10 Apr Matt Buschmann makes Major League debut after 10 years in minors
Right-hander Matt Buschmann was promoted from Triple-A Reno by the Diamondbacks on April 8 and made his Major League debut on April 10 after 10 years in the minor leagues.
He was the San Diego Padres’ 15th-round draft choice in 2006 out of Vanderbilt but never got higher than Triple-A. Last year, he was 8-10 with a 4.08 ERA for the Triple-A organizations of the Tampa Bay Rays, Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles and has a combined 1,326.2 innings in the minors.
The 32-year old is married to ESPN SportsCenter anchor Sara Walsh. He said, “I always believed I could pitch in the big leagues, and I think you have to after 10 years to continue to ride buses,” Buschmann said. “But reality sets in, you’re married, you start to realize this is kind of a tough life. But I always said the day I felt like I couldn’t compete at the big league level I’d be done, and I never felt like that.”
He pitched a scoreless ninth inning in a 7-3 loss to the Cubs with his parents, his wife and her parents in attendance.
He tweeted out this message after the game: “The last three days have been just incredible, the outpouring of support and congratulations from friends, past/current teammates and family have choked me up more times than I care to admit. It has certainly been a long road, but I realized a lifelong dream tonight that made every inch of that road worth it. Of course my heart was racing as I ran from the bullpen to the mound, but the entire way I just kept thinking of all the people who have helped and supported me over the last ten years. When you make no money and are grinding away, it helps to have incredible friends and college teammates like I have. It helps to have a family that has been there no matter what. It helps to have coaches and mentors that believed in you even when they shouldn’t have. It helps to have a wife that puts up with marathon flights to small cities and not having a husband for 7 months so he can chase a childhood dream. That debut was not for me, but for all those people that helped me along the way. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And to the Arizona Diamondbacks, I will be forever grateful that you gave a YOUNG 32 year old an opportunity.”
All of us at Beverly Hills Sports Council are excited for Matt and proud of his perseverance!
