The place went wild with a deafening roar and extended cheering for Cubs rookie Jared Young when he delivered a double for his first big-league hit during the seventh inning of the Cubs’ 2-1 victory over the Rockies on Friday.
“That’s probably the loudest building I’ve ever been in,” Young said. “So that was pretty cool.”
Um. OK. That’s nice.
But the bigger, louder cheering that we mean involved the roar from the clubhouse in Iowa that could almost be heard in Chicago — a scene shared by I-Cubs broadcaster Alex Cohen via Twitter.
“I love those guys. I really do,” said Young, who was called up Wednesday after Alfonso Rivas broke his finger, then made his big-league debut Friday. “I spent the last year and a half in Iowa, and I’ve become insanely close to all of them. That means a ton. Those are my guys.”
Young, who was 0-for-3 before the big hit, is the 16th player to make his major-league debut for the Cubs, 62nd player used overall (seven short of the MLB record the Cubs set last year).
He had eight family members and seven friends, mostly from near his home in British Columbia, in attendance — including a brother he hadn’t seen for about two years.
“It was pretty incredible. That was a real fun game to be a part of,” he said. “Glad we got the win, and glad I was able to help out.”
If he was nervous it didn’t show. Certainly not in the field, where he saved his infielders with a couple good picks at first — including with pitcher Marcus Stroman’s no-hitter still at stake (the first hit came with two out in the seventh).
And certainly not in that final at-bat of the day, in the ninth, against right-hander Justin Lawrence.
“You’ve just got to keep in mind, I was 0-for-3, but that’s baseball,” he said. “If you press in baseball it usually doesn’t go your way.”
Manager David Ross said he chatted with Young before his at-bat in the ninth, “about how nasty Lawrence is and how nasty that sinker is.
“He told me sinkers are his thing,” Ross said. “Turns out he was right.”
Said Young: “It was a surreal day.”