chance on Holbert. But you just don't know. He's not a kid any more."
Twelve years after being drafted, six years since playing his one game in the majors, Holbert knows when Tacoma manager Dan Rohn is coming in the clubhouse to tell a player that he got the call to Seattle.
"I see him coming and say to myself, 'Come to me, come to me.'" Holbert said. "One of these days, it might be my shot. Oh my, I think of that all the time."
If that happens, Holbert wants Rohn to make one more call - to Holbert's wife Jackie in Fontana, Calif. He wants Rohn to tell her that it's no joke, it's real, that Hobie got the call. This time, just once, it's not a dream.
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Posted July 1, 2002.
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