Article Contributed on: 4/27/2009 2:14:52 PM
On Sunday, April 26, 2009, the first Golden native in nearly a century stepped onto a Major League Baseball diamond.
Mark Melancon, called up by the New York Yankees, pitched the 7th and 8th innings in his Major League debut, both shutout innings, at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox. He recorded one strikeout, one walk, one hit, and one batter hit by a pitch. It was the first time a Golden native had played in a Major League game since 10-year utility fielder
Roy Hartzell walked off the field with those same Yankees on July 25, 1916, exactly 92 years and 9 months ago. A long time to wait, though only fitting that a Golden native should return with the last team a Golden native played for, with the peculiar footnote that historic Yankee Stadium came and went during all those years between them. Another interesting footnote is that Melancon made his debut in the only remaining big league stadium, Fenway Park, in which a past Golden native ever played. Hartzell batted the first ever RBI there.
Melancon is also the first Golden native to pitch in the big leagues in over a century, since
Albert "Cowboy" Jones left the mound, ailing with an elbow injury, for the St. Louis Cardinals on June 21, 1901, 107 years and nearly 10 months ago. He is our first right-hander, and first reliever, a position years from being thought of, as we know it, at the time Jones pitched.
All three of these Major League Baseball players were Golden High School graduates. As Jones was the first Colorado native to play in the big leagues and the only one to play in the 19th Century, as well as he and Hartzell playing in the 20th, and now Melancon in the 21st, Golden is now the only place in Colorado to have Major League Baseball players spanning three centuries of play.