Robyn Yorke missed the first call.
She was cleaning the Yorke family’s new home in Tucson, and didn’t immediately notice that her son Nick, a top prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and Archbishop Mitty alumnus, had phoned her on Sunday afternoon.
When she glanced at her cell some minutes later, she noticed missed calls from Nick and Joe, another one of her sons who recently wrapped up his baseball career at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.
She had also received a succinct text message from Joe. That message?
CALL NICK.
“My first instinct was, did I miss his last at bat? Did he get hurt?” Robyn said. “You walk out of the room, and he might have been up to bat. I thought I missed something originally. And Nick, he can be kind of a jokester, so he gets on the phone and is calm as a cucumber when he tells me. So it was a moment for sure.”
Robyn had been watching Nick’s game with Triple-A Indianapolis that afternoon, and no, she had not missed an at-bat. Instead, her son’s dream was coming to fruition – he was headed to the big leagues.
She certainly wasn’t going to miss Nick’s next at-bat.
Pittsburgh Pirates’ Nick Yorke flies out during the second inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
“I walked around my house like 25 different times with the phone in my hand, having no idea what I’m doing,” Robyn said. “Calling my husband, who was in California at the time. He had just flown back to work that morning, and he’s like, ‘I’m getting on plane tickets right now. Where’s Joe coming from? Where’s Zach coming from?’”
Zach, Nick’s other brother, drove down to Tucson from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, where he – shockingly – plays baseball. Joe flew out from Washington, where he attends grad school.
The family caravan eventually met up in St. Louis for Nick’s MLB debut on Monday night against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
“We all knew this day was coming with how talented he is and how hard he works,” Joe said. “There was never any doubt when he decided to sign after he got drafted out of high school and forego college. It was just a matter of when.
“This is all about our mom, how much time and money that she’s put into all three of our baseball careers. For her to get to have this moment is everything we ever could have dreamed of. And we’re all just so happy for her, and obviously for him as well.”
Fresno State four-time softball All-American Robyn Yorke, center poses for a portrait with her sons who are Archbishop Mitty high school baseball players Joe Yorke, 17, left, and Nick Yorke 16, right, at Archbishop Mitty high school in San Jose, California, on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)
Nick was drafted No. 17 overall in 2020 by the Boston Red Sox after a standout prep career at Mitty. …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
