For many fans it isn’t a game to remember, but for one 25-year-old Phillies player it is a game he’ll always remember. Plus, a bonus memory for him.
Drafted by the Phillies in the 17th round in 2000, third baseman Travis Chapman climbed the baseball ladder quickly, hitting .301 with a career-high 15 homers at Reading (AA) in 2002. A baseball career can take some strange journeys, something Chapman learned after that season. Cleveland selected him in the Rule 5 Draft and promptly sold him to Detroit, who returned him to the Phillies organization when he failed to make the Tigers roster in Spring Training of 2003. Back with the Phillies organization, Travis found himself in AAA with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Reaching the big leagues is the ultimate goal. Would he ever get there? Following a Sept. 2 game in Ottawa, manager Marc Bombard called Travis and two teammates, pitchers Josh Hancock and Ryan Madson, into his office. “Congratulations, you are going to the big leagues,” he said. It was a moment Travis will always remember. “It was pretty neat hearing those words” he recalled. “I always wanted to be a good baseball player but at every level, high school and college, I heard ‘You are not good enough.’ Even after I was drafted, there was talk that I would be an organization coach someday.”
Walking into the Phillies clubhouse at Veterans Stadium on Sept. 3, he found a locker, “Travis Chapman 23.” When would he make his Major League debut? The days of the September calendar passed but stopped on the 9th, at Turner Field in Atlanta where the Phillies were playing a four-game series.
“We were scoring a lot of runs early and I kind of thought I might get a chance,” he remembered. In the seventh inning (with the Phillies leading 18-3) manager Larry Bowa let Travis know he would be pinch-hitting for Tomas Perez. “The butterflies kicked in. Jung Bong was pitching for Atlanta and I had faced him quite a bit in the Minors. Made me feel a little more at ease. First pitch was a fastball and I took it for a strike. I got out in front of the next pitch, a changeup, and hit a fly ball to right field.”
Travis stayed in the game and played three innings at third base and had one fielding chance, knocking down a hot grounder inside the bag in the ninth inning but unable to make a throw. At age 25, Travis Chapman got an at-bat in the big show. It would be his only one, as he played three more seasons of Minor League baseball before walking away in 2006. Not exactly a happy-ending Hollywood script.
Wait, there’s more. Veterans Stadium was closing. The final game was Sept. 28 against the Braves. An emotional postgame show was going to take place, celebrating 33 years of Phillies baseball at the Vet. Being on the roster, Travis was going to be part of the closing ceremonies, one of 120 current or former Phillies who would take the field and step on home plate one last time. “Here I am, a rookie and I’m going to be part of a major history event. Seeing all the former players was awesome, brought back a lot of memories. I was taking it all in, including the reaction of the fans. I saw games at the Vet, never played there but I got to touch home plate. I will never, ever forget that day.”
How did a kid growing up in Jacksonville, Fla., get to see the Phillies play at the Vet? “My grandfather lived in Trenton and for many summers we went to visit him. He knew I was a huge baseball fan and would take me, my brother and cousin to games,” explained Travis. Chase Utley was the Phillies first-round selection in the 2000 Draft, the same one in which Travis was chosen. “We played on the same Minor League teams for a couple of seasons and became good friends. When I was out of the game, [wife] Julie and I visited him in Philadelphia and saw a couple of games at Citizens Bank Park.”
Perhaps Travis Chapman never made it big in the bigs, but he did bat one time. You can find his name in Baseball-Reference.com, something his three children can see. Yes, daddy was a big leaguer.