Yankees' Paul Goldschmidt vividly remembers his first game in the majors

TAMPA, Fla. — Major-leaguers vary on what they remember and in how much detail they remember it.

There are some — one very good example is Alex Rodriguez — who have steel-trap memories when it comes to their careers. It seemed as if A-Rod could recite the pitch sequence from pretty much every at-bat of significance, and even many not of significance, from his 22-year big-league career, which ended in 2016.

Other players, not so much.

But good luck finding any player, whether they ended up as an All-Star or Hall of Famer or just had a cup of coffee, who doesn’t have vivid memories of his first game in the majors.

“It’s hard to forget that first game,” new Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, entering his 15th year in the majors, said with a smile toward the end of spring training.

For Goldschmidt, it was Aug. 1, 2011, at a sold-out AT&T Park in San Francisco as the Diamondbacks, the franchise for whom he played the first eight years of his career, took on the defending World Series champion Giants.

The Giants, who starting in 2010 would win three titles in five years, were atop the NL West on that date, leading the surprising Diamondbacks by just a couple of games.

“They had just won the World Series, and that place is as rowdy as it gets around the league with their fans, and they were in that stretch where they sold out for like 10 straight years,” Goldschmidt said. “We were two games back of them . . . so it was a cool experience to go from Double-A with maybe 100 fans to 40,000 fans with the major league playoffs on the line.”

Indeed, Goldschmidt, then 23, got the call not from the usual stepping stone to the majors that is Triple-A but from Double-A, in this case Mobile (Alabama). He recalled getting a call early on that Aug. 1 morning from his manager in Mobile, Turner Ward.

“My wife and I were sitting at breakfast, and he called me,” Goldschmidt said with a smile. “I was in Double-A, and he’s like, ‘You’re going up.’ I’m like, ‘To Triple-A?’ He’s said, ‘No, the big leagues.’ ”

Goldschmidt, who said he had heard “horror” stories from other players about missing their flights after getting a last-minute call to the majors, hastened to the ballpark, collected his equipment and dashed to the Mobile airport “four hours” before his flight to Houston (where he would connect to San Francisco).

“I was not missing that flight,” Goldschmidt said, smiling again.

Goldschmidt, who played first base and batted seventh that night, said he felt plenty of nerves before the game but said his long day of travel might have helped hold the adrenaline in check.

“I was so tired by the time I got there,” he said with a laugh.

In his first career at-bat, Goldschmidt slashed a single to right against righthander Matt Cain in the second inning. Cain spent 13 seasons in the majors (all with the Giants), earned the second of his three career All-Star bids that year and threw the 22nd perfect game in MLB history in 2012.

The Diamondbacks won that night, 5-2, and the next night as well, 6-1, to pull into a first-place tie with the Giants. In that game, Goldschmidt hit his first career homer, a two-run shot in the fifth inning off righthander Tim Lincecum, a four-time All-Star who won two NL Cy Young Awards in his career.

The Diamondbacks used those first two games as a springboard and ended up winning the NL West by eight games over the second-place Giants.

Goldschmidt, a seven-time All-Star and NL MVP with the Cardinals in 2022, has had his share of memorable games and moments. He appeared in the playoffs that 2011 rookie season — even hitting a grand slam in Game 3 of Arizona’s five-game NLDS loss to Milwaukee — and has played in 23 postseason games overall.

Still, Aug. 1, 2011 holds a prominent place in his mind. Maybe the prominent place.

“There’s obviously some other really cool games I was lucky to play in,” Goldschmidt said. “But I think it’s kind of hard to beat your first one.”